Rudolph W. Giuliani is recovering from a fractured vertebra and other injuries following a car crash in New Hampshire, a spokesperson for the former New York City mayor said Sunday.
Giuliani was being driven in a rented Ford Bronco by his spokesperson Ted Goodman when their vehicle was struck from behind by a Honda HR-V driven by a 19-year-old woman late Saturday evening, New Hampshire State Police said in a statement.
Troopers witnessed the crash, which caused both vehicles to hit the highway median and left them “heavily damaged,” the State Police said. Goodman and the 19-year-old suffered “non-life-threatening injuries” and were taken to hospitals for treatment, the agency added.
The State Police said it was investigating the crash and no charges have been filed.
Giuliani, 81, was taken to a nearby trauma center and was being treated for injuries including “a fractured thoracic vertebrae, multiple lacerations and contusions, as well as injuries to his left arm and lower leg,” according to a statement posted on X by Michael Ragusa, Giuliani’s head of security.
Giuliani “sustained injuries but is in good spirits and recovering tremendously,” Ragusa said, adding: “This was not a targeted attack.”
Before the accident, Giuliani had been “flagged down by a woman who was the victim of a domestic violence incident” and contacted police assistance on her behalf, Ragusa said. After police arrived, Giuliani continued on his way and his vehicle was hit shortly after pulling onto the highway in a crash that was “entirely unrelated” to the domestic violence incident, Ragusa told The Associated Press in an emailed statement.
State police said troopers were investigating a domestic violence report on the southbound Interstate 93 shortly before 10 p.m. and observed the crash, which occurred on the northbound lanes. Troopers and fire personnel quickly crossed to provide help.
New Hampshire State Police declined to comment on whether Giuliani had contacted the agency regarding the account of a domestic violence incident.
Goodman did not respond to requests for comment and Giuliani’s team did not provide additional details about the circumstances surrounding the crash.
“Thank you to all the people that have reached out since learning the news about my Father,” Andrew Giuliani, Rudy Giuliani’s son, wrote in post on X. “Your prayers mean the world.”
The crash follows some rocky years for the onetime Republican presidential candidate, who was dubbed “America’s mayor” in light of his leadership in New York after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.
Giuliani later became President Trump’s personal attorney for a time and a vocal proponent of Trump’s false allegations of fraud in the 2020 election, won by Democrat Joe Biden. Trump and his backers lost dozens of lawsuits, and numerous recounts, reviews and audits of the election results turned up no signs of significant wrongdoing or error.
Two former Georgia elections workers later won a $148-million defamation judgment against Giuliani for issues related to his 2020 election fabrications.
As they sought to collect the judgment, the former federal prosecutor was found in contempt of court and faced a trial this winter over the ownership of some of his assets. He ultimately struck a deal that let him keep his homes and various belongings, including prized World Series rings, in exchange for unspecified compensation and a promise to stop speaking ill of the ex-election workers.
Brook writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report.
A day where, as a clearly frustrated Dave Roberts put it before the game, the team needed to “not get embarrassed” in the face of a potential three-game sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks, and play with a level of “pride” that had been missing the previous two nights.
“Whatever it is, we’ve got to do it right now,” the manager said. “We’ve got to win today. We’ve got to play better baseball. … There’s more in there. There just is.”
Whatever Roberts was looking for, the Dodgers provided just enough Sunday.
Despite blowing a three-run lead that tied the game going into the ninth, the Dodgers prevailed on Will Smith’s pinch-hit, walk-off home run, beating the Diamondbacks 5-4 to move two games up in the National League West standings after the San Diego Padres’ rubber-match loss to the Minnesota Twins earlier in the day.
The win should have been simpler.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivered a seven-inning, one-run gem, tying his career-high with 10 strikeouts while also not allowing a walk. The Dodgers lineup, meanwhile, wore down Arizona starter Brandon Pfaadt, scoring twice in the first and again in the fourth and fifth to chase him from the game early.
Tanner Scott almost wasted those efforts. In the eighth, he gave up a pair of two-out singles before Corbin Carroll took him deep for a tying three-run blast. Scott was booed off the mound, his earned-run average rising to 4.44 in a disastrous debut season in Los Angeles.
Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivers during the fourth inning Sunday against the Diamondbacks.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Smith, however, saved the day, coming off the bench and hitting the second pitch he saw into the left-field pavilion to ensure the Dodgers didn’t come out of this weekend empty-handed.
Of course, any feeling of progress from the Dodgers will remain tempered for now.
Friday and Saturday, after all, produced the kind of maddening performances from the club that have dogged them throughout the second half of the season.
The team looked lifeless at the plate both nights, scoring one run off Arizona’s beleaguered pitching staff in 18 total innings. They committed fundamental miscues on the bases and on defense, lapses Roberts boiled down to a simple lack of focus. And, as has become a recurring theme during their 22-27 rut since the Fourth of July, they once again played down to a level their $400-million roster simply shouldn’t.
“There has to be a point where that has to be sharpened,” Roberts said. “And that’s where, I feel, the time is now.”
Given the roller-coaster nature of the season, it’s impossible to know if — and when — the next drop is coming.
The Dodgers (78-59) have shown flashes of improvement at times in the last two months — like when they swept the Reds to start this homestand, or swept the Padres at the end of the previous one — only to quickly revert to a lesser version of themselves again.
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1.Dodgers catcher Will Smith celebrates after hitting a walk-off home run in the ninth inning Sunday.2.Freddie Freeman, left, and Alex Call, center, and other Dodgers players celebrate with Will Smith, right, as he crosses home plate.3.Will Smith, left, celebrates with Alex Call, right, and his Dodgers teammates.(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Asked why that has been the case pregame, Roberts struggled to find an answer.
He alluded to a potential World Series hangover, noting that “when you’re playing a long season, you’re defending champions, people are coming after you — which we know and understand — it’s just hard to keep that dialed-in focus every single night. That’s just reality.”
He highlighted the lack of consistent production from veteran players — coinciding with his decision Sunday to leave Teoscar Hernández on the bench, in favor of Alex Call in right field, amid a recent three-for-27 slump that has been compounded by persistently shaky defense.
“He’s an everyday guy,” Roberts said of Hernández, whom the team hopes will benefit from a “two-day reset” between Sunday’s day off and Monday’s travel day. “But I do think that where we’re at, you’ve got to perform too, to warrant being out there every single day.”
Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott pitches in the eighth inning Sunday.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Roberts said that mindset applies to the rest of the roster as a whole, from left field (where Michael Conforto has been better of late, but is still batting under .200) to other superstars at the top of the lineup.
“No one is going to be exempt,” Roberts said. “We’ve got to ramp it up and we’ve got to be better. If some other guys deserve more opportunities, then they’re going to get them. That’s just the way it should be.”
It all reflected what Roberts hopes will be a switch-flipping moment from his club; that disaster-averting wins like Sunday outnumber the kind of clunkers they had on Friday and Saturday.
“I do think that a flip can be switched,” Roberts said. “Each day should be equally important. Every little play, pitch, should be equally important. ‘How you do anything is how you do everything,’ that kind of adage, I believe in that. When you’re playing a long season, it’s hard to be that locked in every single pitch. But I’m not going to not try to ask our guys to do that, though.”
The weekend crash follows some rocky years for the one-time Republican presidential candidate.
