Month: February 2026

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday that it will be a few days before a government funding package comes up for a vote, all but ensuring the partial federal shutdown will drag into the week as Democrats and Republicans debate reining in the Trump administration’s divisive immigration enforcement operations.

Johnson signaled he is relying on help from President Trump to ensure passage. Trump struck a deal with Democratic senators to separate out funding for the Department of Homeland Security from a broader package after public outrage over two shooting deaths during protests in Minneapolis against the immigration crackdown there. The measure approved Friday by the Senate would fund Homeland Security for two weeks, setting up a deadline for Congress to debate and vote on new restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

“The president is leading this,” Johnson (R-La.) said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“It’s his play call to do it this way,” the speaker said, adding that the Republican president has “already conceded that he wants to turn down the volume” on federal immigration operations.

Johnson faces a daunting challenge ahead, trying to muscle the funding legislation through the House while Democrats are refusing to provide the votes for speedy passage. They are demanding restraints on ICE that go beyond $20 million for body cameras that already is in the bill. They want to require that federal immigration agents unmask and identify themselves and are pressing for an end to roving patrols, amid other changes.

Democrats dig in on ICE changes

“What is clear is that the Department of Homeland Security needs to be dramatically reformed,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Jeffries said the administration needs to begin negotiations now, not over the next two weeks, on changes to immigration enforcement operations.

“Masks should come off,” he said. “Judicial warrants should absolutely be required consistent with the Constitution, in our view, before DHS agents or ICE agents are breaking into the homes of the American people or ripping people out of their cars.”

It’s all forcing Johnson to rely on his slim House GOP majority — which will narrow further after a Democrat was elected to a vacant House seat in a Texas special election Saturday — in a series of procedural votes, starting in committee Monday and pushing a potential House floor vote on the package until at least Tuesday, he said.

House Democrats planned a private caucus call Sunday evening to assess the next steps.

Partial government shutdown drags on

Meanwhile, a number of other federal agencies are snared in the funding standoff as the government went into a partial shutdown over the weekend.

Defense, health, transportation and housing are among those that were given shutdown guidance by the administration, though many operations are deemed essential and services are not necessarily interrupted. Workers could go without pay if the impasse drags on. Some could be furloughed.

This is the second time in a matter of months that federal operations have been disrupted as Congress digs in, using the annual funding process as leverage to extract policy changes. In the fall, Democrats sparked what became the longest federal shutdown in history, 43 days, as they protested the expiration of health insurance tax breaks.

That shutdown ended with a promise to vote on proposals to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. But the legislation did not advance and Democrats were unable to achieve their goal of keeping the subsidies in place. As a result, insurance premiums have soared in the new year for millions of people.

Trump wants quick end to shutdown

This time, the administration has signaled its interest in more quickly resolving the shutdown.

Johnson said he was in the Oval Office last week when Trump, along with border advisor Tom Homan, spoke with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York to work out the deal.

“I think we’re on the path to get agreement,” Johnson said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Body cameras for immigration agents, which are already provided for in the package, and an end to the roving patrols are areas of potential agreement, Johnson said.

But he said taking the masks off and putting names on agents’ uniforms could lead to problems for law enforcement officers as they are being targeted by the protesters and their personal information posted online.

“I don’t think the president would approve it — and he shouldn’t,” Johnson said on Fox.

Democrats, however, said the immigration operations are out of control, and it is an emergency situation that must end in Minneapolis and other cities.

Growing numbers of lawmakers are calling for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be fired or impeached.

“What is happening in Minnesota right now is a dystopia,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who led efforts to hold the line for more changes.

“ICE is making this country less safe, not more safe today,” Murphy said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Our focus over the next two weeks has to be reining in a lawless and immoral immigration agency.”

Mascaro writes for the Associated Press.

Luke Littler won the World Masters for the first time and became the joint-third most successful player in PDC history with a 6-5 win over Luke Humphries.

The teenager now has 11 major PDC titles, leaving him level with James Wade and behind only Michael van Gerwen (48) and Phil Taylor (79).

The win for Littler, which followed on from beating Gerwyn Price 5-4 in a terrific match in the semi-finals, has left the European Championship as the only major television PDC title still to be won by the two-time world champion.

A high-quality finale saw 25 maximums thrown as the lead changed hands multiple times before Littler eventually nailed his favourite double 10 to seal the £100,000 first prize.

After a semi-final that saw Price miss a match dart, Littler upped his level from the start. A stunning 153 checkout laid down the gauntlet to Humphries, but the world number two came into the final having beaten Gian van Veen 5-0 in the last four and continued in that form by winning the opening set.

Littler, who averaged 104.72 to Humphries’ 105.51 in the final, then powered into a 3-1 lead, hitting a 121 finish along the way. But Humphries did not want to concede the title he won last year and levelled the match.

With the score at 3-1 to the world champion, Humphries rallied with 10 and 13-dart legs on his way to levelling the match.

Littler missed three darts to move into a 5-3 lead and Humphries capitalised to level again before hitting his first 100-plus checkout on his way to moving one set away from another title.

But Littler was not done there. The 19-year-old reeled off legs in 13 and then 12 darts to force a deciding set.

A break of throw in the first leg of the deciding set gave Littler control and he did not let it slip. One dart at double 10 was all he needed to land his first World Masters title.

All four of the semi-finalists will be back in action when the 2026 Premier League starts in Newcastle on Thursday.

Email sent to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2011 outlines what the sender described as financial and legal opportunities in Libya.

A newly released document shows that an associate of late US financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein had outlined plans to pursue access to Libya’s frozen state assets, including seeking potential support from former British and Israeli intelligence officials.

The tranche of documents released by the United States Department of Justice on Friday included an email sent to Epstein that outlines what the sender described as financial and legal opportunities linked to political and economic uncertainty in Libya at the time.

The email dated July 2011 was sent several months after a NATO-backed uprising against then Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi began. Gaddafi was killed by Libyan rebels in October of the same year.

According to the email, about $80bn in Libyan funds were believed to be frozen internationally, including roughly $32.4bn in the US.

“And it is estimated that the real number is somewhere between three to four times this number in sovereign, stolen and misappropriated assets,” the email states, adding that “if we can identify/recover 5 percent to 10 percent of these monies and receive 10 percent to 25 percent as compensation we are talking about billions of dollars”.

The sender also said certain former members of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, MI6 and Israel’s external intelligence agency, Mossad, had expressed a willingness to assist in efforts to identify and recover “stolen assets”.

The email also referenced expectations that Libya would need to spend at least $100bn in the future on reconstruction and economic recovery.

