The Dodgers made a flurry of moves on Tuesday, as rosters expanded for September, the most surprising of which was activating catcher Dalton Rushing (sprained right elbow) off the injured list.
The Dodgers also activated catcher Will Smith (neck) from the IL, optioned outfielder Alek Thomas to Triple-A Oklahoma City and designated catcher Ben Rortvedt for assignment. With two extra active roster spots for the rest of the season, the team activated left-handed pitcher Justin Wrobleski from the IL and recalled infielder Alex Freeland from Triple-A.
Rushing has been on the IL since early August, has been working through a hitting progression, and according to manager Dave Roberts has also started a throwing program. But Roberts indicated over the weekend that he wasn’t necessarily expecting Rushing to be ready to be activated Tuesday.
Regardless of how far Rushing’s throwing has advanced, he can provide a left-handed bat off the bench — a role the Dodgers could also use in the postseason. The Dodgers still have catcher Hunter Feduccia on the roster, and he can serve as the backup to Smith.
Smith returns after being sidelined for almost three months by a nagging neck injury. Wrobleski (left forearm inflammation), on the other hand, spent just over two weeks on the IL, as the Dodgers kept an eye on his workload for the overall season.
Freeland, a switch hitter, also provides a left-handed bat. And his addition improves lineup flexibility: when he plays second base, that could free up Tommy Edman to move to the outfield.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Ukrainian drones will continue operating over Russia, saying the country’s airspace is becoming increasingly unsafe for civilian aviation. He said Ukraine is targeting military infrastructure supporting Russia’s war effort.
Several foreign suspects were among those arrested, according to prosecutors.
Published On 1 Sep 20261 Sep 2026
Dutch police have arrested 34 suspects after a drug-related shooting in a small town in the east of the country that left a security guard dead and two police officers injured.
Jolanda Aalbers, head of the regional police, told reporters on Tuesday that a “large group” of masked men had opened fire at 4am (02:00GMT) when police arrived at a house in Overasselt, a village near the German border, to investigate reports of suspicious activity.
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During the shootout, a 51-year-old security guard was killed while two of the officers arriving at the scene sustained injuries that were not life-threatening, Aalbers said.
“When the first police unit arrived at the scene, shots were fired immediately,” the police chief said. “That was an incredibly traumatic incident. They had to rescue their colleagues and get them to safety. I have tremendous respect for what they did.”
Aalbers added that several weapons, data storage devices, and vehicles were seized at the scene.
Among those arrested were suspects from the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Algeria, according to regional prosecutors.
They said that there were indications the shooting was connected to a “long-running” conflict, as the same house had been shot a dozen times in a single incident last year. Two people were convicted in that incident.
Local media linked the incident to the criminal underworld of Dutch drug lord Jos Leijdekkers, also known as “Bolle Jos” (“Fat Jos”). One of the Netherlands’ most wanted criminals, he was previously convicted for his role in international cocaine trafficking.
Dutch Minister of Justice and Security David van Weel said that police “acted swiftly in response to the life-threatening situation in Overasselt, which involved an unprecedented number of people”.
In a post on X, he noted that 34 arrests had been made and said “the investigation is still ongoing” while condemning the “horrific act of violence”.
The 30-year-old has played Dawn Fletcher in the long-running ITV programme for eight years, sharing the screen with Claire’s Kim Tate, her stepmother.
Fans were left shocked when her character was killed off in devastating scenes on her tragic wedding day, after prematurely giving birth to a baby boy with partner Joe Tate. In the emotional footage, she suffered internal bleeding and sadly died after giving birth.
Touching on the episode in a press roundtable, Claire described their final few moments together on set as “heartbreaking”.
“But we did have a good laugh that week because we were all outside this massive marquee where we were doing all the wedding stuff and car crash, and it’s all supposed to be tragic but we were all actually having a good life.
“We had some really nice people on set that day. Great crew, and it was just a bit of camaraderie.
“But I could see as the days went on to the final day she was getting more and more sort of angst and things.”
Dawn made a big impact when she arrived in the Dales almost a decade ago, and has been at the centre of huge storylines since then – including the moment she found her long lost son, and her on-off romance with ex-husband Billy.
Olivia was told of her character’s fate earlier this year, with bosses teasing the huge exit plot. However, despite the advanced warning, she admitted that she found it tough to bid farewell.
“It was the toughest storyline I’ve done during my time in the soap,” she told the Mirror.
“I was surprised by how emotional I found it and it was way more emotional than I was expecting. I did cry.
“It is very strange to kill off your character as an actor and in front of your colleagues. But that said, what a gift to be given. Often people leave and just slip off.”
She added: “Psychologically, now I have had time to reflect, I know it’s good for me, because I can say bye to my Emmerdale chapter. It’s been brilliant. I was originally only signed up for 12 episodes and I’ve stayed eight years!”
Dozens of Jewish artists are defending Mark Ruffalo after Paramount Skydance branded the actor’s criticisms about software company Oracle Corp. as “antisemitic tropes.”
Ruffalo has long been an irritant to Paramount as he is a leading figure in a high-profile Hollywood campaign to block the merger. In an Instagram post late last month, Ruffalo blasted Larry Ellison’s Texas-based software company Oracle for assisting with technology to help Israeli military efforts, including in Gaza — a conflict that Ruffalo and other progressive activists have opposed because of the killing of Palestinians.
In an open letter, signed by more than 150 filmmakers, academics, writers and even a few rabbis, the group denounced “the outrageous smear campaign against our respected colleague Mark Ruffalo.”
“Enough with the false and dangerous weaponization of charges of antisemitism against those who are brave enough to point out the obvious: that the assault on the Palestinian people and the assault on our liberties at home are deeply interconnected, and there is nothing antisemitic about recognizing that fact,” the group wrote.
Tuesday’s letter was signed by several high-profile filmmakers, including Joel Coen, Hannah Einbinder, Tony Kushner, Lisa Cholodenko, Ilana Glazer, Frances Fisher, Todd Haynes and Sarah Kunstler.
The group tied David Ellison’s merger ambitions to his billionaire father’s expansive network of businesses, which now include TikTok. Larry Ellison is personally guaranteeing the equity needed for Paramount to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, and the family will become controlling owners of the merged entity.
However, the Hollywood merger is stalled because of an antitrust lawsuit brought by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and 11 other Democratic state attorneys general, including from New York, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon. Paramount agreed to pause the transaction until the court case can be decided.
A trial is set for March 2 in Oakland, but Paramount has been agitating for industry leaders and politicians to pressure Bonta to force a settlement that would allow the deal to go through.
“The proposed merger of Paramount and Warner Brothers Discovery is no mere combination of two huge multinational companies,” the group wrote in the letter. “Yes, it will destroy thousands upon thousands of livelihoods. Yes, it will further consolidate the oligarchic control of our media (witness the gutting of CBS News). Yes, it will strangle competition and creativity in film and television production and distribution.”
The group painted the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger as “part of a larger project of tech-driven domination, a project Larry Ellison and his partners have never been shy about trumpeting — and one they themselves have explicitly linked to their support for the ongoing depredations being visited on the people of Palestine and their silencing of critics of those horrors,” the group wrote.
Paramount declined to comment.
The merger fight has grown increasingly ugly in recent weeks after Paramount threatened to leave California if Bonta continued his court fight to unravel the deal. Paramount suggested it would pull up stakes from its Melrose Avenue film studio as soon as this fall.
Then, on Aug. 21, the company accused Ruffalo of injecting “antisemitic tropes” into the opposition campaign to thwart the industry-reshaping merger that would bring HBO, CBS News, CNN, TBS and the Warner Bros. and Paramount film and TV studios under the same roof.
Leaders of prominent Jewish organizations, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League, came to Paramount’s defense, blasting the Emmy-winning actor known for playing the Hulk and roles in productions for HBO.
Ruffalo defended himself, saying he was not being antisemitic. He said he was speaking out against Oracle’s use of technology to assist Israel’s military in the war in Gaza, “what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle,” Ruffalo wrote in his post.
Paramount leaders have branded some of the opposition to the deal as “antisemitic.”
“Pointing out the crucial connections between what is happening in Gaza and what is happening in Hollywood is the exact opposite of antisemitism,” the group wrote in the open letter. “It is, for us, the very essence of Jewish ethical duty.”