Published On 31 Aug 202531 Aug 2025
Former New York City mayor and United States President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, has been hospitalised after a car crash near Manchester, New Hampshire, a spokesman said.
Late Saturday evening, Giuliani suffered a fractured vertebra as well as other cuts, the spokesman, Michael Ragusa, said in a post on X. He said that Giuliani’s rental car was hit from behind at high speed, adding that it was not a targeted attack.
Giuliani, 81, was taken to a nearby trauma centre and was being treated for injuries including “a fractured thoracic vertebrae, multiple lacerations and contusions, as well as injuries to his left arm and lower leg”, according to Ragusa.
Prior to the accident, Giuliani had been “flagged down by a woman who was the victim of a domestic violence incident”, and contacted police assistance on her behalf, Ragusa said.
After the police arrived, Giuliani continued on his way, and his vehicle was hit shortly after pulling onto the highway. Ragusa told The Associated Press in an emailed statement that the car crash was “entirely unrelated” to the domestic violence incident.
Ragusa said Giuliani was “in great spirits” and expected to be released from hospital in a few days.
The weekend crash follows some volatile years for the one-time failed Republican presidential candidate, who was dubbed “America’s mayor” in light of his leadership in New York after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Giuliani later became Trump’s personal lawyer for a time and a vocal proponent of Trump’s false allegations of fraud in the 2020 election, which was won by Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump and his backers lost dozens of lawsuits claiming fraud, and numerous recounts, reviews and audits of the election results turned up no signs of significant wrongdoing or error.
Two former Georgia elections workers later won a $148m defamation judgement against Giuliani. As they sought to collect the judgement, the former federal prosecutor was found in contempt of court. He faced a trial this winter over the ownership of some of his assets.
He ultimately struck a deal that let him keep his homes and various belongings, including prized World Series rings, in exchange for unspecified compensation and a promise to stop speaking ill of the ex-election workers.
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THIS is the heartstopping moment when a child walks 100ft up along a holiday park monorail track.
The terrifying clip shows the kid strolling along the heights at Hersheypark after getting separated from his parents.
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The child can be seen teetering along the edge of the rail track
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Visitors frantically waved at the kid as he walked along the lofty monorail tracks
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One of the park guests eventually got onto the tracks
In jaw-dropping footage, the child can be seen teetering along the edge of the rail track.
Shocker onlookers gathered around as the horrifying events unfolded.
It happened at the park in Hershey, Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Visitors frantically waved at the kid as he walked along the lofty monorail tracks.
“Go to him now!”, someone can be heard shouting as a man jumps from a roof onto the tracks.
The kid had already been reported missing by his parents at around 5pm.
He had entered a secure area for the monorail ride, Hersheypark said according to ABC 7.
The kid was reportedly at the monorail station for some 20 minutes before walking onto the track.
One of the park guests eventually got onto the tracks and rescued the child.
Park officials reunited the kid with his parents at around 5.30pm.
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A statement reads: “We are grateful for the vigilance of our guests and the swift response of our team, and we remain committed to maintaining the highest levels of guest safety throughout Hersheypark.”
The 53-year-old man from the Philippines lost consciousness on the beloved Frozen Ever After ride at the theme park in Hong Kong on Friday.
His wife noticed that he had fallen into a coma on the ride and immediately notified staff.
First-aid responders rushed to the scene as the ride returned to its starting point and performed CPR.
The holidaymaker was taken to North Lantau Hospital but sadly was pronounced dead shortly after at 11:30am local time.
A spokesperson for Disneyland Hong Kong said: “The resort deeply regrets the passing of the guest and will do its utmost to provide necessary assistance to his family.
“The initial investigation has shown the incident is not related to ride safety.”
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The kid was reportedly at the monorail station for some 20 minutes before walking onto the track
The final phase of the largest-ever expansion of publicly funded childcare support has begun in England, as thousands of working parents receive more help with their nursery costs.
Those eligible are now able to access 30 hours of childcare per week during term-time, paid for by the government, for their children aged nine months to four years.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it was a “landmark moment” for working families, and that the scheme would “put money back in working parents’ pockets”.
But parents say they are facing long waiting lists for places, with nurseries warning that staff shortages are limiting their availability.
Parents Josh Harper and Chloe Hart say their 18-month-old son Oakley’s name was the first one on the waiting list at his new nursery in Altrincham.
The £240-a-month saving on fees, which are falling from £1,130 to £889 because of the scheme extending from 15 hours to 30 hours of funded care, “just releases that little bit of stress”, mum Chloe says.
“It is a significant saving and one that does really help us,” dad Josh adds.
Both teachers, the couple were keen to secure a place, aware that demand has been rising.
Chloe Hart
Josh and Chloe put their son Oakley’s name down on the waiting list for a new nursery before it opened
The government had estimated that about 70,000 extra places would be needed by this September to accommodate that increase in demand.
The number of spaces is rising but availability varies across the country – and nurseries and childminders say inquiries for places have “gone through the roof” from families eligible for the extra funding.
“A few years ago, the percentage of families getting the funding was probably 20%, now I’d say it’s nearly 95% of families,” George Apel says as he shows me around the newly opened Altrincham Day Nursery, the Apel family’s seventh nursery.
“Parents are having to be a lot more flexible with their acceptance of what days are available. Before, parents could try to match their childcare to their job, now they’re actually matching their job to their childcare availability.”
For Rachael Darbyshire, who lives in Bolton, the search for a childcare place for her return to work next summer has proved challenging.
Although she started her search before six-week-old Gabriel was born, all of her local nurseries have waiting lists up until September 2026.
“It is a massive help and will bring our bill down from £1200 to around £800, but the biggest issue is that it is only great if you can actually get a childcare place,” Rachael says.
“It’s all well and good saying that there are these hours available, but if the childcare places are not there, then it’s not really supporting women in returning to work.”
Vanessa Clarke/BBC
Rachael Darbyshire’s local nurseries are all full until September 2026
Some parents are going to extra lengths to make themselves eligible for the funded hours as early as possible.
Rachel Williams, from Warwick, says she was thinking about the scheme before the birth of her twins in 2022, when doctors told her she would need a Caesarean four weeks early.
She opted to have the procedure at the end of that March, rather than the beginning of April, so she wouldn’t miss the deadline for being eligible for funded hours at the start of the April term.
“My friends all laughed at me, but it was a really conscious decision and it’s definitely saved us thousands and thousands of pounds,” she says.
If the twins were born in April, they wouldn’t have been eligible for funded hours until the September entry points.
“You shouldn’t really have to be thinking about that,” Rachel says.
Rachel Williams
Rachel Williams selected her Caesarean date so that she would be eligible for the funded hours earlier
Research from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) suggests that workforce issues could be a key barrier to delivering the promised offer to parents, with low pay and limited progression opportunities a constant challenge for staff.
It is estimated the sector needs 35,000 more staff to provide the funded hours expansion, and the NFER says even if that figure is reached, there are likely to be regional discrepancies.
The government says the number of staff delivering funded childcare in nurseries rose to 272,500 this year – up by 18,200 from 2024, which it said was the highest increase on record.
It has been offering a £1,000 incentive for new recruits, or for people rejoining the workforce in some areas.
But Mr Apel says “retention is arguably more important than recruitment”.
The nursery has started its own recruitment company because of the struggle to bring in and keep early years workers.
The number of childminders has also been continuing its long-term decline, with Ofsted figures showing the numbers falling by 1,000 in the last year.