“But the real carrot is if we can become their go-to guys because they plan to spend at least $100 billion next year to rebuild their country and jump start the economy,” the email said.

The email characterised Libya as a country with significant energy reserves and strong literacy rates, factors it said could be advantageous for financial and legal initiatives.

It also stated that discussions had been held with some international law firms about working on a contingency-fee basis.

It’s called Pakistan’s forgotten war. And it’s been running for decades in Balochistan, the country’s largest province by land area.

More than 100 people have been killed in another wave of violence this week.

The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) has claimed responsibility for the attacks, described as the deadliest so far.

The BLA has escalated its attacks in recent years, saying it is fighting for an independent Balochistan.

In Islamabad, the government blames what it says are its enemies for the violence.

So, what will it take to end the cycle of violence in Balochistan?

Presenter: Maleen Saeed

Guests

Raashid Wali Janjua – director of research at Islamabad Policy Research Institute

Sanaullah Baloch – Balochistan National Party leader

Ayesha Siddiqa – senior research fellow at Defence Studies Department at King’s College London

From the Versace dress that led to the creation of Google Images to the Swarovski-encrusted jumpsuit that repopularized androgynous menswear on the red carpet, the Grammy Awards show is synonymous with iconic fashion. Bold and daring looks often push the envelope.

Music’s biggest night returns to Crypto.com Arena on Sunday and will bring with it the edgiest fashion of the season. Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, SZA, Doechii, Chappell Roan, Addison Rae, Miley Cyrus, Cardi B, Katseye and Huntr/x are among the nominees sure to turn heads while Bad Bunny, Kendrick Lamar, Justin Bieber, Bruno Mars and Tyler, the Creator are some of the men who will bring their A game.

Here’s the best fashion from the 2026 Grammys, captured by The Times’ photo team.

READ MORE: Winners list | Full coverage

FKA Twigs

FKA Twigs stuns on the red carpet before her first-ever Grammy win.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Lola Young

Best new artist nominee Lola Young attends the Grammys for the first time.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Kehlani

Kehlani is among the musicians wearing an ICE OUT pin on the Grammys red carpet.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Gesaffelstein

French DJ Gesaffelstein wears his signature mask.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Joni Mitchell

The legendary Joni Mitchell has arrived.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Yungblud and Sharon Osbourne

Yungblud and Sharon Osbourne get animated on the red carpet. Ozzy Osbourne, who died last year, was a mentor to the British rocker.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Keltie Knight

E! News’ Keltie Knight wows in a high-slit gown.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Los Angeles unions enjoy a decided “brand advantage” over corporations among city voters, and the labor movement should use that popularity to advance “union-led solutions” to key public policy issues in 2007, a memo written by top labor strategists says.

The two-page memo, which was obtained by The Times, argues for broader, more straightforward engagement on policy issues than many unions have undertaken in the past. Some labor leaders prefer to focus on their own contract issues, and even those who are active in politics often soft-pedal the “union” label.

The document demonstrates labor’s confidence as it heads into a new year of big battles over politics, contracts and organizing.

Labor is preparing to fight a referendum, which was qualified by the business community, to block an expansion of the city’s living wage ordinance. Civilian city employees, grocery store workers, security officers and teachers are seeking new union contracts, and hotel workers near the airport and truck drivers near the port are engaged in organizing drives.

The memo relies heavily on public opinion research conducted by a Democratic pollster, David Binder, including a survey of 800 city voters last fall. The document was written by three veteran strategists, John Hein, Bob Cherry and Don Attore, all of whom have retired from the political operation of the California Teachers Assn. The three work closely with Working Californians, a nonprofit research and advocacy group.

“There is a significant opportunity for organized labor in Los Angeles,” the memo says. “In particular, we’d highlight these factors: unions’ fundamentally positive image and ‘brand advantage’ over business corporations; the overlap between union priorities and the key concerns of voters across the electorate in L.A., and the opportunity to expand public understanding of the connection between local government and the full range of quality-of-life issues.”

Gary Toebben, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, said that unions, to the extent that they engage in policy issues, “are copying the Chamber of Commerce…. For other groups to want to be involved in efforts to build a better community, I say we welcome them to the cause that we have been championing.”

Toebben and other leaders of Los Angeles’ business community are focusing on a referendum to block a new law, which is heavily backed by labor, to expand the city’s living wage ordinance to cover workers at airport-area hotels. The success of the referendum, which probably will appear on the ballot in May, is crucial to persuading businesses to come to Los Angeles, expand and create jobs, he said.

Asked at a news conference last week about whether the referendum was wise given labor’s growing strength in the city, Toebben said it would be wrong to “just let the bulldozer run over you.”

Binder’s poll found that unions have more public support in Los Angeles than in other areas of the state and country. Among city voters surveyed, 55% agreed that “without unions, there would be no middle-class left in America.”

Reflecting the labor movement’s influence in city politics, the memo argues for talking up local government’s ability to deal with issues such as the economy, healthcare and the environment, which generally are considered federal and state matters.

The memo calls “for a public education campaign focused on union-led solutions to the quality-of-life issues that Los Angeles voters regard as most important.” The memo suggests that such a campaign be conducted before 2008, when state and national election campaigns will probably consume union energy.

“Los Angeles, against its own history, is a labor town now,” said Cherry, one of the strategists, who was a key figure in the successful effort to defeat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s slate of ballot initiatives in 2005. “One of the things that comes through in the poll is that people really see the potential of unions to take up the cause of ordinary people on quality-of-life issues.”

Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian and UC Santa Barbara professor, said he had “a certain admiration” for unions involving themselves more in policy issues, though he wonders if the public may prove skeptical.

In the long term, “this is the way that unions will make a breakthrough — when people see that solutions to society-wide questions are part of a labor agenda,” he said.

Binder’s polling suggests that any attempts by business to challenge union priorities will not be easy. Seventy-three percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement: “Big corporations are taking advantage of people like you.” Sixty-one percent of the Angelenos surveyed believe that oil companies are manipulating oil prices, including reducing prices during election times to keep supportive politicians in office.

Maria Elena Durazo, the leader of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, was briefed on the polling. She said in an interview that in 2007, she wanted to continue to organize workers while looking for opportunities to take on “the greediness of the corporations, which is pretty clear and pretty blatant.”

“Strategically, we just don’t take on everything that’s out there,” she said. “We’ve tried to put our resources in places where they make a difference.”

Dan Schnur, a Republican political consultant who teaches at USC, said that a public education campaign might be particularly effective this year, when no state or federal elections are scheduled.

“The best time to reach the voters with any type of argument is when their guard is down,” Schnur said. “The closer you get to an election, the more difficult it is to get through to people, but having this discussion in an off-year makes it much easier to get your message through.”