The letter cited recent polls that reflect a majority of “American Jews now agree that Israel is committing war crimes in Gaza; and four in ten even agree that these crimes amount to genocide,” the group wrote. “Do those attacking Mark Ruffalo as an antisemite seriously believe that all these American Jews are antisemites too?”
Record-breaking temperatures have impacted our local food supply, so make it a priority to visit your local farmers market to snag the last ripe mangoes and other summer fruit. If you’re looking for recipe ideas, try cooking editor Cody Reiss’ easily customizable chaotic fruit salad, and use the leftovers for a refreshing summer spritz.
September also marks the beginning of spooky season, with local theme park Universal Studios Hollywood launching its annual Halloween Horror Nights with a new slate of haunted houses and food vendors inspired by recent horror blockbusters, TV shows and games. One of the region’s scariest Halloween events kicks off on Sept. 3.
Keep reading for even more dining ideas this month, including the relaunch of a Koreatown pocha with a new menu, a new neighborhood destination in Pacific Palisades and a Friday fish fry in West Adams.
Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo says he is taking full responsibility for his ‘recent personal failure’ after entering a no-contest plea to a charge of operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
Romo was arrested July 23 in Wisconsin on suspicion of operating while intoxicated (OWI). He also received citations for having an open container of an alcoholic beverage in a moving vehicle and unsafe passing, but they were dismissed Tuesday morning by a Milwaukee County judge.
The same judge found Romo guilty of the OWI charge and took away his driving privileges for six months. Romo also must pay $834, and an ignition interlock device must be installed on any vehicle owned or operated by Romo or registered in his name for a minimum of one year.
In a statement posted to Instagram soon after, Romo indicated he is taking the situation seriously.
“This morning, I faced a recent personal failure by pleading no contest to a civil offense for OWI in Wisconsin. I own this completely,” Romo wrote.
“Multiple back surgeries ended my career earlier than I expected and left me with constant, debilitating pain. That pain led to a dependence on pain medication, and my efforts to get off those medications led to an over-reliance on alcohol.
“As I have taught my three young sons: when you fall short, you stand up and take full responsibility. That is an important first step. The harder and more important step is examining the path that brought you here and making the changes necessary to move forward.
“That path requires honesty.
“None of this is an excuse. These are my failures, and I take responsibility for them.”
Romo spent all 13 of his NFL seasons with the Cowboys and has been the lead NFL game analyst for CBS Sports since 2017. On July 31, the network placed Romo on indefinite leave and tapped J.J. Watt to fill in alongside play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz.
He said Tuesday that he is “working closely with a team of doctors to address my health and make the necessary changes” in his life.
“The past month has been difficult, but it has also been personally significant,” Romo wrote. “It has required me to confront and own my mistakes fully — to the Lord, to myself, to my family, and now to the public.”
Romo added: “As I turn my attention to my health, my family, and, in time, my return to CBS, I kindly ask for privacy during this period.”
Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. listens as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Mehmet Oz whispers to him behind President Donald Trump at an announcement on healthcare affordability on Monday. On Tuesday, Kennedy hosted a symposium on children’s screen time. Photo by Annabelle Gordon/UPI | License Photo
Sept. 1 (UPI) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services encouraged families to reduce screen time for their children during a symposium Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
The event, called the Live Real Life Symposium, was held at the Hubert H. Humphrey Building and brought together “leaders from technology, medicine, research, education, government, and advocacy groups to examine the harms of screen use in children and discuss actionable approaches to supporting healthier childhood development,” a press release from HHS said.
The symposium also introduced The Magic Tablet, a children’s book released by HHS meant to communicate the Live Real Life principles in a children’s book format.
“Our children get one childhood, and we cannot allow screens to replace the real-world experiences they need to grow and thrive,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in a statement. “Through the Office of the Surgeon General’s ‘Live Real Life initiative,’ we are giving families practical tools to put technology in its proper place and get children back to playing, exploring, connecting and experiencing the world around them.”
The event was meant to build on the Surgeon General’s Warning on the Harms of Screen Use issued earlier this year, which outlines how factors such as age, content, design, purpose and duration influence when screen engagement may be beneficial and when it’s harmful.
“The well-being of children is not just important today, but must be an ongoing priority for the public health communities,” said Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos, director of national health communications for the Office of the Surgeon General and principal deputy assistant secretary for health. “Technology has a place in our lives, but it should never come at the expense of our children’s health.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as Lake America in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday. Photo by Al Drago/UPI | License Photo
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has reprimanded the United States for what he describes as a flippant approach to the ongoing trade dispute between the two countries.
On Tuesday, Carney hit back against a series of insults and disparaging remarks from US President Donald Trump and his officials, saying that talks can proceed once Washington takes a more serious approach to the issues at hand.
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“When the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade and stop trying to be tough, and start being serious about having those discussions, we can have those discussions,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa. “It’s not constructive, but that’s their democracy.”
The Liberal Party leader’s remarks come as tensions flare once again between the US and Canada, which have historically had tight relations.
But Trump’s second terms have caused those ties to fray. Since returning to office in 2025, Trump has imposed a series of tariffs on Canadian products, prompting retaliatory actions.
The latest round of tariffs came on August 22, when negotiations between the two countries fell through.
As a result, 50 percent tariffs were imposed on roughly $20bn worth of Canadian goods. Canada has pledged to respond with tariffs on US goods, worth roughly the same dollar amount, starting on September 8.
In the aftermath of the failed negotiations, Carney blamed the impasse on last-minute US demands.
He accused the Trump administration of seeking to limit Canada’s ability to cement trade deals with other countries and of requesting changes to laws protecting Canada’s French language and culture.
Carney also said Trump’s team attempted to push an asymmetrical deal that would damage Canada’s industries.
“Canada’s a sovereign state. We will strike free trade deals with the countries we wish to strike free trade deals with,” Carney told reporters on Tuesday. He added, “Of course, we’re not going to accept those terms.”
The trade war between the two countries has prompted a surge of nationalism in Canada.
A June poll from the research firm Abacus Data found that national pride surged 12 points in two years, reaching 77 percent this year.
Carney has faced pressure not to yield to US demands. In addition to imposing steep tariffs, the Trump administration has also pushed Canada to cede its sovereignty and become a “51st state” within the US.
Trump has also taken symbolic actions designed to assert US dominance over the two countries’ shared border region. On August 27, the US president signed an executive order directing federal entities to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America”.
“They are one of the worst countries in the world to deal with,” Trump said of Canada in a recent radio interview.
Other cabinet-level officials in the Trump administration have echoed Trump’s remarks disparaging Canada.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the news outlet CNBC that Canada’s economy is ill-equipped to handle a trade war with the US, and he blamed Carney for escalating the situation.
“Well, I don’t think you can be in a tit-for-tat with someone who’s 13 times larger than you are,” Bessent said on Monday.
Of Carney, he added, “He came to power on an anti-American, anti-Trump agenda. He was 20 points behind in the polls. And then he started this. And it’s unfortunate that he’s not doing what’s best for the Canadian people.”
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, posted an image of two female Canadian cadets on social media, in an apparent effort to mock the country’s armed forces.
“This is real,” he wrote beneath the image of the two women, alongside an emoji of the Canadian flag.
Hegseth, a former TV host, has frequently castigated efforts to include women, LGBTQ people and racial minorities in the military as “woke” distractions from the US military’s core mission.
When reporters asked Carney to respond to such messages, he replied that such comments were “beneath” the officials’ office.
“Our plan has always been standing up for Canada, first and foremost, here at home,” Carney said.
Jared Freid remembers the moment he found his true calling in comedy.
Oddly it came after he’d already found success with his debut Netflix special “37 & Single” in 2023, which allowed him to live the stand-up dream of making it to a big streamer. But then that moment passed and the Boston-bred comic was once again starting from square one scrounging for joke ideas. That’s when he decided to dig up an old story he’d told on stage about his dad body-shaming him during a family outing in Delrey Beach, Fla.
“We’re sitting at the beach, and my dad asked me how much I weighed, and I was so mad about it,” Freid remembers. Seething at his dad for poking at his body insecurities, the comedian dealt with his emotions like any good millennial — by podcasting about it. Venting the story that took only about a minute to tell on a microphone led to more fights with his aging boomer parents soon after when they heard the episode.
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Jared Freid sits down with LA Times Entertainment Editor Nate Jackson to discuss his new Netflix hour, “The Family Plan,” which turns a beach blowup with his dad into a sharply observed, big-hearted look at boomer-millennial family warfare and reconciliation.