‘Free’ childcare
There has also been confusion around what is “free” as part of the scheme, and what has to be paid for.
The government-funded hours cover term-time only, and providers say the funding rates, particularly for children aged three and four, are lower than the costs.
It means many nurseries are putting up their prices. A University of Bath study tracking fees over the past 18 months found that they have risen fastest in areas with the lowest government funding, which it says could deepen regional inequalities.
“Parents are phoning up, they’re looking for this thing that’s been called ‘free’, and then they are met with additional charges, for meals or nappies,” says Sarah Ronan, from the Early Education and Childcare Coalition, which represents childcare providers and charities.
“The sector has been tasked with rolling out the biggest expansion of childcare in history, and they’re doing it in a really constrained financial environment.”
She says without extra funding, providers may reduce the number of hours they can offer and pause their recruitment plans, further limiting the availability of places.
Joeli Brearley, founder of the Pregnant The Screwed campaign group and the parent support programme Growth Spurt, says there is “a tussle between parents and providers” who are both struggling.
“For parents, it’s really complicated, it’s not really working,” Ms Brearley says.
“We are hearing from parents who are moving their C-section day in order to fit in with the funding criteria, we’re hearing from women who say they’ve gone to their midwife for a sweep to try and bring labour on faster, and people that are asking for inductions earlier just so they can fit with the funding criteria – and that is madness.”
A survey by Growth Spurt and Women in Data suggests that many parents are paying extra consumable fees of £15 a day.
The government has issued guidance saying any additional costs need to be laid out clearly and are optional, but nurseries say charging for extras is the only way to make up the shortfall.
Vanessa Clarke/BBC
The government estimates the sector needs 35,000 extra staff due to the funded hours expansion
There is also concern about those being left out.
Parents who are ineligible for the entitlements pay £205 per week more for a child under two, according to Coram Family and Childcare.
The charity says a child with working parents eligible for the entitlements will receive three times as much government-funded early education than a disadvantaged child by the time they start school.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the scheme was designed to give children “the best start in life”, and provide a “huge boost” to the economy.
“And this is just the beginning,” she added.
“My vision for early years goes beyond this milestone. I want access to high-quality early years for every single family that needs it, without strings and without unfair charges.
“Over the next few years, that is my commitment to parents.”
He blasted: “I’ve kept quiet for a long time while others have spoken. That silence has allowed people to push their own version of events, even though they know it doesn’t reflect what was really said and agreed behind closed doors.
“The reality is that promises were made and the club has known my position for a long time.
“To now act as if these issues are only emerging is misleading.
“When promises are broken and trust is lost, the relationship can’t continue.
“That’s where things are for me right now – and why change is in the best interests of everyone, not just myself.”
Toon chiefs’ stance was that the Swedish international, 25, is not for sale – although a £150m figure would reportedly have been enough to convince the Saudi owners to part with him.
The club hit back: “We are disappointed to have been alerted to a social media post by Alexander Isak.
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“We are clear in response that Alex remains under contract and that no commitment has ever been made by a club official that Alex can leave Newcastle United this summer.
“Alex remains part of our family and will be welcomed back when he is ready to rejoin his team-mates.”
If they don’t, the Magpies still hold hope of getting Isak to agree to a new contract with a release clause kicking in next summer.
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TRANSFER NEWS LIVE – KEEP UP WITH ALL THE LATEST FROM A BUSY SUMMER WINDOW
Isak to Liverpool transfer saga timeline
JANUARY: First links to Liverpool emerge
FEBRUARY: £150million record fee mooted
MARCH: Isak denies Newcastle contract talk
APRIL: Eddie Howe hails Isak as “very professional.”
MAY: Howe insists Isak will not be sold
Last match in Newcastle shirt
JUNE: Transfer links to Liverpool heat up
JULY: Flies with Newcastle for Austria training camp
Left out of Celtic friendly
Liverpool hijack Toon’s Hugo Ekitike deal after making Isak enquiry
Doesn’t travel for pre-season tour of Singapore and South Korea, citing injury
AUGUST: Training by himself at Newcastle
Liverpool have £110m bid rejected
Isak stops training and goes on strike
Moves out of his apartment
Releases angry statement blasting ‘trust has been lost’
Newcastle respond by insisting he won’t be sold unless it benefits club
However, a further boost for the champions – who have also signed Toon target Hugo Ekitike this summer – is that The Telegraph claim Newcastle are set to accept a £130m bid even if they are unable to sign another striker.
Howe said: “I don’t know. I’m not party to any talks going on.”
When pressed on whether Isak would be allowed to play for the club again if a move did not materialise, the manager added: “Yes, from my side I’ve said it all along. While he’s still contracted to us that has to be the way.”
In Isak’s absence, Newcastle have started the season with two 0-0 draws either side of the dramatic 3-2 defeat to Liverpool.
American Jessica Pegula says completing an escape room with friends helped her rediscover her form and embark on a run to the US Open quarter-finals.
Fourth seed Pegula needed just 54 minutes to beat a nervous Ann Li 6-1 6-2 on Sunday and keep alive her hopes of winning a career-first Grand Slam.
In the last eight she will face 2024 Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova, who saved eight match points on her way to beating home hopeful Taylor Townsend 1-6 7-6 (15-13) 6-3 in a thrilling match.
Pegula, 31, has endured a difficult summer, with a humbling first-round exit at Wimbledon followed by early round exits at WTA events in Washington, Montreal and Cincinnati.
“I felt terrible coming into this tournament, honestly,” Pegula said after beating compatriot Li.
After quitting midway through a practice session with world number one Aryna Sabalenka days before the US Open, Pegula’s mood improved after a night out with friends.
“[We] went and did an escape room with my friends and had, like, two drinks and [realised] I need to just chill and stop getting so frustrated and overthinking all these practices,” she said.
Pegula – who enjoyed a superb run to the final at Flushing Meadows 12 months ago – looked much closer to her best on Sunday as she broke Li six times on her way to victory.
“I know when she’s serving well and has confidence she’s really dangerous,” Pegula said of Li, who she beat in a much tighter match at the French Open back in May.
“I felt like she came out a little slow and nervous and I wanted to jump on that and not let her feel comfortable for a second, that was my motivation all match.”
Aug. 31 (UPI) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday confirmed the Trump administration plans to increase immigration resources in Chicago amid a planned federal crackdown on crime in the city.
In an appearance on CBS News’ Face the Nation, Noem said Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be expanding operations in Chicago to “go after the worst of the worst in the country, like President [Donald] Trump has told us to do.”
She said the agency would be “focusing on those that are perpetuating murder and rape and trafficking of drugs and humans across our country, knowing that every single citizen deserves to be safe.”
Noem’s comments come after weeks of Trump leveraging federal resources — namely the National Guard — to target crime in cities he deems unsafe. He deployed troops to Washington, D.C., in August to crack down on crime, which he described as “out of control.”
Speaking Aug. 11 about the deployment, Trump called out other cities with high crime, including Chicago, Baltimore, Oakland, Calif., and New York City. He followed that up Saturday with a Truth Social post calling Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker “weak and pathetic,” saying he should straighten out crime or “we’re coming.”
In response to Trump’s threats to send National Guard troops to Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson on Saturday signed an executive order seeking to avoid militarization in the city. The order demands that Trump end “his threats to deploy the National Guard” to Chicago.