*

joe.mathews@latimes.com

Rams coach Sean McVay goes through it nearly every year.

The Rams have a successful season and other NFL teams raid his coaching staff.

Mike LaFleur, the Rams’ offensive coordinator for the last three seasons, is the latest to parlay his time with McVay into an NFL head coaching opportunity.

The Arizona Cardinals on Sunday hired LaFleur as head coach.

LaFleur, 38, is the seventh former McVay assistant to land an NFL head coach job.

LaFleur’s brother Matt, was the Rams’ offensive coordinator in McVay’s first season in 2017 and then called plays for the Tennessee Titans in 2018 before he was hired by the Green Bay Packers.

The LaFleurs are the second tandem of head-coaching brothers currently in the NFL along with Jim (Chargers) and John Harbaugh (New York Giants).

Rams assistants who made the jump directly to head coach were Zac Taylor of the Cincinnati Bengals, Brandon Staley (Chargers), Kevin O’Connell (Minnesota Vikings), Raheem Morris (Atlanta Falcons) and Liam Coen (Jacksonville Jaguars).

This will be Mike LaFleur’s first job as a head coach at any level. LaFleur, like McVay, began his coaching career working under Kyle Shanahan.

LaFleur coached with the Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers before he became offensive coordinator and play-caller for the New York Jets in 2021.

LaFleur was let go after the 2022 season and joined McVay’s staff in 2023. McVay is the Rams’ play-caller.

With the Cardinals, LaFleur inherits a team that finished at the bottom of the NFC West in 2025 with a 3-14 record — well behind the Seahawks, Rams and 49ers at the top of the division.

LaFleur’s Rams exit could create an opportunity for passing game coordinator Nate Scheelhaase to move into the offensive coordinator role. Scheelhaase has interviewed for multiple head coaching positions.

Feb. 1 (UPI) — The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza reopened on Sunday morning to limited traffic for the first time in more than two years.

Israeli officials announced that after a trial operation of the crossing it will officially reopen on Monday, first for people leaving Gaza for medical attention and then others will be permitted to leave and enter, a process that will include intense scrutiny of Palestinians who use the crossing, Al-Jazeera reported.

“The Rafah crossing has reopened for movement of people only,” the Israeli Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories said in a post on X. “The movement of residents in both directions, entry and exit to and from Gaza, is expected to begin tomorrow.”

Israel seized the Rafah crossing in May 2024 after officials alleged that Hamas had been using it to move terrorist operatives and materials in the area.

The seizure also made it more difficult to move supplies and aid into Gaza during Isarel’s war against Hamas after the group’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks in Israel.

Reopening the crossing was part of the cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in October, but Israel had held off on reopening it until it all hostages taken by the terrorist group on Oct. 7 were returned — a process that was not completed until last week.

Israel has said the people leaving or entering Gaza would have to undergo intense screening about what they were doing and why, with 150 people permitted to leave and 50 permitted to enter, an Israeli security official told CNN.

Among those returning, Israeli officials said that Palestinians who left Gaza during the war will also be allowed to return home after they have undergone additional screening.

Although Israel had said that only people would be permitted to use the crossing, NBC News reported that trucks with humanitarian aid were photographed entering Gaza from Egypt’s side of the crossing.

Hospitals and ambulances on the Egyptian side of the crossing have been preparing to receive sick and injured Palestinians, who will be the first people given clearance to leave.

Gaza City – With what remains of her wounded forearms, Nebal al-Hessi scrolls on her phone to follow news updates on the reopening of the Rafah land crossing from her family’s tent in an-Nazla, Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip.

Nebal’s hands were amputated in an Israeli artillery attack on the home where she had taken shelter with her husband and her daughter in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, on October 7, 2024.

More than a year later, the 25-year-old mother is one of thousands of wounded people placing their hopes on the reopening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt as they seek access to adequate medical treatment outside the besieged Palestinian territory.

“It’s been a year and five months since I got injured … Every day, I think about tomorrow, that I might travel, but I don’t know,” Nebal tells Al Jazeera in a quiet voice.

Recalling the attack, Nebal says she was sitting on her bed holding her baby daughter Rita, trying to communicate with her family in northern Gaza, when the shell hit suddenly.

“I was trying to catch an internet signal to call my family … my daughter was in my lap… suddenly the shell hit. Then there was dust; I don’t remember anything else,” Nebal says.

“It was the shell fragments that amputated my hands,” she recounts.

‘Life is completely paralysed’

Nebal was taken to the hospital with severe injuries, including complete amputation of both upper limbs up to the elbows, internal bleeding, and a leg injury. She underwent two abdominal surgeries.

She spent about 40 days in the hospital before beginning a new stage of suffering in displacement tents, without the most basic long-term care.

Today, Nebal, an English translation graduate and mother to two-year-old Rita, relies almost entirely on her family for the simplest daily tasks.

“I can’t eat or drink on my own … even getting dressed, my mother, sister, and sister-in-law mainly help me,” she says sorrowfully.

“Even going to the bathroom requires help. I need things in front of me because I cannot bring them myself.”

Nebal talks about the pain of motherhood left suspended, as her daughter grows up before her eyes without her being able to hold her or care for her.

“My little daughter wants me to change her, feed her, give her milk, hold her in my arms like other mothers… she asks me, and I can’t,” Nebal says with sorrow.

“My life is completely paralysed.”

Doctors tell Nebal that she urgently needs to travel to continue treatment and have prosthetic limbs fitted, emphasising that she needs advanced prosthetics to regain a degree of independence, not just cosmetic appearance.

“Doctors tell me that I need a state or an institution to adopt my case so I can gradually return to living my normal life,” she adds.

With Palestinian authorities announcing arrangements to open the Rafah crossing today for batches of wounded people and medical patients, Nebal, like many others, lives in a state of anticipation mixed with fear.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, thousands of wounded still require specialised treatment unavailable inside the Strip, while the scheduling of names depends on medical lists and complex approvals, amid the absence of a clear timetable or publicly announced priority criteria.

Nebal says she received repeated calls over the past months from medical organisations informing her that she would be among the first on the travel lists.

“They contacted me more than once, told me to prepare… they gave me hope,” she adds. “But this time, no one has contacted me yet.”

Today, Nebal fears her case might be overlooked again, or that the crossing’s opening could be merely a formality, disregarding the urgent needs of patients like her.

“I die a little every day because of my current situation … not figuratively. I’ve been like this for a year and four months, and my daughter is growing up in front of me while I am helpless,” she says.

Uncertain future

Nada Arhouma, a 16-year-old girl whose life has been completely altered by a single injury, is also hoping the crossing opens as soon as possible.