Scrolling back through that memory, Freid said something clicked when he thought about the alarmingly close relationship millennials still have with their parents in adulthood including still being on the family cellphone plan. “I can pay my own cellphone bill, but I’m still on their family plan,” he said. “That says something about the millennial/boomer relationship, in my opinion. We’re weirdly attached to our parents, and in a way that no other generations were tied like that, like not mushed together.”
Extending his one-minute bit into a full hour in his new Netflix special “The Family Plan” (out on Tuesday) took two and a half years of dedication polishing the story and seeing it start to resonate on tour at shows around the world. It also required him understanding that what underlies the struggles between millennials and their parents is how shockingly alike they are despite being constantly annoyed by each other. Freid now says his goal is to be a family-friendly comedian for families that usually aren’t friendly with each other but can easily agree on that fact while they laugh at jokes about themselves.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Your new one-hour special was inspired by a one-minute story you’ve told about a fight with your dad at the beach. You tapped into something really universal with the strife between boomer parents and their millennial children — a real tug of war for power that’s happening in a lot of people’s lives right now.
Totally, I and I feel it, especially because we can talk back to [our boomer parents] in a respectful way. We can have debates. You’re finding out your parents are just people too. I started telling people on my podcast, “Bring your parents.” This special is to be enjoyed with your family. You’d see a guy with his dad [at one of my shows], point at him and go “[Jared’s] talking about you!” That made me feel so good. I did it in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, I did it everywhere, and it was always just unbelievable how much people related to it and now it’s how I want to do comedy. This is who I am. This special means so much to me. It’s been a fight to get it out. I wanted it on a platform like Netflix because I want parents to watch it with their kids. It’s hard enough to get your parents on your Netflix account. Imagine getting them to watch a special on YouTube? They’re not going to do it. So I need this to be in a place where boomers and millennials can share it with each other and enjoy it together.
As an adult, what’s been the most interesting thing about seeing what things you picked up from your parents despite constantly arguing with them?
We’re exactly the same. We’re so alike that that’s probably why my dad’s asking me how much I weigh at the beach because I also look like him. It’s almost like an argument with yourself. I’m a version of him, and he’s a version of me. I have a lot of empathy for my parents. I’m 41, no kids, never married. They had to grow up while having a kid. I can’t understand that.
Right now there’s a lot of talk about divorcing your parents going around. I also can’t understand that for a second, because it’s not in my nature. For so many of the things that I go through in my life and feel frustrated by, [my parents] are, they’re my conscience a lot of times. Like when I wonder whether I should go right or left, I hear my mom in my head like, “You’re gonna go right? Why would you go right? You always go right. You’re lazy.” I hear them. I feel like I understand them more now, being older.
From selling life insurance in New York to headlining global tours and hit podcasts, Freid has built a devoted, largely female fan base that treats his stand-up like family therapy.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Every generation has their obstacles, and we’re constantly looking at each saying “Oh, you have it easy, no you have it easy!” But in your special, it kind of comes out that there’s obstacles for every group.
Totally. I don’t do comedy to make anyone feel bad. I do it to make people laugh and enjoy. And like it was cool to see a family would come to me to take a picture afterwards, and then the parents would be like, “We’re the boomers you’re making fun of.” I’m making fun of them, but I’m also making fun of ourselves [as millennials]. And I think it strikes a balance between the two because it does show that I love my family. I love how I grew up. I love that you know the people in my life. That doesn’t mean you can’t be totally angered by them.
Where did you cut your teeth in comedy?
I started in New York. I was selling life insurance and annuities in New York, and I was writing funny emails to friends. Any time we were on the same group email, Gmail, or G Chat it was always “what did we do last weekend, and what are we going to do this weekend?” And then you just make fun of each other. Anytime someone would write back “Oh my God, I’m dying at my desk. That made me laugh so hard,” I was like, “That that feels like drugs. How do I get that?” I started doing open mics, and I kind of treated it like grad school. I did improv, sketch, and storytelling. I took all these classes, and just to see what I liked, because I just wanted to be funny for my friends. Plus I could go to open mics at night, so you could add that in and feel forward momentum.
Being a millennial comedian right now seems very much like being stuck between two worlds of having the old model of success in comedy you learned from your idols and then you have people who are younger than you who are blowing up just by like posting a random video.
What you’re saying is completely right. Like we’d look up to these guys like Colin Quinn on his show “Tough Crowd,” that’s the table I wanted to sit at, and I wanted to hang out with those guys and bust each other’s chops, that’s what comedy is. I always could see myself at that table, but I also understood that table is kind of earned. You don’t just get to it because you’re funny. When I started, you could count the comedians on one hand that could do theaters, without being on a TV show. You know, there was like Brian Regan, Kathleen Madigan, Jim Gaffigan. These people weren’t on TV, but they had their audience, so it was very different to be a stand-up. Earthquake is in that group. Then you look at the sitcom people who get to do stand-up because they were on a sitcom, like you know Seinfeld and you know Ray Romano, and these are great stand-ups.
A millennial comic wedged between club legends and viral upstarts, Freid uses candid stories and crowd work to bridge generational divides — including in L.A.’s intimate, under-the-radar comedy rooms.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
How did podcasting allow you to grow your career in a different way?
I thought “well, I’m listening to these podcasts. I should start a podcast.” And I was downloading podcasts in 15-minute increments to my iPod Nano. I love talk radio. I grew up on WEI in Boston. I love sports, I like sports talk, I like high energy shows. At that time, I thought everyone had one, but now I look like I started early. I can do a podcast where I can speak directly to people who might want to come to my shows. I didn’t even think of ads. I wasn’t thinking of that stuff. I was just [thinking] I can talk right to someone who likes what I do, and I would team up with these websites… I was trying to do this internet stuff, understanding there was power there. I was caught between two worlds, working on my stand-up as kind of my nighttime job, and then doing these podcasts and contributing wherever I could as a daytime job.
When you started working with Betches Media through podcasting on shows like “U Up?” [with platform co-founder Jordana Abraham] it opened up a lane for you to suddenly grow a female audience in a way that seemed natural despite being out of the ordinary for most straight male comedians. What’s that been like to grow that type of audience?
It’s weirdly gratifying. It’s not what I was like angling towards. I think if I was angling towards a female audience as a stand-up, it wouldn’t work. I think that it would be a lie. I’m so happy with it. I feel really thankful because you know the [founders of] Betches [Abraham, Aleen Dreksler and Samantha Fishbein] they’re my sisters. The audience is family like when they come to shows I know them, you know, that’s like a beautiful thing and I think especially in the world of stand-up where all you hear about is like the Manosphere and the Rogan types, and a lot of stand-up comedy is men dragging a girlfriend to someone they think is funny because they get an ego puff out of showing a woman who they know is to be funny. And my shows are very different. It’s women bringing their boyfriends, women who now bring their husbands, couples coming together, and I love it.
Lastly, what cellphone family plan are you and your parents currently on?
Oh, we’re on T-Mobile. I’m getting kicked off by my dad currently.
Because you’re too famous?
Yeah, he’s like it’s getting embarrassing for him. I could pay for it myself. I just like, now I got to go to the store, I gotta go do it. It’s annoying.
WASHINGTON — The House passed a short-term measure Tuesday to fund the federal government into early December, a move designed to avoid a chaotic shutdown as lawmakers campaign for reelection.
Lawmakers needed to act before the fiscal year concludes at the end of September to avoid a funding lapse. They were determined not to bump up against that deadline during the campaign season following this past year’s historic shutdowns.
The House passed the bill by a vote of 370-48. The Senate has already overwhelmingly approved the measure, so it now moves to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.
“It gives the nation and our constituents certainty, certainty that the government will remain open, certainty that our service members will be paid,” said Rep. Tom Cole, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
A record 43-day shutdown occurred last fall when the two parties disagreed on renewing an expiring tax credit that lowers the cost of health coverage obtained through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Then came the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which lasted 76 days before lawmakers agreed to fund much of the department but not its immigration enforcement operations.
Lawmakers were wary of a repeat before voters go to the polls. They also blamed the other party for the recent impasses.
“We’re going to avoid the threat of another Democratic shutdown,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters in advance of the vote.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the lead Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, encouraged her Democratic colleagues to vote for the measure during a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning.
She said the bill was much improved from the product that passed the House earlier this summer on a mostly party-line basis. For example, she said it prevents the Department of Homeland Security from transferring funds to the Border Patrol, and it delays a proposed rule that would give political appointees in the Trump administration more authority to stop federal grants from going out for programs they view as not in line with the president’s agenda. Those changes were made when the Senate approved its version of the bill.