“I do not take this executive action lightly,” Johnson said during a signing ceremony. “I would’ve preferred to work more collaboratively to pass legislation … but unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of time. We have received credible reports that we have days, not weeks, before our city sees some kind of militarized activity by the federal government.”
In an appearance on Face the Nation, Pritzker said no one in the Trump administration has reach out to him or any other officials in Chicago about a possible deployment of National Guard troops to the city, which he described as “an invasion.” He said federal agencies should coordinate with local law enforcement.
“But they don’t want to do that either, and I must say, it’s disruptive, it’s dangerous,” Pritzker said. “It tends to inflame passions on the ground when they don’t let us know what their plans are, and when we can’t coordinate with them.”
He said if Trump does send National Guard troops to Chicago, he’ll take it to the courts.
“Any kind of troops on the streets of an American city don’t belong unless there is an insurrection, unless there is truly an emergency,” he said. “There is not.”
Weekly insights and analysis on the latest developments in military technology, strategy, and foreign policy.
The U.S. Air Force is hoping to see a second pre-production B-21 Raider stealth bomber take to the skies before the end of the year. The service also says it has conducted four more flight tests of the AGM-181A Long-Range Standoff (LRSO) cruise missile, which will be a key nuclear weapon for the B-21, so far this year.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Andrew Gebara, Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration, provided updates on the B-21 program and other topics today during a virtual talk hosted by the Air & Space Forces Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
“So this is an event-based process, based on the test team, the contractor, [and] the program office. I believe it [the first flight of the second B-21] will happen by the end of the year, but we’re not going to ever give them an artificial date that they have to make if it doesn’t bring the test program along to where they need to be,” Gebara said. “We’re going to proceed as we can, efficiently, effectively, and with a sense of urgency, but we’re also going to be event-based.
The first pre-production B-21 Raider. USAF
“That’s really been the secret sauce to the B-21 right now, is no undue pressures. Let them do what they’re doing, and they’ll get us the world’s best aircraft here,” Gebara added.
In July, Air Force Gen. Thomas Bussiere, head of Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), had told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the second B-21 could take to the skies “shortly.” The service had previously told that outlet that its goal was for two B-21s to be flying in 2026.
“The B-21 [program] is producing, its results-oriented in flight tests, basically on time, [and] basically on budget,” Gen. Gebara added in his remarks today.
U.S. military officials and members of Congress have described the Raider as a model acquisition program for years now. The Air Force’s goal is to begin flying B-21s operationally before the end of the decade.
When asked today about the expected size of the B-21 fleet, Gen. Gebara said that work is still ongoing to reach a firm number. The Air Force’s stated plan now is to acquire at least 100 Raiders, but that figure is widely expected to grow. Congress notably included $4.5 billion in funding to help accelerate B-21 production in a reconciliation funding bill, also known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law in July. The Pentagon is asking for billions more to support the Raider program in its 2026 Fiscal Year budget request.
“I think the work you’ve seen from the Congress to get us those additional funding [sic] tells me a couple things that are very important. One is, it’s going to go a long ways to be able to help us facilitize and get to the point where we can build this thing at scale,” Gebara said. “I think the other piece to it, though, is it’s an absolute show of confidence by the Congress that we’re on the right track on this program. We’ve done a lot of work to hold changes to the minimum, to allow the program office and the contractor to get after it, and it’s paying dividends.”
USAF
The final B-21 fleet “numbers will absolutely be reliant on the work STRATCOM [U.S. Strategic Command] is doing, on what is sufficient,” Gebara added. “But it’s important to remember this is also the backbone of our conventional force. And so we aren’t building out B-21 numbers only for our [nuclear] triad. We’re also building it out for our long-range [conventional] strike capability. And so all that will that will go into it.”
Gebara’s latter points here are directly in line with comments from Air Force Maj. Gen. Jason Armagost at a separate Mitchell Institute virtual talk earlier this month. Armagost, who is commander of the Eighth Air Force, which oversees all of the Air Force’s current bomber fleets, spoke at length about the new operational possibilities that will come from having a substantial number of B-21s, particularly in light of the ‘silver bullet’ nature of the current B-2 force. The Air Force has just 19 B-2s, not all of which are ever available for taskings, conventional or nuclear, at any one time. This inherently imposes limitations, which the B-21 is not expected to be burdened with, despite being a smaller aircraft with less ordnance capacity per bomber, as you can read more about in detail here.
A B-2 bomber drops a load of conventional bombs during a test. USAF
“Our bomber force right now is optimized for raids and small-scale, a few nights at a time [type operations],” Gen. Gebra said today, something that was highlighted by the Operation Midnight Hammer strikes on nuclear sites in Iran in June. “There’s no guarantee that’ll be the case in the future.”
All this being said, the B-21 will still have a critical nuclear deterrent role, including as a launch platform for the stealthy AGM-181 LRSO cruise missile. The LRSO is also set to be part of the future arsenal for the Air Force’s B-52 bombers, which are being deeply upgraded, overall, as you can learn more about here.
“Our LRSO missile, which will go on our bomber force, has had four successful flight tests in 2025 alone,” Gebera said during today’s talk. “Based on time, based on budget, it’s going very well.”
Flight testing of the LRSO has already been underway for years. However, other details about the highly classified missile, which Raytheon is been developing, remain limited. The Air Force released the first-ever public rendering of the missile, seen below, in June. You can find TWZ‘s previous analysis of that image, which may not necessarily reflect the current design, here.
USAF
The B-21 and LRSO are also both part of a larger Long-Range Strike (LRS) family of systems, much of which remains in the classified realm, as TWZ has explored in the past.
By all indications, the B-21 program continues to make steady progress, with a second Raider set to take to the skies sometime in the coming weeks or months.
TELLURIDE, Colo. — It’s customary at Telluride for a director premiering a movie to step onstage, say a few words and slip away before the lights go down. On Friday night, before unveiling her new film “Hamnet,” Chloé Zhao admitted she couldn’t find the right words. For a film centered on William Shakespeare, the most famous wordsmith in history, that felt oddly fitting.
Instead, the 43-year-old Zhao led the packed Palm Theater in a meditative “ritual” she and her cast had practiced throughout the shoot, from before the script was even written until the final day on set. She asked the audience to close their eyes, place a hand over their hearts and feel the weight of their bodies in the seats and the surrounding Rocky Mountains holding them safe. Together, the crowd exhaled three long, loud sighs, then tapped their chests in unison, repeating softly: “This is my heart. This is my heart. This is my heart.”
By the time the film ended, those same hearts were left aching. Adapted from Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel, “Hamnet” tells the story of Shakespeare’s marriage to Agnes (played by Jessie Buckley) and the devastating death of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet. Paul Mescal plays Shakespeare — not the untouchable bard of legend but a husband and father reckoning with grief. At once grounded and dreamlike, the film drew perhaps the most rapturous and unanimous response of any debut in this year’s lineup.
Eight years ago, Zhao came to Telluride with “The Rider,” fresh from Cannes and still largely unknown. In 2020 she returned with “Nomadland,” which received a Telluride-sponsored drive-in screening at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl due to the pandemic and went on to win best picture and make Oscar history, with Zhao becoming only the second woman — and the first and only woman of color — to win the directing prize. Then came Marvel’s “Eternals,” a massive undertaking that thrust Zhao into the franchise machine and brought with it a bruising critical reception. With “Hamnet,” she’s back to a smaller canvas, trading cosmic spectacle for intimate human drama.