Nada, who was displaced with her family from Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza amid Israel’s two-year genocidal war on Gaza, was hit in the face by shrapnel while inside a displacement tent in Sheikh Radwan, Gaza City.

The incident caused the complete loss of one eye, in addition to fractures in her facial bones, orbital damage, and severe tissue tearing.

Her father, Abdul Rahman Arhouma, 49, says that her health deteriorated over time despite treatment attempts in Gaza.

“She entered the ICU at al-Shifa Hospital, then was transferred to Nasser Hospital. She stayed there for about two and a half months. They tried multiple times to graft her eye, but each operation failed, and the disfigurement worsened,” he says.

According to her father, Nada underwent three surgical attempts using tissue from her hand and other facial areas, but all failed, further complicating her medical and psychological condition.

“My daughter bleeds from her eye every day, and she has pus and discharge,” he says. “I am standing helpless, unable to do anything.”

Today, Nada needs constant assistance to walk and suffers from persistent dizziness and balance weakness. Her vision in the healthy eye is also affected.

“Even going to the bathroom, my sisters help me. I can’t walk alone,” Nada tells Al Jazeera in a soft voice.

Nada has an official medical referral and urgently needs to travel for reconstructive surgery and the implantation of a prosthetic eye. But her ability to get the treatments remains uncertain pending the reopening of Rafah – as is the case for other patients and wounded individuals.

“Since I’ve been in the hospital, I hear every week: next week the crossing will open. Honestly, I feel they are lying. I’m not optimistic,” Nada says.

Her father told Al Jazeera that the continuing wait for the Rafah crossing to reopen was “disappointing”.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t understand anything. All the reports came from Israeli sources, and it seemed Rafah looked like a gate for prisoners, not for travel,” he says.

“Our situation is difficult, and it’s clear we face a long wait to secure my daughter’s right to treatment.”

Pilot reopening

Sunday was the first pilot reopening day at Rafah, amid ambiguity and a lack of clarity about the mechanism, particularly regarding the number of patients and wounded who would be allowed to travel.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, thousands of patients and wounded people require urgent medical transfers outside the Strip, amid the collapse of the healthcare system and lack of resources.

The World Health Organization has repeatedly confirmed that Gaza’s health system is “on the brink of collapse”, and that delays in travelling for critical cases threaten their lives.

Meanwhile, Israel has said it will only allow those whose names it has approved in advance to cross, without any clear announcement on daily numbers or approved criteria, leaving families of patients in constant anticipation and frustration.

For Nada’s family, this “experimental opening” means little so far.

“We can’t plan, neither to stay nor to leave,” her father says. “The decision is not in our hands. One lives in a whirlpool, unable to decide what happens. Even the Ministry of Health has not disclosed anything.”

‘Devastating’ struggle to access treatment

Raed Hamad, 52 and a father of four, is also desperate to leave Gaza in order to seek treatments and medication that are not available in the war-ravaged territory.

Hamad was undergoing kidney cancer treatment a year before the war started. He underwent kidney removal after tumour detection to prevent its spread. But the outbreak of the war in October 2023 halted his treatment protocol, significantly affecting his health.

Hamad lives in the remains of his destroyed home in Khan Younis, amid the devastation left by the war, under deteriorating humanitarian conditions.

He describes his current struggle to access treatment during the war, alongside other cancer patients he meets in the hospital’s oncology department, as “devastating.”

“The war has made it almost impossible to obtain medicines and medical supplies. Cancer treatments and known treatment protocols are unavailable,” he says.

“Food, its nature, and the harsh crises we’ve endured during the war—all of this has greatly affected my health.”

Raed’s weight dropped from 92kg (203lb) to 65kg (143lb) due to complications from the disease, lack of treatment, and malnutrition.

“I continue my treatment whenever I can at my own expense,” he says. “Every time I go to the hospital, I cannot find my treatment and see that capabilities in Gaza are extremely limited. My immunity is low, and every day I face new hardships.

“I need to complete my protocol, undergo nuclear scans, and obtain some essential medications to continue my treatment.”

As it turns out, ‘80s pop star Kate Bush and fictional girl group Huntr/x from “KPop Demon Hunters” have a lot in common.

Over the last several years, Netflix has positioned itself as one of the few video streaming services focused on making an impact in the music industry.

From the surprise revival of older songs like Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” and Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” in shows like “Stranger Things,” to streaming the most originally produced music documentaries, there’s no doubt Netflix’s audience is musically in tune.

Last summer Netflix hit another level with the overwhelming success of “KPop Demon Hunters.” The animated movie, featuring fictional K-pop idols who fight the forces of evil, has become the most streamed Netflix movie with more than 480 million views since its release in June. But its success wasn’t limited to the viewership.

The soundtrack, full of punchy K-pop melodies and inescapable earworms, is the first to top the Billboard charts since 2022, when Disney’s “Encanto” created a similar frenzy. Huntr/x is also up for five Grammys at the awards ceremony Sunday.

The breakout single, “Golden,” which spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, is nominated for song of the year, the first time a Netflix production has been nominated in one of the Grammys’ big four categories.

Music and movies always have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship. Think of classic tunes like “Over the Rainbow” in “The Wizard of Oz” and “My Heart Will Go On” in “Titanic” that became generational hits.

Now, Netflix and other global streaming platforms have taken the synergy to another level, creating new opportunities for recording artists to showcase their music.

“All of a sudden, people are discovering music they didn’t know before,” said Ian Eisendrath, the “KPop Demon Hunters” music supervisor. “I think that people got hooked on the film, which hooked them on the soundtrack, which led to the discovery of other music.”

Eisendrath said the movie, produced by Culver City-based Sony Pictures Animation, was not expected to be “a slam dunk commercial success. It was a risk.”

Though geared toward children, the movie drew a vast audience of all ages.

“It hit all kinds of angles, the music, the story, the characters, the visuals — [Netflix] was very interested in a film that would have wide-ranging appeal to all the quadrants of movie watchers,” Eisendrath said.

In the streaming era, music supervisors like Eisendrath play an increasingly important role in the success of projects like “KPop Demon Hunters,” said Robert Fink, the chair of music industry programs at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music.

He said over the last 10 years, the role has become about more than just finding a song to match a scene.

“They nurture artists in the way that record labels used to do,” Fink said. “They have artists that nobody knows about, or can get some people to write songs for [the project], which might then become a way that those artists and those songs become successful in the industry.”

The singing voices behind Huntr/x aren’t those of the lead actors. They belong to rising musicians Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami. Ejae has written songs for major K-pop groups like Twice, Le Sserafim and Red Velvet, while Nuna and Ami have experience as solo artists.