Democrats fear the administration will use the proposed regulation on grants to steer money away from Democratic-led states. DeLauro called the delay an important first step, but said more must be done to block the policy from taking effect.
“Whether a community receives disaster relief should not depend on who they voted for in the last election,” DeLauro said.
The short-term measure funds federal agencies generally at current levels through Dec. 11. It will give lawmakers more time to find compromise on a full-year measure, though that will likely be quite difficult.
Republicans are seeking hundreds of billions of dollars in additional spending for the military while cutting most non-defense programs. Democrats say that’s a non-starter and insist on a bipartisan approach that treats domestic programs with parity.
Everton have agreed a deal for Jack Grealish to return to the club on a season-long loan from Manchester City while striker Beto has joined Serie A club Fiorentina in a £14.58m move.
Grealish, 30, is set for a medical at the Toffees, with his switch expected to be completed before Tuesday’s 23:00 BST transfer deadline.
The England international spent a large chunk of last term at Everton under a similar arrangement, scoring twice and providing six assists in 20 appearances, before sustaining a season-ending foot injury in January.
Grealish had been linked with other teams – including his boyhood club Aston Villa – but his preference was to return to Everton, whose chief executive Angus Kinnear told BBC Radio Merseyside had “remained in contact” with the winger.
Everton have also agreed a £3m deal to sign Ainsley Maitland-Niles from French side Lyon.
The 29-year-old former Arsenal player has won five caps for England and can operate as a full-back or in midfield.
Meanwhile, Scotland right-back Nathan Patterson has completed a permanent move to Serie A club Torino.
Patterson, 24, joined Everton from Rangers in January 2022 and made 68 appearances across all competitions.
Guinea-Bissau international Beto, 28, leaves Everton after 25 goals in 113 appearances since joining from Udinese in 2023.
With Toffees winger Iliman Ndiaye, 26, also expected to complete a £65m switch to City, the Merseyside club want to bolster their attacking options before the deadline.
However, their bid to re-sign Brazil striker Richarlison from Tottenham appears to have stalled over personal terms.
Grealish, who joined City from Villa for £100m in August 2021, has made two appearances for Enzo Maresca’s side this season.
He came on as a substitute in their Community Shield defeat by Arsenal before coming off the bench in a win against Bournemouth in their Premier League opener.
Grealish did not figure in a 4-1 victory at Crystal Palace on Friday.
Talks are under way between the clubs about a deal for the 24-year-old. It is not yet clear whether any transfer would be on loan or a permanent move.
For the second summer running Everton were also seemingly in the running to sign Dutch full-back Kenny Tete, 30.
However, it appears his proposed £9.4m move from Fulham had been dependent upon the Cottagers finding a suitable replacement.
Everton are next in action on Sunday, when they host Manchester United in the Premier League (14:00 BST).
Power lines stand in front of the Janschwalde power plant in Turnow-Preilack, Germany, Tuesday. Several improvised explosive devices were found at a substation, damaging several power lines, according to police and a grid operator. The facility is an important hub in the Lausitz power grid and is connected to the nearby Janschwalde coal-fired power plant. Photo by Clemens Bilan/EPA
Sept. 1 (UPI) — Police in Brandenburg, Germany, said they found several improvised explosive devices at a coal-fired power plant in Tunow-Preilack, some of which hadn’t been detonated.
Power company 50Hertz said there was a “brief interruption of service” but that all power lines were back in operation at the substation. It distributes electricity from the Jänschwalde, Germany, plant.
Brandenburg Police in Potsdam asked the public for information or witnesses who may have seen something on Tuesday morning.
Also on Tuesday, Germany accused Russia of responsibility for a drone attack at Leipzig’s airport last month and announced new measures against Moscow.
While it’s not yet known who placed the IEDs at the power substation, the German interior minister said Germany is, “a daily target of hybrid attacks.”
Trump has boasted that the agreement is a triumph of the Monroe Doctrine. (David Canales / Zuma Press / ContactoPhoto)
In nearly simultaneous social media posts on August 28, Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, and U.S. President Donald Trump announced a historic “Oil Agreement” between the U.S. and Venezuela.
According to Rodríguez, the agreement—the operational and legal details of which remain unknown—covers the development of 17 oil fields containing 65 billion barrels of proven reserves, with a projected investment of US $100 billion that would translate into more than $200 billion in taxes for the state, theoretically aimed at Venezuela’s social and economic recovery.
For his part, Trump presented the energy pact as a major economic and geopolitical victory for his administration, arguing that it was the “largest oil agreement in world history,” with the United States directly securing “majority control” over more than one-fifth of Venezuela’s proven hydrocarbon potential, which would allow it to “more than double U.S. oil reserves.”
A game of numbers that hides what matters
Due to the initial lack of transparency and the absence of specifics regarding timelines, the U.S. companies involved, and the operational terms, the announcement drew a largely negative reaction from the public, given that it marks a historic turning point both for the bilateral relationship between Washington and Caracas and for the economic and political future of the Caribbean nation, which has been structurally subject to the dictates and interests of the White House since the January 3 military attack.
The initial confusion was quickly followed by baseless speculation about potential royalties, whether the agreement is positive for national development, and future material benefits—with no clarity as to whether these will be so meager and symbolic as to be humiliating, or whether they will be somewhat acceptable within the context of an openly asymmetrical bilateral relationship that favors Washington’s agenda of plunder and geopolitical control.
But addressing those issues—without the agreement and its clauses in hand, and without knowledge of the initial contracts signed with U.S. companies—would leave us stuck in a labyrinth. In fact, the game of numbers surrounding still-fictitious revenues has mired the discussion in its early days, with statements in the media from the government, Chavismo, and sectors of the opposition defending their own positions based on how close or far they are from what Trump wants.
What the current technical and economic debate leaves out—and does not even consider—is far too important and decisive.
For example, the ambiguity surrounding the structure of the oil pact—rather than being an uncontrolled outcome—represents the very core of its design and is a symptom of close coordination regarding shared political calculations between the White House and Miraflores.
The absence of a treaty or a verifiable legal instrument shows that the announcement is part of a bilateral political agreement, framed as a strategic energy-focused commitment in which the two parties reinforce their narratives and smooth over tensions within their circles of power, influence, and target audiences.
Thanks to this jointly planned ambiguity, Trump and Rodríguez can put forward contradictory and divergent narratives without jeopardizing their alliance, while capitalizing on the momentum to shape narratives and thereby rally their support bases and internal coalitions.
This is the only way to explain why Trump insinuates that he directly controls Venezuelan reserves to soften the blow of the Iranian quagmire from which he cannot extricate himself, while Rodríguez contradicts him in a public address, in which she reaffirmed that her government has not relinquished ownership of its oil and that it has signed an agreement that is broadly beneficial and defining for the country’s economic future, leveraging U.S. capital and technology.
In this way, the White House tenant is trying to kill two birds with one stone: 1) undermine internal pressure within the Republican Party calling for the acting president’s head before the midterms; and 2) to incentivize oil companies to inject capital and invest heavily under the promise of lucrative returns in the medium and long term, using Caracas’s strategic alignment and the Pentagon’s participation as a shareholder in the oil exploration project as a hedge against risk.
On the other hand, Miraflores is also killing its own birds by exploiting the purely rhetorical nature of the bilateral pact. On the one hand, it downplays public criticism accusing it of handing over oil to the U.S. under regressive conditions—which imply a return, in an adapted form, to the humiliating concession model (leasing oil fields in exchange for a tax burden favorable to corporations) that defined the Washington-Caracas energy relationship for a third of the 20th century.
Furthermore, the Venezuelan government reinforces the narrative of economic recovery as its programmatic roadmap, with a structural strategy based on the assumption that the purported material benefits derived from preferential and advantageous trade with the U.S. will translate into political and social legitimacy through improved wages and public services—which could, through the careful management of numbers and expectations (at least that is the intention), eventually dissolve the political contradiction posed in terms of sovereignty.
The current picture is one of extreme uncertainty. The degree of confidence among oil companies remains to be seen in light of the danger that the agreement could be reversed after Trump leaves office in 2028, as well as the complexities that may arise when harmonizing contracts with the new Hydrocarbons Law passed in February of this year.