On Sunday morning in Telluride, still processing the reaction to her latest film, Zhao sat down to talk — speaking so softly that even in a hushed room her words can be hard to catch — about why she took on O’Farrell’s story, how she approached Shakespeare’s world and the delicate task of turning heartbreak into art.
Jessie Buckley, center, in the movie “Hamnet.”
(Agata Grzybowska / Focus Features)
When I interviewed you for “The Rider” in 2018 you said you’re a very pessimistic person and when you get a good review, you’re just waiting for the bad one to drop. What are you feeling right now?Did you expect anything like the reaction “Hamnet” has received? I was nervous. I’ve walked through fires. I’ve been through the fire — a very painful fire — and I think there is probably a bit of fear around that.
What was the fire? You mean the reaction to “Eternals”? I’m not going to say out it loud, because when I do, things always get … [trails off]. Let’s just say we were very scared.
I think the fear mainly came from the fact that we felt so sure of what we experienced. It changed all of our lives and mine so profoundly that it’s still reverberating. You think: Were we crazy? And no one else will get it but us?
You go through this long, treacherous journey to deliver these things to safety and now it’s very tender because you look back at all the loss and the sacrifices along the way and you haven’t really had time to process it.
I’m curious what your history was with Shakespeare growing up in China and then moving to England and later Los Angeles as a teenager. What kind of early impression did he make on you? Shakespeare is very revered in China. In Chinese theater, they do Chinese versions of his plays. When I studied in the U.K., I didn’t speak English at the time and I did have to learn Shakespeare, which was very difficult. I don’t think I’m anywhere near where Paul and Jesse are with their understanding of Shakespeare. The language was always a barrier but the archetypal element of his stories was big for me — particularly “Macbeth.” In high school in Los Angeles, I performed Lady Macbeth’s speech on the stage because everybody had to do some kind of monologue for a project. And I barely spoke English.
You’ve said you initially weren’t sure that you were the right person to direct this movie. What was your hesitation? There were three elements to that. One is that I’m not a mother. I never felt particularly maternal. People in my life say, “That’s not true, Chloé,” but I don’t see myself stepping into that archetype at all. The second was the idea of a period film — how can I be authentic and fluid in a period film, where you can’t just make things up in the moment, you can’t be spontaneous? The third was Shakespeare. I wondered if I needed to be scholarly.
So how did you come around? I was driving near Four Corners, New Mexico, when Amblin called. I said, “No, thank you.” Steven [Spielberg] really wanted me to consider it. Then my agent said Paul Mescal wanted to meet me. I didn’t know his work. “Aftersun” was the secret screening here [in Telluride 2022], and we went for a walk by the creek. I watched him talking and thought, “Could he play young Shakespeare?” He already read the book. Then I read it and thought, if Maggie [O’Farrell] can write this with me, she can show me that world. As soon as I read the book, I said, “Can you set a meeting with Jessie Buckley?” I couldn’t see anyone else but her as Agnes.
Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare in the movie “Hamnet.”
(Agata Grzybowska / Focus Features)
You’d just come off “Eternals” after making small films like “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” and “Nomadland.” Now you’re back with something more intimate again. Did it feel like a reset? Every child has its own beauty and troubles. This budget was maybe six or seven times “Nomadland,” but much less than “Eternals.” But it’s also a period film, which has its own challenges. I come from a tradition of: Tell me how much money you have and I’ll make something with it.
But I changed a lot after “Nomadland” and “Eternals.” In my 30s, I wanted to chase the horizon. I didn’t want it to ever end. I’d just keep running. Then, at the end of “Eternals,” I felt I couldn’t film another sunset that would satisfy me the way in the way it had with “The Rider” and “Nomadland.” I went through a lot of difficult personal times and pushing midlife, I realized I’d been running like a cowboy, like a nomad.
When you stop running and stop chasing horizons and you stay still, the only place you can go is above or below. I descended pretty heavily these last four years. By the time I got to “Hamnet,” I was ready. The difference now is a different kind of humanity: older, more vertical.
We know so little about Shakespeare or his son. Some parts of your film are grounded, others dreamlike. How did you balance that? First of all, what’s real? Ancient mystics tried to understand what is being. “To be or not to be” goes beyond suicidal thought — it’s about existence itself. Every film has its own truth. For me, the truest thing is what’s present in the moment. I hired department heads and actors with knowledge of the history, but also the capacity to stay present and shift as we go. If someone came in too factual and literal, I said no. I wanted people who could do the research but also stay alive to the present.
Shakespeare’s name isn’t even spoken until late in the movie. This isn’t the icon — he’s a husband and father. Was it appealing to free him from the iconography? Maggie’s book laid the foundation, really focusing on Agnes. For the film, I wanted it to be about two people who see and are seen by each other. They’re archetypal characters. I’ve studied Jungian psychology and Hindu Tantra — the energies of masculine and feminine, being and doing, birth and death. If we don’t have a healthy connection to our roots, those forces battle within us. By creating two characters who embody that, the story can work at a collective level and an internal one. The alchemy of creativity lets those forces coexist. Hopefully it becomes something more than a story about marriage or the death of a child.
Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal in the movie “Hamnet.”
(Agata Grzybowska / Focus Features )
The loss of a child is hard to film and for audiences to watch. We’ve seen it tackled in different ways on screen, from “Ordinary People” to “Manchester by the Sea.” How did you approach portraying that kind of grief honestly without it being too much for the audience to bear? It might be for some people, which is understandable. I love both those films you mentioned very much and watched them multiple times. I’ve been making films about grief for a while. I don’t think about what’s too much or too little. Agnes’ wailing — I could do that right now in front of you. We should be allowed to. The silence for thousands of years has done great damage.
How do you mean? Think about ancient warriors coming back from battle — they danced, screamed, healed together. In Tantra, sexuality was part of healing. Now it’s: Talk to a therapist, take medication, go back to your family. The body is restricted. Telling a woman to be quiet when she gave birth and pinning her down. We know why this control happens. But I think people are responding to films where actors are embodied, because we miss that.
How do you see grief as a through-line in all your films? All my films start with characters who’ve lost what defined them: dreams, home, purpose, faith. They grieve who they thought they were in order to become who they truly are. That’s grief on an individual and collective level. I wasn’t raised to understand grief. So I made films to give characters catharsis and through that, myself.
My friend [“Sinners” director] Ryan Coogler, who knows me so well, sat me down after seeing “Hamnet” and he said, “The other films were beautiful but you hid behind things. This is the first time I saw you in there. You’re finally being seen.” It took four films, working with that kind of grief and fear to get to that point.
The Oscar chatter has already started. You’ve obviously been through this before. How do you tune that out and just focus on what’s in front of you? The same way that me, Paul and Jessie were doing on set. We made the film by being present. It’s difficult, so I’m trying to take that practice daily — just saying, “OK, today is all we have.” It’s flattering and nice but after what I’ve experienced in my career, you cannot possibly predict how things are going to go. I never expected “Nomadland” to go on that journey. So I surrender to the river.
Do you know what you’re doing next? I just wrapped the pilot on the new “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” series, which is set 25 years later. My company is part of developing it. The fandom is so special to me and I’m excited about how that’s going to go into the world. Then I think I want to do a play. I was working on “Our Town” and I had to let that go in order to do “Hamnet.” But I figured maybe I’ll learn something from this film and come back to the stage.