Though they weren’t a group before the film, they have since performed together on the “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” “Saturday Night Live” and in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

The soundtrack earned global appeal, with more than two thirds of its streams originating from outside the U.S., according to data from entertainment industry analytics firm Luminate. “Golden” scored a record 20 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Global charts. The popularity of the movie and its music helped boost music consumption on a global scale.

“KPop Demon Hunters” already is faring well this awards season: It won two Golden Globes and received two Oscar nominations for best animated feature and original song.

Justin Kamps, the music supervisor on “Bridgerton,” noticed a similar trend when new seasons of the Regency-era romance series drop. The period piece is famous for playing quaint orchestral covers of contemporary pop artists such as Billie Eilish, Pitbull and BTS. Its latest season is set to feature covers of Third Eye Blind, Coldplay and Usher.

According to Spotify, both the Vitamin String Quartet, the group behind the covers, and the original artists’ songs, like Eilish’s “Happier Than Ever” and BTS’ “Dynamite,” experienced spikes in listening after the show’s release.

“Music and streaming has grown together. It’s great for artists, because the moment that a song is featured in a project, it could be an incredible boost to their streaming numbers and get them discovered,” Kamps said.

Perhaps one of the most memorable examples of this dynamic happened in 2022, when “Stranger Things” featured Bush’s “Running Up That Hill.” Overnight, everything changed for both Bush and Netflix.

Nora Felder, the show’s music supervisor, called the moment “the perfect storm.”

“It exploded through the stratosphere. We didn’t expect that. We were focused on looking for something that told the narrative. It felt like it had been bigger than ever before,” Felder said.

“Running Up That Hill” received roughly 22,000 daily streams on average before it was featured in the show, according to Luminate. Following its star turn, the song it peaked at 5.1 million streams in a single day — nearly 40 years after its release. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time and hit 1 billion streams in 2022. The track then spawned viral trends on TikTok and pulled the ‘80s star into contemporary pop culture.

Throughout its five-season rollout, “Stranger Things” continued to influence what viewers were listening to. Felder said the draw of its soundtrack is a mix of nostalgia for older viewers who might have grown up in the ‘80s (the era in which the show is set) and an introduction to a new sonic world for younger listeners. According to Luminate, 28% of Gen Z discovers music through series that are exclusive to streaming.

When Felder works with other studios, she said music can feel like a “last consideration” or like “there wasn’t enough money being put in the music budget.” But with Netflix, music seems to be a priority, as she’s been able to license tracks from David Bowie and Fleetwood Mac and two Prince songs (which played in the “Stranger Things” series finale).

“Netflix is very careful, and for some projects, music is more of a main character than others,” Felder said. “I do feel like Netflix especially has been very careful to try and apply the budget accordingly and take a look at projects and [realize] that music could really be an added force.”

Netflix’s musicality will be put to the test during Sunday’s Grammys broadcast, as the girls of Huntr/x face off with Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar and SZA, as well as Bad Bunny, Bruno Mars and Rosé. The Grammys will air live from the Crypto.com Arena on CBS and Paramount+.

Reporting from Sacramento — Soda companies got a respite last week from battling local taxes on sugary beverages, after California lawmakers grudgingly passed a 12-year ban on cities and counties imposing the levies.

That reprieve might be short-lived.

Major healthcare groups announced Monday that they will pursue a statewide soda tax initiative on the 2020 ballot to pay for public health programs. And in another jab at the beverage industry, the initiative would enshrine in the California Constitution the right of local governments to impose soda taxes.

“Big Soda has been a major contributor to the alarming rise in obesity and diabetes,” said Dustin Corcoran, chief executive of the California Medical Assn., a principal backer of the initiative. “We need to address this crisis now, and this initiative gives voters a real opportunity to do that.”

The proposed 2-cents-per-fluid-ounce tax would mean an additional 24 cents tacked onto the cost of a 12-ounce can, or an extra $1.34 for a 2-liter bottle sold in the state.

The proposal sets the stage for a marquee statewide battle between health groups and the soda industry — a feud that has been simmering in California’s cities and counties for years and burst into full view in the state Capitol last week.

California bans local soda taxes »

With the battle lines forming for 2020, the soda industry has had little time to savor its recent victory.

The companies won a 12-year ban on local soda taxes from legislators in exchange for a promise from business groups to withdraw a ballot initiative that would have required cities and counties to get supermajority approval from voters to raise any new taxes. That initiative, which had qualified for the November ballot, panicked mayors and labor groups representing local government workers with the prospect of a higher vote threshold that could stymie efforts to collect new tax revenue for cities and counties.

Minutes after Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill that contained the soda tax ban, proponents pulled their broader tax initiative from the ballot.

The eleventh-hour deal infuriated public health groups and a number of legislative Democrats, who likened the soda industry’s leverage play to “extortion.”

“We were disappointed that the American Beverage Assn., and their member companies, went to such great lengths to take away the right of Californians to vote for better health,” said Nancy Brown, chief executive of the American Heart Assn.

But the maneuver prodded the California medical and dental associations to respond. The initiative, according to proponents, would raise between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion in a statewide levy on soda and other sugary beverages, with money going toward programs to combat and prevent diabetes and obesity — both commonly linked to consumption of those drinks.

The tax would not apply to diet sodas, fruit and vegetable juices with no added sugar and drinks in which milk is the primary ingredient.

“Big Soda may have won a cynical short-term victory but, for the sake of our children’s health, we cannot and will not allow them to undermine California’s long-term commitment to healthcare and disease prevention,” Corcoran and Carrie Gordon, chief strategy officer of the California Dental Assn., said in a statement.

Brown of the American Heart Assn. said her group backs a statewide tax and efforts to roll back the local ban.

“We will be relentless in our work with communities across the state to improve public health through a statewide tax, and to restore the rights of Californians to vote for what they believe best supports health in their state,” she said.

The two organizations partnered with other public health groups, along with the Service Employees International Union, to successfully raise tobacco taxes by $2 per pack in 2016.

“Everyday grocery shoppers in California are struggling with affordability in the state — from housing to transportation to taxes. Rather than further driving up costs at the supermarket, we believe there is a better way for health advocates, government and California’s beverage companies to work together to help people reduce sugar consumption while at the same time protecting consumers’ pocketbooks and the small businesses that are so vital to our communities,” said William M. Dermody Jr., spokesman for the American Beverage Assn.

The soda industry has long fended off taxes at the state and local level. Berkeley became the first to pass a tax in November 2014 and since then, three other Bay Area cities — San Francisco, Oakland, and Albany — have imposed their own levies.