In short, the agreement is a high-risk joint maneuver in which Trump and Rodríguez definitively tie their political fates together, mutually benefiting from converging on a starkly transactional and profit-driven logic, blessed and endorsed by the otherworldly powers of the postwar God of Money: the US dollar.
The one-way trip into the unknown
From now on, Trump cannot overthrow Rodríguez if he wants to retain a lifeline in the face of the lost battle to control the Strait of Hormuz, which is under Iranian control; nor can the latter break free from the strategic alignment with Washington if she wishes to remain electorally competitive and survive as a political force—one that is currently accelerating a complex process of internal transformation, ideologically and programmatically, toward the orbit of the economy and results-oriented politics.
In the years to come, perhaps August 28, 2026, will be interpreted as the date on which, strangely enough, Venezuela returned to 1908—the year in which a triumphant Juan Vicente Gómez, having defeated Cipriano Castro (public enemy number one under the Roosevelt Corollary), laid the foundations of the modern Venezuelan state by applying a feudal-oil doctrine of “open arms” to Western companies, first British and, after the 1920s, primarily American.
But perhaps it will also be remembered as a turning point marked by elites who replaced politics and the republican vision with the courtship of an emperor obsessed with power.
The oil agreement may be materially beneficial for Venezuela; it may also, in fact, signal a return to the humiliating times of Gómez, whose rise to power, over a dying Castro—who lacked social support and was besieged by the U.S. empire—was encouraged, promoted, and later defended by a US establishment that was ecstatic over the adaptation of the Monroe Doctrine, led by Theodore Roosevelt who loved to quote the proverb: “Speak softly and carry a big stick….”
The agreement can rightly be called historic—a view on which Rodríguez and Trump fully agree. But not because of its technical and fiscal characteristics, but because, politically, it implies the harsh acceptance that Venezuela’s ruling elites have nothing more to offer the Caribbean nation than a lucrative oil deal for the U.S., tempered by the consolation that the revenue from extracted barrels will be enough to lift us out of the devastation caused by sanctions and economic mismanagement.
What this pact reveals is, precisely, the failure of the Venezuelan elites, who are now at such a point of weakness and lack of autonomy that the distinctions between adversaries and enemies across the political spectrum hinge on who is closest to Trump, who gets his backing and who gets to negotiate with him. Within this web—obscured by neutralizing technical language—the future of the Bolivarian Republic is being shaped, amid its bitter journey through an inverted pyramid of legitimacy that has transformed the head of the White House into the guiding force of the national landscape.
In the deep void left by technical narratives, reality operates at its actually existing vertices, with a war of narratives favoring the elites in their goal of reducing politics to administrative discussions of taxes and royalties, while simultaneously concealing the harsh truth of a nation that has lost control of its destiny—a destiny now decided in English and in the metropolis of the Trump empire.
Perhaps accepting the truth as it is may be a first step toward facing a future full of questions and doubts—ones that cannot be resolved through partisan slogans, unfulfilled promises, or narratives that erase history and its lessons.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.
EastEnders fans believe that Nicola Mitchell’s storyline involving her estranged family, with some claiming that her son Harry may not actually be Teddy’s son
Fans have predicted a dark twist for Nicola Mitchell(Image: BBC)
EastEnders fans have predicted a “horrible” twist for Nicola Mitchell. In recent days, we have seen Nicola reunite with her estranged family, sisters Gemma and Jodie, as well as her mum, Rose.
While this is the first time we’ve seen Nicola’s family all together, viewers have previously been informed that she has a strained relationship with them and has distanced herself from them after growing up.
And they are also aware that Nicola was no fan of her dad and instantly shudders whenever he is mentioned. Only recently, she opened up about the abuse she endured at the hands of her dad, who died after drink driving following an argument, when she told him to leave the house during an abusive moment.
But this week, Nicola’s sister, Gemma Hawkins, stated that Harry Mitchell was the double of his grandad, Nicola’s father, leaving her enraged. “No, he’s not, he’s nothing like him,” she fumed before storming out. Harry is the son of Nicola and Teddy Mitchell, who is currently behind bars for the murder of Okie, which he lied about to protect Harry, who was suffering from addiction issues.
And in tonight’s episode, viewers saw Nicola locked in the back of a van with her mum, and it’s fair to say that this didn’t go down too well. Well, Rose asked Nicola if it had been worth “severing ties,” she replied: “I didn’t have a choice, did I? Actually, yeah, I think so, I’ve built myself a life, and I’m doing just fine without you in it.”
An enraged Rose commented: “Sounds like it, Teddy in prison for killing a drug dealer, Barney the product of a roll around with your personal trainer, oh yeah, Gemma told me all about it, what’s next? Living with a man fast approaching as many wives as Henry the 8th. And poor Harry, an addict.”
Nicola, clearly angered by her mother, hit back, explaining that the last time they spent “extended time” together was Christmas in 2009, when she was subjected to “sly digs, constantly needling,” and Rose “trying to get a reaction.”
But fans now believe that Nicola’s relationship with her mum could be down to a horrible twist. Despite viewers being told that Teddy is Harry’s dad, they now believe Nicola’s own father could be the dad of her eldest son.
Nicola has spoken openly about her dad being abusive after consuming alcohol, often leaving her fearing for the worst when he would return home.
One fan said: “I actually think it’s the start of something really dark. I instantly noticed just how much Harry looked like Nicola, and then I thought… Is it going to be some really horrible story that ends up revealing she was abused by her dad?”
They continued: “And that her mother couldn’t deal with that, and that’s why there’s been this great big falling out? Wouldn’t put it past them to do something like that. Kind of a new spin on the Kat/Zoe/Uncle Harry thing, I guess.”
Another said: “Harry is defo Nicola’s Son/ brother. He’s a product of her Dad.” While a third went on to write: “It was explained why Nicola hates her dad because she caught him beating her mum, and wishing him dead, her mum has held his death against her all these years.”
Tina Peters, who served prison time for tampering with voting machines on behalf of the MAGA movement, has declined a job offer helping to oversee elections in a conservative Northern California county.
“She declined the offer because she’s running around the country right now trying to secure the elections,” Clint Curtis, the Shasta County registrar of voters, said in an interview Tuesday. “Shasta County lost out.”
Last month, Curtis set off alarm bells across California by telling reporters he planned to hire Peters, a former county clerk in Colorado who was released early from prison this summer amid a pressure campaign by President Trump.
Curtis, himself a longtime election denier, told The Times he had planned to hire Peters as a consultant “to assist with supervision of the November election.”
Peters’ attorney, Peter Ticktin, said in an interview Tuesday that she had given serious consideration to the job offer but that he had not discussed it with her in recent days. It would “not have been a full-time position,” because she is so busy, he said.
“There’s far more for her to do than get tied up in one county,” Ticktin said. “At this point, she is an American icon. I mean, think about it: How many people meet with the president of the United States in the Oval Office?”
In California, talk of hiring Peters drew swift condemnation from Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democratic lawmakers who vowed to fight her employment.
The public observation area installed at the Shasta County elections office in Redding by Clint Curtis, the registrar of voters.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
On Monday, Newsom wrote in a sarcastic post on X: “A convicted MAGA election tamperer working in an elections office. What could possibly go wrong?”
He added, in all caps: “TINA, NOT IN CALIFORNIA! ELECTION DENIER FELONS NOT WELCOME HERE!!!”
In a separate social media post, the governor’s press office called the job offer “a disgrace” and said Newsom had directed corrections officials to “make every effort” to reject transfer of her parole supervision into the state.
Peters is not supposed to leave Colorado without permission from her parole officer, although she did visit Trump at the White House.
Curtis called the governor “crazy” and said he was amused that Newsom — who has advocated for prison reform and rehabilitation for criminals — was focused on Peters’ felony conviction.
“California is kind of a second-chance state,” Curtis said. “Except for Tina Peters. No second chance for her in Shasta County.”
Peters, the former clerk in Mesa County, Colo., was convicted in 2024 and sentenced to nine years behind bars for breaching her county’s voting machines as part of a scheme to show that the 2020 election was rigged against Trump, a claim that has been repeatedly debunked in court.
She was found guilty of helping an associate of MAGA conspiracy theorist and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell gain unauthorized access to Mesa County’s Dominion election equipment in 2021 and make copies of its hard drive before and after a software upgrade.
In interviews with right-wing media, Curtis said Peters essentially would do the job of assistant registrar but would be brought on as a consultant to get around the county’s slow hiring process.