The industry feels pretty shaky right now: fewer jobs, studio consolidation, anxiety around AI. As a filmmaker, how do you see the state of the business and the art form? I sense we’re at a threshold — not just the film business, everything. It’s uncomfortable. We’re like Will standing at the edge of the river when, at least in our film, the “to be or not to be” monologue was born. We can’t go back and we don’t know how to go forward. In physics, when two opposing forces pull so strongly, a new equilibrium bursts out. That’s how the universe expands. I think we’re there. We can kick and scream or we can surrender, hug our loved ones and focus on what we can do today.
Hopefully I’m not so pessimistic now. Or at least a little bit less.
Security expert Graham Cluley said: “It all sounds like a joke but it’s deadly serious.”
The Ministry of Defence said: “We take data security extremely seriously and are committed to ensuring incidents are dealt with properly.”
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Apache helicopter pilot Harry Bourne was dishonourably discharged from the Army for sharing videos and photos of himself on OnlyFansCredit: REBEL AGENCY
HOUSTON — José Soriano and two relievers combined for a two-hitter and Oswald Peraza hit his first home run since a trade from the Yankees to lead the Angels to a 3-0 win over the Houston Astros on Sunday.
Angels outfielder Taylor Ward was injured trying to make a catch on that hit when he crashed face-first into the metal scoreboard in left field.
He was bleeding and appeared to have a cut above his right eye. He held a smaller cloth to his head as he was slowly carted off the field while resting his head on the shoulder of a team employee who rode the cart with him. There was no immediate update on his injury.
Soriano (10-9) allowed one hit and struck out eight in seven innings. Luis García allowed one hit in a scoreless eighth and Kenley Jansen threw a perfect ninth for his 25th save.
There were two outs in the fifth when Peraza connected off Hunter Brown (10-7) into the bullpen in right-center field to put the Angels up 1-0. His homer comes after his two-run single in the ninth inning Saturday helped Los Angeles to a 4-1 victory that snapped a three-game skid.
Yoán Moncada walked to start the eighth and scored on Mike Trout’s double that bounced off the wall in center field to make it 2-0. Ward walked before Luis Rengifo reached and Trout scored on an error by Lance McCullers Jr. when the pitcher overthrew first base.
Yordan Alvarez singled with no outs in the first and Soriano walked a batter in the second and sixth innings. The Astros didn’t get another hit until Ramón Urías doubled with one out in the eighth inning.
Brown allowed three hits and a run with five strikeouts in six innings. McCullers Jr. allowed three hits and two runs in his first relief appearance since 2018.
Up next: LHP Yusei Kikuchi (6-9, 3.68 ERA) will start for the Angels in the series finale Monday. Houston hasn’t announced its starter.
Israel has stepped up its destruction of Gaza City as it plans to seize Gaza’s largest urban centre and forcibly displace around one million Palestinians to concentration zones in the south, as it killed at least 78 people across the besieged enclave since dawn, including 32 desperately seeking food.
On Sunday, in Gaza City, the Palestinian Civil Defence reported a fire in tents near al-Quds Hospital after Israeli shelling. At least five people were killed and three wounded when a residential apartment was hit near the Remal neighbourhood.
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, said the Israeli army is also using “explosive robots” in residential areas and forcibly displacing Palestinians in Gaza City.
In a statement on X on Sunday, al-Thawabta said the army has detonated more than 80 such devices in civilian neighbourhoods over the past three weeks, calling it a “scorched-earth policy” that has destroyed homes and endangered lives.
He said more than one million Palestinians in Gaza City and the north of the enclave “refuse to submit to the policy of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing” despite the destruction and starvation caused by the Israeli assault.
Footage posted on Instagram by Palestinian journalist Faiz Osama and verified by Al Jazeera showed the moments that followed an Israeli aerial attack on the Sabra neighbourhood, in the southern part of Gaza City.
In the footage, as plumes of smoke rise to the sky, a child can be seen screaming with a wound to the leg. A man also lays on the ground with what appears to be a head injury.
The video also shows the destruction left by the strike after residential buildings were flattened by the explosion.
Israel’s forces have carried out sustained bombardment on Gaza City since early August as part of a deepening push to seize the area in the latest phase of its nearly two-year genocidal war.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it had begun the “initial stages” of its offensive, declaring the area a “combat zone”.
‘Fields of rubble’
Reporting from Gaza City on Sunday, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said intensifying Israeli attacks have been turning parts of Gaza City, once teeming and crowded with residential buildings, into “fields of rubble”.
“There is non-stop heavy artillery targeting the Zeitoun area and Jabalia, where we are seeing the systematic demolition of homes. There is hardly any fighting going on, but heavy artillery and bulldozers are moving from one street to the other, destroying all of these residential clusters,” he said.
“The majority of people in those areas do not have the luxury to pack up and leave because there is no safety anywhere.”
Another Palestinian journalist was also killed on Sunday. A source at al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera that Islam Abed was killed in an Israeli attack on Gaza City and that she worked for Al-Quds Al-Youm TV channel.
The Government Media Office said the “number of martyred journalists has risen to 247″ since the war began. Other tallies have put the number of journalists and media workers killed at more than 270.
On Monday, five journalists – one of whom worked for Al Jazeera – were among at least 21 people killed in an Israeli attack on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.
‘Life is difficult, so we will stay in our home’
Many residents in Gaza City are opting to stay put despite Israel declaring it a “combat zone”.
It was Gaza’s most populous city before the war began, home to about 700,000 people. Then hundreds of thousands fled under Israel’s forced evacuation threats before many returned, joined by thousands of other displaced from the south, during a January-to-March ceasefire, which Israel broke.
Fedaa Hamad, who was displaced from Beit Hanoon, said she has “no plans to leave” Gaza City this time despite Israel’s latest warning.
“We are tired from the first displacement. Where are we going to go? Is there a place in the south? We cannot find it,” she said.
Akram Mzini, a resident of Gaza City, said he would not leave “because displacement is very difficult”.
“We were displaced to the south before, and displacement in the south is not simple and it is costly,” he said. “Life is difficult, so we will stay in our home, and whatever God wants will happen.”
Elsewhere in Gaza on Sunday, an Israeli attack on the centre of Deir el-Balah killed at least four people, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.
Earlier, medical sources said an Israeli bombardment killed at least one person and wounded several in the city, located in the central part of the Gaza Strip.
Israeli forces have killed at least 78 Palestinians across Gaza since dawn, including 32 aid seekers, according to medical sources.
Since the war began, Israel has killed at least 63,459 people and wounded 160,256. A total of 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks, and about 200 were taken captive.
On Sunday, Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir held a situation assessment meeting with his top commanders, saying the military must “initiate” more attacks to surprise and reach its targets anywhere.
Many more reserve soldiers will assemble this week “in preparation for the continued intensification of the fighting against Hamas in Gaza City”, Zamir was quoted as saying by the military.
Meanwhile, the armed wing of Hamas said its fighters successfully attacked two invading Israeli military vehicles in Gaza City on Saturday.
The Qassam Brigades said a Merkava tank of the Israeli army was hit with a Yassin-105 shell, while a D9 military bulldozer was targeted with an explosive device on a street southwest of the Zeitoun neighbourhood of the besieged area.
As global condemnation against the situation grows, in the largest attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the Palestinian territory by sea, the Global Sumud Flotilla left the Spanish port city of Barcelona on Sunday.