Until recently, the battle over a statewide soda tax had been fought — and won — by the industry in the Legislature. A recent legislative analysis counted proposals dating back to 1983 that had fizzled at some point during negotiations in Sacramento.

One recent effort was a 2013 bill by state Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) to impose a penny-per-ounce tax, half the size of the tax under the proposed initiative. Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica) sought a 2 cent-per-ounce tax in two successive bills in 2015 and 2016; both measures failed to advance.

“These products are dangerous,” Monning said last week during Senate debate over the bill that now bans local soda taxes. “We label and tax tobacco because we know what it does. We should label and tax these products and let people have informed choice.”

Times staff writer John Myers contributed to this report.

Coverage of California politics »

melanie.mason@latimes.com

Follow @melmason on Twitter for the latest on California politics.

MILAN, Italy — Two years before the Los Angeles Olympics, the United States is already dominating the narrative in the run-up to the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Winter Games.

International Olympic Committee officials, including President Kirsty Coventry, couldn’t avoid questions relating to ICE and the Jeffrey Epstein files at a news conference in Milan, Italy, on Sunday.

Coventry tried to fend them off by saying it was not the IOC’s place to comment on the issues, but when pressed remarked it was “sad” that such stories were deflecting attention away from the upcoming Olympics.

“I think anything that is distracting from these Games is sad, right? But we’ve learned over the many years … there’s always been something that has taken the lead, leading up to the Games,” Coventry said. “Whether it has been Zika, COVID, there has always been something.

“But what is keeping my faith alive is that when that opening ceremony happens and those athletes start competing, suddenly the world remembers the magic and the spirit that the Games have and they get to suddenly remember what’s actually important and they get to be inspired, and so we’re really looking forward to that.”

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Saturday in Milan to protest the deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during the upcoming Winter Olympics, although agents would be stationed in a control room and not operating on the streets.

Meanwhile, the latest collection of government files released on Epstein includes emails from 2003 between Casey Wasserman, the head of the Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee, and Epstein’s one-time girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.

“From all the information that we have and I believe that the U.S. authorities, as the other authorities, have made all the clarifications needed, so from our side that’s not for us to further comment on that part of the security. But we’re really looking forward to the Games,” Coventry said when asked about the presence of ICE agents in Milan.

She was even less responsive when asked about Wasserman.

“We didn’t discuss it yesterday and I believe Mr. Wasserman has put out his statement and we now have nothing further to add,” said Coventry, who was elected just over 10 months ago as the first female IOC president.

The upcoming Olympics run from Friday through Feb. 22. U.S. Vice President JD Vance will lead an American delegation to the Milan-Cortina Games and attend the opening ceremony.

Matar writes for the Associated Press.

Israeli occupation authorities have intensified their campaign of forced displacement across the occupied West Bank, issuing expulsion orders to an entire Bedouin community east of Ramallah and escalating demolition policies in occupied East Jerusalem.

The measures come amid a surge in settler violence targeting educational institutions in the Jordan Valley and residential homes in Qalqilya, further shrinking the living space for Palestinians under military occupation.

‘Zone of expulsion’

On Sunday morning, Israeli forces raided the Abu Najeh al-Kaabneh Bedouin community in al-Mughayyir village, east of Ramallah.

Local sources confirmed to the Wafa news agency that soldiers delivered a military order requiring the community’s 40 residents to dismantle their homes and leave the area within 48 hours. The army declared the site a “closed military zone”, a tactic frequently used to clear Palestinian land for settlement expansion.

During the raid, Israeli troops arrested three foreign solidarity activists attempting to document the eviction order.

The expulsion order is part of a widening campaign of ethnic cleansing in the region. It follows the complete displacement of the Shallal al-Auja community north of Jericho, which concluded on Saturday. After years of systematic harassment, the last three families of the community were forced to leave, marking the erasure of a presence that once included 120 families.

Al-Aqsa provocations

In occupied East Jerusalem, Israel’s municipal policies of urban restriction continued to displace Palestinians.

On Sunday, Yasser Maher Dana, a Palestinian resident of the Jabal Mukaber neighbourhood, was coerced into demolishing his 100-square-metre (1,076-square-foot) home. The structure, located in the al-Salaa district, housed four family members.

Israeli authorities routinely force Palestinians in East Jerusalem to execute their own demolition orders to avoid paying exorbitant fees charged by municipal crews and forces if they carry out the destruction themselves. These demolitions are justified by a lack of building permits, which rights groups say are nearly impossible for Palestinians to obtain in the city.

Simultaneously, in Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the municipality issued a demolition order for a residential room belonging to the al-Taweel family, granting them a 10-day deadline. This follows notices issued three days before demolishing two homes belonging to brothers in the Wadi Qaddum neighbourhood.

Tensions also rose at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, stormed by dozens of Israeli settlers under heavy police protection. According to the Jerusalem governorate, the incursion included a provocative “wedding blessing” ritual performed by settlers for a bride in the courtyards, a violation of the site’s status quo.

Settlers attack schools and homes

In the northern Jordan Valley, Israeli settlers, backed by the military, disrupted the school day at the al-Maleh School.

Azmi Balawneh, the director of education in Tubas, reported that settlers blocked teachers from reaching the school, which serves children from the vulnerable Bedouin communities of al-Hadidiya, Makhoul, and Samra.

This harassment coincides with the establishment of a new illegal settlement outpost in the al-Maleh area just a week ago. In the nearby Khirbet Samra, settlers erected a new tent on Sunday morning to seize more pastoral land.

Meanwhile, in the village of Faraata, east of Qalqilya, settlers from the illegal “Havat Gilad” outpost attacked the home of Hijazi Yamin.

Yamin told Wafa that settlers pelted his house and unleashed an attack dog on his family, trapping his wife and seven children inside.

“We live in a constant state of insecurity,” Yamin said, noting this was the second attack in a week. “I am afraid to leave my wife and children alone or let them go to school.”

Military raids and closures

Israeli forces conducted multiple raids across the West Bank on Sunday, arresting at least four Palestinians. In Hebron, two brothers were arrested following a raid on their family home. More arrests were reported in the village of Duma, south of Nablus, and in the town of al-Ubeidiya, east of Bethlehem.

In the northern city of Jenin, military vehicles stormed the city centre and the Jabel Abu Dhuhair neighbourhood. During the incursion, troops deliberately destroyed street vendors’ carts at the Cinema Roundabout, targeting the local economy.

Movement restrictions also tightened significantly. For the second consecutive day, the Israeli army closed the main entrance to Turmus Aya, north of Ramallah, and blocked the Atara military checkpoint since the early morning hours, severing connections between northern and central West Bank cities. According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Israel now operates 916 military checkpoints and gates throughout the West Bank.