Brent Turner, the Shasta County assistant registrar, said his job was not open because he had not quit. He told The Times on Tuesday that he was happy Peters had declined his boss’ offer.
Shasta County Registrar Clint Curtis stands in the election counting area on Feb. 25 in Redding.
(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)
“I’m glad that Gavin is paying attention,” said Turner, a Democrat from San Francisco and a longtime election reform activist who has pushed for non-proprietary open-source voting systems with software code that can be examined by anyone.
Curtis handpicked Turner as his assistant last year.
Last month, Curtis told the hosts of “Jefferson State of Mine,” a radio show by leaders of the State of Jefferson secession movement, that Turner “got sick on me” and that he was hoping his assistant would “just, like, retire on June 2 and go away and let me fill [the position], but he didn’t.”
Turner, who is on medical leave, said he had not given Curtis permission to speak publicly about his health and that he had not spoken to his boss since Curtis began talking about hiring Peters.
“It’s been aggravating and unfortunate,” Turner said. “But we’re undaunted, as election officials and workers. And the fact is, there’s work to be done now, so the sooner we put this behind us, the better.”
Curtis was appointed by the Shasta County Board of Supervisors last year after two previous registrars resigned. He will be out of office in January after losing the June primary to Joanna Francescut, a longtime assistant registrar whom he had fired.
Curtis has sequestered primary ballots in a room in the elections office in Redding, sealing the doors with locks and duct tape and telling reporters that the ballots did not look, feel or smell right.
Both Curtis and county officials — who have condemned his actions — have asked the FBI and other authorities to investigate.
Anyone wondering what look fashion-forward tennis star Naomi Osaka would sport at the U.S. Open this year received “The Answer” on Monday night at Flushing Meadows in New York.
That is, her look was very much inspired by basketball icon Allen Iverson, complete with cornrows, a headband and arm sleeves.
After her 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3) first-round victory over Anastasia Zakharova, Osaka said she decided to pay homage to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer and his signature style after her apparel sponsor chose basketball as its U.S. Open theme.
“It’s my, I guess, my tribute to Iverson. I really like him a lot,” Osaka said during an on-court interview. “I mean, Nike said basketball, so I said, ‘OK, you want basketball, I’ll give you basketball.’”
Osaka took the court wearing a long, hooded gown — possibly inspired by Iverson’s hoodies and baggy clothes from back in the day — with newspaper clippings about her attached to it. She first took off the hood to reveal her hair and headband, then removed the gown to play in a black tank top and metallic tennis skirt.
Naomi Osaka arrives to compete against Anastasia Zakharova during the first round of the U.S. Open on Monday in New York.
(Adam Hunger / Ap Photo/adam Hunger)
Naomi Osaka reacts to winning the first set against Anastasia Zakharova on Monday at the U.S. Open.
(Adam Hunger / Associated Press)
The two-time U.S. Open champion also gave a nod to the 11-time NBA All-Star during her media day news conference Saturday by wearing a T-shirt that featured the longtime Philadelphia 76ers star’s 1999 Slam magazine cover.
“For me, he’s a trailblazer,” Osaka said when asked about the shirt. “He’s also someone that I look up to a lot, because he’s done a lot in fashion, whether it’s on purpose or not, but he’s shifted the way that NBA players dress. And I also think the whole conversation around clothes in sports, and also just expressing yourself through style, I feel like he’s someone that I look up to in that regard.”
Philadelphia 76ers’ Allen Iverson plays against the Boston Celtics pn March 8, 2006.
(Winslow Townson / Associated Press)
With his hair, tattoos, jewelry and clothes, Iverson gained his reputation as an NBA fashion trailblazer during his playing career from 1996-2010 — so much so that in 2005, when then-commissioner David Stern instituted a stricter dress code for players arriving to games, many felt it was in response to Iverson’s look.
“I took the ass whooping for it, but the dress code thing I actually was just — I was 21,” Iverson said on “The Breakfast Club” last year. “Where am I going after the game? I’m going to the club. Before that, they were used to dudes wearing suits, and I was like, damn. I’ve never worn a suit growing up — going to church or to a funeral was the only time I put on a suit … and the courtroom. I never wore a suit to the gym to play, to the park.”
On Saturday, Osaka said she had never communicated with Iverson — “but hopefully he’ll see this,” she added.
Turns out, he did. Iverson posted a photo of Osaka in the shirt featuring his image and a clip of her comments about him Monday on Instagram.
“Wow, what a honor!!” Iverson wrote. “BIG FAN can’t wait to meet you. @naomiosaka”
Clash with Pennsylvania comes as US records highest number of measles cases in decades.
The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has removed two measles-associated deaths reported by the US state of Pennsylvania from the federal government’s national tally, in a move directed by the agency’s director, according to US media.
The move comes as the US records its highest number of measles cases in 35 years, and as concerns have grown of the administration of US President Donald Trump’s response to the outbreak.
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Erica Schwartz, who was sworn in as CDC director in August, ordered the deaths to be excluded from the agency’s weekly measles update, according to current and former officials quoted by several US media organisations, including the New York Times.
The CDC had initially added the two cases to the website tracking national measles deaths, but later removed them, posting a notice saying it was reviewing additional information about the cases.
“At this time, available information does not establish whether measles caused or contributed to the deaths or whether the individuals died from other causes while infected with measles,” the CDC website read on Tuesday.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced on August 25 that two unvaccinated Lancaster County residents had died in cases it classified as “measles-associated”. They were the state’s first such deaths in 35 years.
“My deepest sympathies are with the loved ones who are facing this unimaginable loss,” Pennsylvania Health Secretary Debra Bogen said in a statement following the announcement.
“As a physician, I want to make sure that people understand that the MMR vaccine is safe and provides the best protection we have against measles.”
Questions over health policy
The CDC’s change comes after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a prominent vaccine sceptic ahead of his appointment to the role, publicly questioned Pennsylvania’s cases last week.
In a post on X, Kennedy said the announcement “may even have been altogether fabricated by one of the Governor’s hopeful staffers”.
During a Fox News town hall on Saturday, Kennedy said he wanted Health and Human Services, a federal agency, to redirect resources to chronic disease and deaths linked to foodborne illness and away from infectious disease.
“Demagogue politicians are constantly trying to scare us about infectious disease, and we take the attention away from the chronic disease that is being caused … by big food companies, by big pharmaceutical companies,” Kennedy said on Fox News.
The CDC’s decision has raised concerns over whether the Trump administration will accelerate second-guessing state public health determinations.
Pennsylvania has disputed the federal account of what information was provided to the CDC, saying the deaths were reported to the agency’s measles response team and that state epidemiologists thoroughly investigated both cases.
Health experts have questioned several of the Trump administration’s health policies since the president took office for his second term in January 2025.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order aiming to roll back recommended childhood immunizations and split the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate doses, falsely suggesting that the combined vaccine can be lethal.
Several top medical organisations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), have said spacing out the doses can create unneeded barriers to vaccines. That can in turn increase the number of unvaccinated children.
Syria has suffered its worst bloodshed since Bashar Al-Assad was ousted in December, with more than 1,000 people reported killed in violence that has swept the coastal region of the country since Thursday. The violence has pitted the Islamist-led government’s security forces against fighters from Assad’s Alawite minority.
The dead include hundreds of Alawite civilians, whom the a British-based organisation that reports on the conflict, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported were killed in reprisals after attacks on security forces.
What has driven the violence; how has interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa reacted; and what have world powers said?
The violence began to spiral on Thursday, when the authorities said that their forces in the coastal region came under attack from fighters aligned with the ousted Assad regime. The interim government poured reinforcements into the area, which is heavily populated by Alawites, to crush what it described as a deadly, well-planned and premeditated assault by remnants of the previous regime.
As government reinforcements deployed, mosques in regions loyal to the new administration began calling on people to wage jihad, or holy struggle, in support of security forces.
By Friday afternoon, reports began emerging of scores of civilians being killed in sectarian reprisals in Alawite towns and villages. As of Sunday evening, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 973 civilians were killed in reprisal attacks carried out by government forces or fighters aligned with them. More than 250 Alawite fighters were killed and more than 230 members of government security forces were also killed, it added. Reuters has not been able to independently verify the tolls.
The Alawites are the second-largest religious group in Syria after Sunni Muslims. Their faith is an offshoot of Shia Islam. The Assad regime recruited heavily from the Alawite community for its army and security apparatus, which was notorious for its brutality during more than five decades of the family’s rule.