The flotilla’s launch comes after the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) declared a state of famine in Gaza this month.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, which describes itself as an independent group not linked to any government or political party, did not say how many ships would set sail or the exact time of departure, but Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg spoke of “dozens” of vessels.
Sumud means “perseverance” in Arabic.
Two previous attempts by activists to deliver aid by ship to Gaza were blocked by Israel.
Mohamad Elmasry of the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies told Al Jazeera that while the flotilla was “an important act of symbolic resistance … ultimately, they will be intercepted”.
“This is not going to solve the famine,” he said. “What’s going to solve the famine, ultimately, is governments doing their job to stop genocide and deliberate starvation programmes.”
It’s been more than 2,000 days since Covid-19 appeared in late 2019 growing to more than 700 million cases and at least 7 million deaths globally. Like many other people who were infected by Covid-19, I have long thought about its origins and where we go next.
Under international law the principle of onus probandi,serious matters like lethal modalities such as nuclear, chemical and biological weapons or allegations of lethal pathogenic origins require the highest standard of “proof beyond a reasonable doubt”. It is also why the complaining party, not the accused, that bears the burden of proof.
That’s also why the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens explicitly requires the proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” gold standard, not the lower “preponderance of the evidence” test that something is merely more likely true than not. And it’s why the WHO panel operates under the legal principle of in dubio pro reo, a presumption of innocence until the accusing party proves otherwise.
Applying these standards, the required burden of proof level has not been met in even one case as the US and some allies have falsely accused Wuhan as being the origin of Covid-19.
China, in fact met its primary obligations under the WHO International Health Regulations, including timely notification to WHO of unusual pneumonia cases in December, 2019; sharing viral genome sequencing with WHO in December, 2019; and facilitating the WHO-China joint investigation during 2021.
I also find it unpersuasive that the “beyond a reasonable doubt” test was met since there were multiple independent reports, including wastewater and antibody blood testing of varying levels of credibility, of Covid-19 being present in Europe and the Americas prior to December 1, 2019. Since there is substantial evidence that Covid-19 appeared earlier on in numerous venues far beyond China, it has to be a case of “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”. For example, consider:
In Italy, multiple studies based on the presence of antibodies in blood samples found Covid-19 as early as October, 2019.
In France, the analysis of thousands of blood samples detected Covid-19 antibodies in 13 cases from November, 2019 to January, 2020.
In the Americas, signs of Covid-19 based on the presence of antibodies in blood samples were found in Brazil in November, 2019 and in the US in early December, 2019.
To me, however, the most convincing evidence is that after so much time has passed and so much money has been expended, no Western intelligence agency has been able to find Covid-19s origin with a high level of confidence; therefore not “beyond a reasonable doubt”.
Beginning with 2020, without the legal proof threshold being met, a handful of lawsuits outside the US, were filed against China over Covid-19 . All have been unsuccessful. In the US, a greater number of cases yielded only two Pyrric victories among numerous defeats whose massive judgments in cases that are mere political theater, clogged an understaffed, overburdened judicial system, but not one cent will ever be collected because under international law, these judgments will be uncollectable. There are several reasons for these disparities.
Legally, other nations have more respect for the longstanding doctrine of sovereign immunity governing one nation or its political subdivisions suing another. Consequently, such cases are also more difficult to file there. The doctrine, which must be music to Donald Trump’s ears, can be traced back to the English common law doctrine: rex non potest peccare or “the king can do no wrong”.
The US is the most litigious country globally, having the highest number of cases filed annually. One of the reasons is an unusual feature of the American legal system that allows litigants to bring cases without paying their lawyer, unless their lawyers are successful, in which case the lawyers take a negotiated percentage of the judgment, usually upwards of 40%.
From the 1990s, The US had been more politically divided. As part of this trend, American views on China were negatively affected and have severely deteriorated, accelerated by Covid-19. For example, Gallup found that about 41% of American had a favorable view of China in February, 2019, but by 2023 this number fell to 15%. Putting these facts together, it’s no surprise that the US has been the ground zero for quixotic lawsuits seeking damages for Covid19.
US courts are governed by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act which accords foreign states broad immunity from lawsuits in US courts with several seemingly narrow exceptions. China, however, adheres to the principle of absolute sovereign immunity, and does not recognize the exceptions and abstains from appearing in US courts.
The exceptions, however, encouraged the conservative attorneys-general of red states Missouri and Mississippi to sue China. They were fully aware of China’s position and the futility of obtaining damages, beyond performing a political theater of the absurd that would further gum up an already understaffed judicial system.
Both officials belong to the National Association of Attorney Generals, which we jokingly call “National Association of Aspiring Governors” and both used the suits to waste taxpayers money to further their political careers, and in the case of the Missouri A-G, to help him become US senator.
The “justice is blind” mantra, at least in the case of Missouri, also fall on deaf ears. The 2-1 decision that turned on the narrow exceptions, smacks of political bias. At least one of the two judges allowing the exceptions to hold against China, perhaps both, should have recused themselves to avoid an appearance of impropriety; each was a Trump-appointee.
Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr., who wrote the majority opinion is first cousin of the notorious extreme right media commentator Rush Limbaugh. The latter, with an audience of more than 15 million, had said that “the coronavirus is being weaponized as yet another weapon to bring down Donald Trump and it probably is a ChiCom (Chinese Communist) laboratory experiment that is in the process of being weaponized”. Judge Limbaugh had an unambiguous moral duty to recuse himself. but didn’t.
The cases have many flaws but I agree with the dissent in the Missouri case, written by the Chief Judge, not a Trump-appointee, that the exceptions did not apply to China.
The Covid-19 nightmare may be over but other pathogens with pandemic potential are literally waiting in the wings. Last year there were 17 global disease outbreaks, including Marburg virus. Mpox and H5N1 bird flu.
Experts warn that there is a 40 to 53% likelihood of another serious pandemic within 25 years.
Trump has already slashed the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) budget from $9.3 to 4.2 billion in 2026. At the same time WHO will (again) lose its largest contributor next year per orders of President Trump to the tune of $500 million to $1.3 billion. Combined, this will cripple the UN body and severely weaken global health surveillance, especially neutering WHOs Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network that relies heavily on American data-sharing and technical support. Trump has even forbidden the remaining experts who weren’t fired from the CDC, from co-authoring scientific papers with WHO staff.
Sadly, like the CDC. the WHO itself is destined to be in poor health, and may suffer terminal decline, causing needless deaths at home and abroad if the US continues down its selfish path. This churlish US action will undoubtedly severely increase the more than 14 million deaths forecast globally by 2030 as a consequence of savage 83% budget cuts to the US Agency for International Development and related US foreign aid programs.
China will assuredly pick up some of the slack, especially via its Belt and Road Initiative and its Health Silk Road but cannot unilaterally restore funding to previous levels. Other nations hopefully can pick up some of the shortfall.
Under international law, we may never know where Covid-19 came from. However, If we don’t want the past to be prologue and if we don’t follow philosopher George Santayana’s wise advice that those who don’t learn from the mistakes of history are bound to repeat them, we must prepare our new multipolar world for the health and other shocks that await us.
Sheridan Smith is being praised for her powerful performance in I Fought the Law, a new ITV drama based on the real-life harrowing story of a Brit who fought for justice after her daughter’s murder
Sheridan Smith moved viewers to tears with her performance in ITV’s I Fought the Law(Image: ITV)
The four-part series, which started airing tonight (August 31), tells the harrowing true story of Ann Ming – the woman who changed an 800-year-old law in her fight for justice following the murder of her daughter Julie.