United States plans for Gaza amount to a “theme park of dispossession” for Palestinians, argues Drop Site News Middle East Editor Sharif Abdel Kouddous.

Abdel Kouddous tells host Steve Clemons the draconian measures planned for the two million shell-shocked Palestinians in Gaza are an Orwellian labyrinth of biometrics, bureaucracy and “a lab for government surveillance” – all meant to drive them out.

Noting that Israel hasn’t “gone past phase one” of any ceasefire agreement with an Arab country, Abdel Kouddous warns that Israel is establishing facts on the ground in Gaza – including 50 military bases – “which eventually become permanent”.

If 31-year-old Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny wins the Grammy for album of the year Sunday, it will be the first time the award goes to a Spanish-language LP. A week later the singer, known as “the King of Latin Trap,” will headline the Super Bowl halftime show.

These twin feats by one of the world’s most famous performers — a proud Latino and a vocal critic of President Trump’s stance on immigration — plays out against the heartbreaking and chaotic backdrop of the federal government’s aggressive tactics on the streets of American cities, including Minneapolis, where two citizens were shot dead by federal agents.

This is likely why a painting by an L.A.-based Puerto Rican artist named Ektor Rivera, a reimagining of Emanuel Leutze’s iconic 1852 painting, ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware,” is attracting a wave of attention online. An Instagram post about the painting by Rivera — which features Bad Bunny alongside a host of other Puerto Rican cultural heroes, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Sonia Sotomayor and Tito Puente — has more than 170,000 likes and 2.3 million views, spurred in part by the fact that Ricky Martin, who is also featured in the tableau, shared it.

Titled “The Discovery of Americans,” the 5’ x 8’ acrylic-on-canvas painting was commissioned by Seth Goldberg, a talent agent who spent his career working with Latin celebrities from his homebase in Miami. In a phone interview, Golberg said he felt disappointed by the controversy that erupted after the announcement that Bad Bunny would play at the Super Bowl — particularly when people didn’t seem to realize that as a Puerto Rican the singer is an American.

A detail of “The Discovery of Americans,” Ektor Rivera, acrylic on canvas, 2025.

(Ektor Rivera)

“And I thought that maybe if we reframe that Leutze painting with these cultural icons, maybe it changes who we see and celebrate as American, or at least makes a few people think about it a little more,” Goldberg said.

Rivera, who met Goldberg at a dinner with his manager five years ago, ran with the idea, placing a cast of Puerto Rican luminaries in the famous rowboat alongside Bad Bunny — who is draped in the Puerto Rican flag and standing in Washington’s place.

“As a Puerto Rican, I have U.S. citizenship, but I’m still asked if I have my green card,” Rivera said in a recent phone interview. “The people who voluntarily don’t want to learn about the great aportación [contributions] Latinos are giving to this country, and in my case, Puerto Ricans, is really frustrating, and how ICE is dealing with our people is something that is very sad.”

It is notable in the painting that the boat is literally breaking the ice on the river as it moves across the water, Rivera said.

Rivera — a graduate of the School of Plastic Arts and Design of Puerto Rico — is also an actor. He starred in a Puerto Rican production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s early musical, “In the Heights,” during which time he met the famous actor and composer. Miranda and his father, Luis Miranda, later commissioned Rivera to paint a portrait of Rita Moreno, which now hangs in Centro de Bellas Artes de Santurce in San Juan.

The joy Moreno showed when the painting was unveiled has stayed with Rivera, who now lives and works in Santa Clarita. He is raising his children to know and love their Latin heritage — during a trying time when Latinos are often denigrated by the current administration.

Trump recently told the New York Post that he won’t be going to the Super Bowl this year, noting of Bad Bunny and the band Green Day, which will open the telecast, that he is “anti-them.”

“I think it’s a terrible choice,” Trump said. “All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”

In Rivera’s painting, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara — where the Super Bowl will take place this year — can be seen on the horizon. Those in the boat are smiling. They are looking forward to being part of the mix. It’s a loving representation, filled with hope and possibility.

“We’re celebrating that we are putting our identity as Latinos on one of the major stages in the world,” said Rivera. “And that’s huge. That’s going to educate people, and make them interested.”

America, Rivera said, is not just for certain people.

“America is everybody. America is the world.”

I’m arts editor Jessica Gelt and I’ll be rooting for Bad Bunny at the Grammys this weekend. Here’s your arts and culture news for the week.

On our radar

“Creation” by Harmonia Rosales, 2025. Oil, gold leaf, gold paint and iron oxide on panel. 121.9 × 91.4 cm (48 × 36 in.).

(© Harmonia Rosales/ Elon Schoenholz Photography)

Beginnings: The Story of Creation in the Middle Ages
The Getty exhibition explores how people in the Middle Ages imagined the creation of the world through manuscripts, alongside works by LA-based artist Harmonia Rosales, who utilizes West African Yoruba mythology and Black resilience and identity.

Through April 19. J. Paul Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Drive, L.A. getty.edu

Tiffany Townsend performs Saturday and Sunday in Long Beach.

(Mia McNeal)

Crash Out Queens: A Tiffany Townsend Recital
The soprano officially kicks off the Long Beach Opera’s season with an exploration of women in opera that expands into a multidisciplinary collaboration with pianist Lucy Yates, dancer Jasmine Albuquerque, scenic designer Prairie T. Trivuth and more.
7:30 p.m. Saturday; 4 p.m. Sunday. Altar Society, 230 Pine Ave. in Long Beach. longbeachopera.org

Midori Francis and Noah Keyishian rehearsing for “Sylvia Sylvia Syvia” at Geffen Playhouse.

(Jeff Lorch)

Sylvia Sylvia Sylvia
A woman struggling with writer’s block and her own husband’s literary success takes refuge in the Boston apartment once occupied by Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes in the world premiere of this tragicomic thriller from playwright Beth Hyland. Directed by Jo Bonney.
Wednesday through March 8. Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. geffenplayhouse.org

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY

Soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha appears with the L.A. Phil Friday and Saturday.