This put many Alawites on the front lines of the civil war that erupted out of protests against Assad’s rule in 2011. The conflict took on a sectarian dimension as Sunni Muslim rebel groups sought to topple the Assad government which was backed by Shia Iran, Lebanon’s Shia Hezbollah movement and others.
Al-Sharaa led the most powerful Sunni group fighting Assad. Known as the Nusra Front, the group was part of Al-Qaeda until he severed ties with the jihadist network in 2016 and renamed his organisation. In a 2015 interview with Al Jazeera, Al-Sharaa described the Alawites as part of a sect that “moved outside the religion of God and of Islam” and urged them to renounce Assad and change their beliefs to remain safe.
Since Assad was ousted, the interim president has pledged to run Syria in an inclusive way. But while he has publicly engaged Kurds, Christians and Druze, there have been no declared meetings between him and senior Alawite figures. Many Alawites say that they suffered like other Syrians under the rule of Assad and his father, both of whom came from the sect.
Prior to Thursday’s escalation, Alawite activists had reported violence and attacks on their community following Assad’s ouster, particularly in rural Homs and Latakia.
In a speech on Sunday, Al-Sharaa said that remnants of the Assad government, supported by external parties, were seeking to create strife and drag Syria back into civil war with the aim of dividing it. He promised to form a fact-finding committee and said its findings would be made public, vowing to bring to account anyone involved “in the bloodshed of civilians” or mistreating them.
He has also announced the formation of a committee aimed at preserving civil peace, which would be tasked with communicating with the people on the coast and providing them with the support they needed to guarantee their protection.
The violence has prompted international alarm.
The United States, which imposes sanctions on Damascus, urged the Syrian authorities to hold accountable the “radical Islamist terrorists” [sic] that had killed people in Syria and said it stood with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said on social media that atrocities committed against the Alawites showed that Al-Sharaa had revealed his “true face” as a jihadist.
However, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, allies of Damascus, both signalled their backing for the interim administration as violence was escalating last week. Riyadh condemned “crimes being undertaken by outlaw groups” in Syria and their targeting of security forces.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, whose country has forces on the ground in north-west Syria, has urged calm and said unnamed foreign elements were partly to blame.
Iran, which backed Assad through the war, has warned that the violence in Syria could cause regional instability.
Olivia Attwood The Price of Perfection has returned for a brand new season
Olivia Attwood The Price of Perfection has returned for its third series (Image: Optomen/ITV )
Former Love Island star Olivia Attwood has been left horrified after a worrying health discovery when travelling the world.
Olivia Attwood: The Price of Perfection is a documentary series following the reality TV star who explores the UK’s obsession with cosmetic treatments, beauty standards and body modifications.
It has since returned to ITV2 for its third series, with brand new episodes being released every Tuesday at 9pm. Episodes are also available to stream on ITVX, with a new instalment dropping today (September 1).
Tonight’s episode marks the fifth in the series and follows Olivia as she travels to Seoul, South Korea as she joins those who are drawn to the K-beauty standards. K (Korean) beauty is a term for skincare, cosmetics, and beauty practices that originate from South Korea, which includes treatments that Olivia dubs “out of this world“.
The former Love Island star is also seen getting treatment herself, but it wasn’t long before she was horrified by what she saw. Just minutes in tonight’s episode, Olivia is seen getting a scalp analysis, showing what her scalp looks like up close. However, she was unimpressed by what she saw.
After seeing her hair follicles on screen, the star squealed in disgust as she said: “Ew. That is minging.” Covering her face with her hands, Olivia then heard a breakdown of what was seen on screen.
Describing her “thin hair”, Olivia was told she has “hair loss” issues meaning if left, things could become worse. She asked: “So my hair is going to fall out?” before looking at the camera in shock.
Seung Pyo, global manager, told the star she needed more nutrients for her hair to grow thicker and healthier. Olivia replied: “Yeah, I need help. Clearly. I am so ready, I’ve never been more ready for anything in my life.”
Getting her treatment, Olivia is then seen chatting to Brits who have lived in South Korea for five years as they opened up on the beauty treatments available.
Later in the episode, the star was seen “recovering from another surprise” after she was informed of excess body fat and other treatments on offer.
Season 3 of The Price of Perfection is now streaming on ITVX, and the just-aired fifth episode explores the cosmetic treatments that even celebrities have received. A synopsis for the instalment teases: “Olivia travels to Seoul, South Korea – the home of K-Beauty. She joins Brits who are drawn to their beauty standards, and gets treatments herself.”
However, ITVX issued strong guidance alongside the episode which reads: “With strong language from the start and graphic scenes of surgery.”
Olivia Attwood: The Price of Perfection is available to stream on ITVX
TORONTO — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told the Trump administration Tuesday to “stop doing memes, stop throwing shade and stop trying to be tough,” as he pushed back against a fresh wave of attacks from Washington.
Carney said U.S.-Canada trade talks could resume if Washington became serious about negotiations, but he also accused the United States of pursuing terms that he said could leave Canadian industries “gradually wound down in Canada and wiped out.”
“When the Americans stop doing memes, stop throwing shade and stop trying to be tough, and start being serious about having those discussions, we can have those discussions,” Carney said. “It’s not constructive, but that’s their democracy.”
His comments came after a new barrage from Washington since trade talks collapsed Aug. 21, including Trump’s move to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America” and social media posts taunting Canada. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said Canada could not go “tit for tat” with a U.S. economy 13 times larger, while U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth mocked female Canadian cadets online.
Hegseth on Monday posted an image from a cadet training center in British Columbia showing two young women in uniform, adding “this is real” alongside a Canadian flag. Carney called the post “beneath their office.”
The Pentagon stood by it Tuesday, with deputy press secretary Jacob Bliss saying, “The X post speaks for itself.”
Carney said the U.S. approach in the talks would have left Canadian industries effectively as subsidiaries of American companies or imposed terms under which they would be “gradually wound down in Canada and wiped out.”
“We’re not going to — of course, we’re not going to accept those terms,” Carney said.
Carney said Washington sought an “uncompetitive” deal for key industries, including autos, while pushing changes affecting French-language and cultural protections. He said any of those issues was enough to block an agreement.
Carney said Washington also sought limits on Canada’s future trade deals. “Canada is a sovereign state. We will strike free trade deals with the countries we wish to strike free trade deals,” he said.
Carney was also buoyed by Monday’s Liberal sweep of three special elections, including a decisive win in Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, Quebec, where the Conservatives fell to third place.
The victories brought the Liberals to 173 seats in the 343-seat House of Commons and reinforced Carney’s position as he confronts Trump over trade and Canadian sovereignty.
Nelson Wiseman, a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Toronto, said Trump’s annexation threats carry particular weight in Quebec. “Quebecers have the most to lose in an apocalyptic scenario where the U.S. absorbs Canada, and the status of the French language disappears,” he said.
U.S.-Canada trade talks collapsed after the two sides failed to reach a deal, and Trump imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion in Canadian goods. Canada responded with plans for tariffs on U.S. products.
Trump has repeatedly talked about making Canada the 51st state.
Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights was built on an outsize reputation. Jump scares, dudes with chainsaws, fake blood and adult drinks accentuated with gummy worms.
Some of these staples haven’t changed. Jump scares aren’t going anywhere, and at a behind-the-scenes walk-through of this year’s haunted houses, dozens of mannequins laid splayed across floors with baggies of custom-made faux blood ready to be drizzled on them before showtime.
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But a Halloween Horror Nights evolution, one that began in 2019 with the arrival of Jordan Peele’s “Us,” has been underway. Today, haunted mazes are works of mini theater, one where scares are drawn out and choreographed. A single room may feature as many as six actors, and now, for the first time, professional stunt performers. Driving this change is the content, the films that inspire the tone of Halloween Horror Nights. And this year, two of the showcase properties are Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” and Curry Barker’s “Obsession.”
“This is a different time, and we try to live on the edge of that,” says longtime Halloween Horror Nights mastermind John Murdy, talking about modern horror films. “When we started, we were Freddy, Jason, Leatherface and Michael Myers. It was all slashers.”
A foreboding scene from the “Sinners” haunted house at Universal Studios Hollywood.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
“Sinners” demanded a different approach. Yes, it’s a vampire movie, but it’s so much more.