Smith, who has become the go-to star for bringing real-life figures to the screen in acclaimed dramas such as The C Word, The Moorside, Four Lives, Mrs Biggs and Cilla, is being called one of the best British actors in existence for her role in this show.
She gives viewers a glimpse of what Ann may have gone through from the moment Julie went missing in 1989 until the end of her 15 year campaign to overturn the ancient British double jeopardy rule that was keeping her daughter’s killer out of jail.
The drama is based on the true story of Ann Ming who campaigned for her daughter’s killer to be jailed(Image: ITV)
Audiences were stunned with the actresses’ portrayal of a parent’s worst nightmare in episode one as Ann fought with indifferent police after her daughter vanished, eventually resorting to chasing leads on her own before making the heartbreaking discovery of Julie’s body 80 days later.
One fan took to social media to share how touched they were by the performance, writing: “Just finished watching #IFoughtTheLaw Sheridan Smith utterly fantastic in the role of Ann Ming. I’m in bits tbh. What a wonderful achievement in changing the double jeopardy law to finally get justice for Julie.”
Another admitted: “Just binged every episode! Horrific crime. Disgusting policing. Outstanding woman. Sheridan is amazing as always. It’s a must watch. Cried my eyes out. Lots of love to Julie’s family.” A third chimed in: “This is so tense. You can feel the panic.”
The series is adapted from Ann’s memoir For the Love of Julie and written by Jamie Crichton (All Creatures Great and Small, The Last Kingdom).
Unlike a traditional whodunit, the show reveals the culprit early on, and spends most of its runtime on Ann’s long legal battle to overturn double jeopardy after her daughter’s killer was acquitted despite compelling DNA evidence.
Ann Ming’s campaign eventually led to the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which created an exception to the double jeopardy rule.
This paved the way for a retrial of William Dunlop, who had confessed to Julie’s murder. In 2006, he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Sheridan Smith was almost unrecognisable on screen after spending hours in the make-up chair every day ahead of playing Ann. Her costume included a wig that demonstrates her aging as the episodes progress and years of campaigning and grief take their toll on the mum.
The actress admitted that she barely recognised her own reflection during filming, explaining: “I couldn’t even see myself in the mirror. It just wasn’t me, and I didn’t see where I was. So it was a magic shoot.”
The star also said that playing such a weighty character came with a deep sense of responsibility. Smith told The Hollywood Reporter : “I felt such responsibility to do her story justice, because she’s trusted these guys to tell her story. At the end of the day, it’s her real life. It’s not just a TV show, it’s her life and her family, and it matters.”
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday that immigration operations will soon be expanded in Chicago, confirming plans for a stepped-up presence of federal agents in the nation’s third-largest city as President Trump continues to lash out at Illinois’ Democratic leadership.
Noem’s comments came a day after Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson struck back against what he called the “out-of-control” plan to surge federal officers into the city. The Chicago Police Department will be barred from helping federal authorities with civil immigration enforcement or any related patrols, traffic stops and checkpoints during the surge, according to an executive order Johnson signed Saturday.
The Homeland Security Department last week requested limited logistical support from officials at the Naval Station Great Lakes to support the agency’s anticipated operations. The military installation is about 35 miles north of Chicago.
“We’ve already had ongoing operations with ICE in Chicago … but we do intend to add more resources to those operations,” Noem said during a Sunday appearance CBS News’ ”Face the Nation.”
Noem declined to provide further details about the planned surge of federal officers. It comes after the Trump administration deployed National Guard troops to Washington, saying they were needed to target crime, immigration and homelessness, and two months after it sent troops to Los Angeles.
Trump lashed out against Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in a social media posting Saturday, warning him that he must straighten out Chicago’s crime problems quickly “or we’re coming.” The Republican president has also been critical of Johnson.
Johnson and Pritzker, both Democrats, have denounced the expected federal mobilization, noting that crime has fallen in Chicago. They are planning to sue if Trump moves forward with the plan.
In his order signed Saturday, Johnson directed all city departments to guard the constitutional rights of Chicago residents “amidst the possibility of imminent militarized immigration or National Guard deployment by the federal government.”
Asked during a news conference about federal agents who are presumably “taking orders,” Johnson replied: “Yeah, and I don’t take orders from the federal government.”
Johnson also blocked Chicago police from wearing face coverings to hide their identities, as most federal immigration officers have done since Trump launched his crackdown.
The federal surge into Chicago could start as early as Friday and last about 30 days, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss plans that had not been made public.
Pritzker, in an interview aired Sunday on “Face the Nation,” said that Trump’s expected plans to mobilize federal forces in the city may be part of a plan to “stop the elections in 2026 or, frankly, take control of those elections.”
Noem said it was a Trump “prerogative” whether to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago as he did in Los Angeles in June in the midst of protests there against immigration raids.
“I do know that L.A. wouldn’t be standing today if President Trump hadn’t taken action,” Noem said. “That city would have burned if left to devices of the mayor and governor of that state.”
Unlike the recent federal takeover of policing in Washington, the Chicago operation is not expected to rely on the National Guard or military and is focused exclusively on immigration, rather than being cast as part of a broad campaign against crime, Trump administration officials have said.
Chicago is home to a large immigrant population, and both the city and the state of Illinois have some of the country’s strongest rules against cooperating with federal immigration enforcement efforts. That has often put the city and state at odds with the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda.
Johnson’s order builds on the city’s longtime stance, that neither Chicago nor Illinois officials have sought or been consulted on the federal presence and they stand against Trump’s mobilization plan.
During his news conference Saturday, Johnson accused the president of “behaving outside the bounds of the Constitution” and seeking a federal presence in Democratic cities as retribution against his political rivals.
“He is reckless and out of control,” Johnson said. “He’s the biggest threat to our democracy that we’ve experienced in the history of our country.”
In response, the White House contended that the potential flood of federal agents was about “cracking down on crime.”
“If these Democrats focused on fixing crime in their own cities instead of doing publicity stunts to criticize the President, their communities would be much safer,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in an email Saturday.
Critics have noted that Trump, while espousing a tough-on-crime push, is the only felon ever to occupy the White House.
Madhani and Beck write for the Associated Press and reported from Washington and Chicago, respectively.
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Firefighters spray water as they clean a burned bus station following protests in Jakarta on Sunday. Photo by Adi Weda/EPA
Aug. 31 (UPI) — Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said Sunday the government will make some changes — specifically to compensation officials receive — in an effort to appease protesters concerned with rising cost of living and unemployment rate.
The announcement comes after about a week of protests across the nation, some of which have turned violent. Some rioters have targeted lawmakers’ homes with looting and vandalization, The New York Times reported.
The demonstrations started after members of parliament received an increase of $3,030 in housing allowances, many times the country’s minimum wage.
At least five people have died and hundreds have been injured. In Jakarta, a 21-year-old ride-sharing driver was killed by a police vehicle during a demonstration Thursday, the BBC reported, adding a denunciation of police brutality to protesters’ list of grievances.
Subianto said Sunday that federal lawmakers would receive a cut in their allowances. He said he understood the public’s concerns about the economy.
Amid the protests, Subianto canceled a trip to a security conference Saturday in China.