(LA Phil)

Mahler, Bartók & Ravel
Dudamel Fellow Elim Chan conducts the L.A. Phil in a program culminating with Mahler’s Fourth Symphony featuring South African soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha.
11 a.m. Friday; 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Miles Davis Centennial Concert
The Miles Electric Band, led by Emmy- and Grammy Award-winning producer/drummer Vince Wilburn Jr., features a fusion of Miles Davis alumni and next-generation talents, including Darryl Jones, Robert Irving III, Munyungo Jackson, Jean-Paul Bourelly, Antoine Roney, Keyon Harrold and DJ Logic, plus special guests.
8 p.m. Friday. Carpenter Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach. carpenterarts.org

Lifeline
Written by Robert Axelrod and directed by Ken Sawyer, this drama finds a mother volunteering at a suicide hotline following a life-altering event.
8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays, through March 1. The Road Theatre, NoHo Senior Arts Colony, 10747 Magnolia Blvd. roadtheatre.org

101 Dalmatians
The 65th anniversary release of the Disney animated classic gets a one-week run in movie palace splendor. Tickets are $10 and include a complimentary small popcorn.
10 a.m., 1, 4 and 7 p.m. daily, through Thursday. El Capitan Theatre, 6838 Hollywood Blvd. elcapitantheatre.com

“metal mettle metal mettle” by Steve Roden, 2020. Acrylic with paper collage

(Robert Wedemeyer/Courtesy Vielmetter Los Angeles)

Steve Roden/Sophie Calle
A pair of new exhibitions open today in Orange County: ‘Wandering” focuses on the late Los Angeles–based artist Steve Roden’s works on paper, presenting drawings and collages as forms of travel without a set destination; and “Overshare” is a survey of French conceptual artist Sophie Calle’s photography, text, video and installation work that mines intimate relationships and chance encounters.
Through May 24. UC Irvine Langson/Orange County Museum of Art, 3333 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa. ocma.art

Sweeney Todd
Jason Alexander directs Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s musical thriller about the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and has assembled a topflight cast led by Tony nominee Will Swenson and Olivier Award winner Lesli Margherita.
Through Feb. 22. La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, 14900 La Mirada Blvd. lamiradatheatre.com

SATURDAY
Garrick Ohlsson and Richard O’Neill
Pianist Ohlsson and violist O’Neill team up for an evening of Schubert and Rachmaninoff.
7:30 p.m. Saturday. Broad Stage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St. broadstage.org

SUNDAY
Common Ground
The Los Angeles Master Chorale performs the world premiere of “The Beatitudes” by five-time Emmy Award-winning composer Jeff Beal, who will play the piano and flugelhorn, and Henryk Górecki’s “Miserere,” inspired by the 1980s Polish Solidarity movement.
7 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. lamasterchorale.org

TUESDAY

Jacob Aune, left, and Sam McLellan in the North American tour of “The Book of Mormon.”

(Julieta Cervantes)

The Book of Mormon
The latest national tour of the Broadway smash comes to town. When the show had its L.A. debut at the Pantages in 2012, Times theater critic Charles McNulty wrote, “Just know that this exceedingly naughty, though in the end disarmingly nice, show is devised by the minds behind ‘South Park’ and that risqué ‘Sesame Street’ for theater-loving adults, ‘Avenue Q.’ In other words, leave the kids at home with a baby-sitter”
Through Feb. 15. Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Feb 24-25. The Granada Theatre, 1214 State St., Santa Barbara. thebookofmormontour.com

Adams, Cheung & Lanao
John Adams curates the third installment of the LA Phil Etudes, highlighting the orchestra’s principal musicians in solo pieces by contemporary composers Francisco Coll, Samuel Adams, Nico Muhly, Sílvia Lanao and Anthony Cheung.
8 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Dr. Strangelove
Steve Coogan plays four roles in this screening of the National Theatre stage adaptation of the 1964 Stanley Kubrick film recorded live in London.
7 p.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd. Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

THURSDAY

Cheyenne Jackson plays the Wallis Thursday night.

(Vince Truspin)

Cheyenne Jackson
The Broadway heartthrob performs a “musical memoir” with tunes made famous by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Sam Smith and Chappell Roan, plus his own song “Ok,” detailing his father’s unconditional love for his gay son.
7:30 p.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd. Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

— Kevin Crust

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Eddie Izzard brings Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” to Los Angeles in a new solo staging, adapted by Mark Izzard and directed by Selina Cadell.

(Carol Rosegg)

Eddie channels tragedy
Times theater critic Charles McNulty weighed in on the gender-fluid British comedian Eddie Izzard’s solo performance of “Hamlet,” running through Sunday at the Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood. McNulty calls the show “a daredevil feat of memory, theatrical bravado and cardio fitness,” noting that, “As a spectacle, it’s as exhilarating as it is exhausting. The thrill of seeing a fearless, indefatigable performer single-handedly populate the stage with the myriad figures of this masterwork never lets up. But fatigue can’t help setting in once it becomes clear that this marathon drama will be delivered in the broadest of strokes.”

Father and son
McNulty also headed to Matrix Theatre’s Henry Murray Stage to catch a Rogue Machine world premiere of L.A. writer Justin Tanner’s solo show, “My Son the Playwright.” McNulty calls Tanner “one of the signal voices of L.A.’s wild and free intimate theater scene.” The show is divided into two acts, one that presents the father’s side of the relationship, and the other, the son’s. “Tanner plunges into these ostentatiously autobiographical roles, heedlessly, hectically and without a psychiatric net,” McNulty writes.

Academy cuts
Arts and entertainment writer Malia Mendez got the scoop that the Academy Foundation laid off all five staffers with its Oral History Projects team, “effectively dissolving the department responsible for conducting and preserving interviews with notable members of the film industry.” In a statement posted on social media, the Academy Foundation Workers Union, AFSCME Local 126, called the cuts “a sad and reckless choice.” (Also, two of the laid-off staffers were placed in other roles in the organization.)

Breaking Glass
I jumped on the news that composer Philip Glass abruptly canceled June’s world premiere of his Symphony No. 15 “Lincoln” at the Kennedy Center, saying its message does not align with the vision for the venue under the Trump administration. “Symphony No. 15 is a portrait of Abraham Lincoln, and the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony. Therefore, I feel an obligation to withdraw this Symphony premiere from the Kennedy Center under its current leadership,” Glass wrote Tuesday in a letter to the board that was shared with The Times.

The hits keep coming
Speaking of the Kennedy Center: As the artistic losses continue to mount at the beleaguered performing arts center in the wake of President Trump’s takeover — and renaming — of the venue, the Washington Post reported that Kevin Couch, who was recently announced as the new senior vice president of artistic programming for the venue, resigned less than two weeks later. No reason was given, and Couch declined a Post request for comment.

50 is nifty
In happier local news, San Diego’s Opera Neo — a summer opera festival and young artist training program — celebrating its 50th anniversary season, and has announced its upcoming lineup. Highlights include Antonio Vivaldi’s, “Arsilda,” Louise Bertin’s “Fausto” and Gioachino Rossini’s “Il turco in Italia.”

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

I am resurfacing this handy 2023 guide to the best Italian sub sandwiches in L.A. It is not a coincidence that I am hungry and planning what to eat for lunch.