In a shift for Halloween Horror Nights, the “Sinners” maze will begin with an extended pre-show, meaning about 90 seconds of a lip-synced concert designed to re-create the film’s centerpiece performance of Miles Caton’s “I Lied to You.” Halloween Horror Nights actors will, of course, play a version of Caton’s Sammie strumming a guitar, but as the scene continues other musicians will materialize behind scrim scenes — a DJ, an electric guitarist — to heighten the film’s themes of the timelessness and spirituality of music.
“Music was such a huge part of ‘Sinners,’ so when we were sitting down to figure out what we wanted to do, we knew we had to rethink how we do stuff,” Murdy says. “It starts with storytelling.”
Murdy and the Halloween Horror Nights team wanted to attempt to re-create the thrill of that scene, when “I Lied to You” bridges cultures and conjures artists from different eras. It’s designed to be a celebratory moment before mayhem descends. Consider it an attempt to capture, if even for a moment, the complexity of “Sinners” in a walk-through attraction, one guests will ultimately spend just a few minutes in.
“What I thought Ryan did so brilliantly in ‘Sinners’ is he took vampire mythology and combined with the devil-at-the-crossroads story, the Robert Johnson story, and then brought in the Jim Crow South,” Murdy says.
A burnt vampire as part of the “Sinners” haunted house at Halloween Horror Nights.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
Murdy concedes, of course, Halloween Horror Nights can only glance at some of the film’s deeper meaning. Ultimately, the goal is to thrill guests. So don’t expect, for instance, a metaphor or a statement on racism, and how prejudice continues to fuel, rule and terrorize culture.
“That’s Ryan’s job in the film,” Murdy says. “Our job is to represent the film as closely as possible. We’re not trying to extrapolate on the film. This was pretty strictly an interpretation of the film. Ryan is the authority.”
‘Sinners’ brings ‘a whole new technology’ to Halloween Horror Nights
But do expect a maze that exploits the park’s movie magic history. Tapping the stunt performers behind the “WaterWorld” special effects show, “Sinners” will boast a scene in which an actor playing the vampire Remmick will descend from the ceiling to fright guests. And making the eyes of the vampires glow red was no easy feat. The film utilized specially made metallic contact lenses, which wouldn’t work at Halloween Horror Nights due to the limited amount of time performers can wear them. Instead, the park’s makeup team constructed prosthetic eyelashes that hide a rice-sized LED light that hangs in front of the performer’s eyes.
“We did a bunch of mock-ups and tests and eventually got the green light,” Murdy says. “We’re doing a whole new technology that we’ve never done before, just to pay that off.”
John Murdy, left, who leads the creative direction of Universal Studios Hollywood’s Halloween Horror Nights, poses for a photo with a young fan who goes by the name “Christian the Ghostbuster.”
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
For those who worked on the film, Halloween Horror Nights is an opportunity to keep “Sinners” in the cultural zeitgeist, while hopefully inspiring some guests to dig a little deeper, says Sev Ohanian, a producer of the film and a founder, along with Coogler and his wife and producer, Zinzi, of Proximity Media.
“We want to make event-driven movies that bring audiences in close proximity to often overlooked subjects,” Ohanian says. “But at its core, it features subject matter that maybe a lot of folks don’t have all that much familiarity with.”
A skeleton mariachi band on the set of the Killceañera haunted house at Universal Studios Hollywood.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
“That’s the magic of this experience,” Ohanian continues. “Maybe somebody has never seen ‘Sinners’ and they go through this fun spectacle attraction and are exposed to really beautiful blues music and they get to see the artistry of that era of a certain group of people.”
Experimenting with narrative will continue across a number of Halloween Horror Nights houses. Killceañera, which turns a quinceañera into an event in which a teen takes revenge on her bullies, will feature an outdoor performer lip-syncing a song co-written by Murdy and Slash from a balcony. Ozzy Osbourne: Prince of Darkness will intermix the iconography of Osbourne’s solo music with religious undertones, culminating with a giant animatronic bat biting the head off of Osbourne in werewolf form.
The ‘Obsession’ approach
And then there’s “Obsession.” The film was released too late for a large-scale Halloween Horror Nights attraction, but the event will feature an actor dressed as Inde Navarrette’s Nikki walking the grounds. Murdy describes it as a “Where’s Waldo?” moment, as Nikki will be largely incognito and hidden throughout the park, her whereabouts teased nightly via Instagram. Nikki will be seeking a password, also hinted via social media, that will change nightly, from guests.
The first 100 who find Nikki and speak the correct password will be given a business card for the One Wish Willow agency from the film. I do worry slightly about this approach, as, while costumes are not allowed, Nikki could inspire some cosplay at the event, which would open non-scare actors to being approached throughout the evening. But the hope is to bring a more interactive element to Halloween Horror Nights, one that can invite a deeper interaction with character actors.
A look inside the Ozzy Osbourne-themed haunted house at Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights.
(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)
“We’re not going to tell you exactly where she’s going to be,” Murdy says. “Your job is try to find her and give her the password and you might get a wish in return.”
Bringing “Obsession” into the event did raise some eyebrows. While Murdy notes that Barker is supportive of the approach and collaborating with the team, it was questioned whether a character many see as a target of assault and manipulation would make an appropriate scare actor. Murdy has heard such protests.
“So is Regan in ‘The Exorcist,’” says Murdy, referring to the young victim of the classic horror story.
Audiences still, of course, want to see their favorite characters represented in real life. And Murdy wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to have one of the year’s most buzzed-about horror films at the event. “It blew me away,” he says of “Obsession.” “I was like, ‘Wow.’”
This week in SoCal theme parks
An examination of coaster intensity. On a more serious note, Magic Mountain’s X2 remains shut down while state safety officials continue an investigation involving the attraction. The ride, first opened in 2002 as X, has been the subject of controversy and at least one high-profile lawsuit stemming from a 22-year-old man’s death. Six Flags bills the ride as “a right of passage for the ultimate daredevil” that goes up to 76 mph. A CNN report recently took a look at other, more recent injuries allegedly stemming from the attraction.
What to eat at Halloween Horror Nights. The Times’ Nava Rawls has a look at new food items coming to Halloween Horror Nights this week. Are you brave enough to eat a 22-inch beef hot dog covered in cheese sauce, coleslaw, sriracha aioli, banana peppers and Hot Cheetos inspired by the video game “Fortnite”?
A Marvel legend, honored. Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure has added a memorial honoring legendary comic artist/creator Jack Kirby. The plaque can be found at the main entrance near the land just past Carthay Circle, and sits opposite a similar plaque recognizing Stan Lee.
Event report
A scene from Oogie Boogie Bash’s Haunted Mansion-inspired street parade.
(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)
Disney California Adventure’s Oogie Boogie Bash has been underway since mid-August. It’s a popular event, and excellent for families with little ones, as the emphasis is on character interactions and candy rather than scares. I do, however, wish it offered a bit more variety from year to year.
New this year is a Haunted Mansion-inspired street party, which takes the place of the event’s full-scale parade, which is currently on hold due to construction of the new “Coco” attraction. It’s short, but lively, offering a couple of Mansion floats from the parade as well of dozens of dancers. The party stops at various points along the route for a mini dance presentation, and if you’re seated in one of these locales, it’s a better experience. Or else it’s just a too-mini parade. I wondered if a night-long party in the Hollywood Land section of the park would have been a better way to go, even if it meant losing one of the candy giveaway spots.
As someone who isn’t a character person, the centerpiece for me is Villains Grove, which takes over the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail with projections and effects that nod to various evil characters. Seeing ominous vines twist to life on towering trees, or watching the Cheshire Cat materialize through the woodland setting, is always a delight. But, sadly, Villains Grove hasn’t changed much since 2019, and it’s time for Disney to rethink the space. I miss, too, the days when Oogie Boogie Bash had its own spooky World of Color show. As it stands, I just wonder if there are enough attractions if you’re not interested in character hunting.
Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter.
Ride on,
Todd Martens
P.S.
Fast and Furious: Hollywood Drift will officially open on Sept. 16.
(Todd Martens / Los Angeles Times)
Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift at last gets a proper opening date. Universal Studios’ high-speed thrill ride, which has been operating in technical rehearsals since late July, will open on Sept. 16. By giving the ride an official opening date, the theme park is announcing that the attraction is ready for daily operations.
Curious to ride? Don’t miss my rundown of everything you need to know before you head to the park. Looking for a review? I have that too. Want to know about the 10-year journey to bring the attraction to park? Read this. And if you’ve heard about some drama involving the park’s neighbors in Toluca Lake, this story will catch you up.
