Month: September 2026

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Monday that Ukraine and Russia had agreed not to target each other’s energy facilities, a day after he chastised Kyiv for hitting Russian oil refineries.

“Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise!” Trump said on his Truth Social network.

“The World’s Diesel price rise is mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran.”

There was no immediate confirmation from Kyiv or Moscow of any deal.

Trump’s claim comes as oil prices continue to soar in the seventh month of the Iran war, raising American fuel costs and inflation just weeks before crunch US midterm elections.

The US leader has insisted that the Iran war will finish immediately after the midterms and gas prices will drop — but has in the meantime apparently found a new target to blame for the cost at the pump.

Trump had lashed out at Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky during a trip to Ireland on Sunday, saying he had to do “one thing” and “stop knocking out diesel fuel” refineries in Russia due to growing shortages.

“Let him go after targets, but not diesel fuel, because he’s causing a shortage of diesel,” Trump said, again insisting the Russia-Ukraine war — not the US-Israel conflict with Iran — was to blame.

Trump added he had spoken to Ukraine’s leader about the country’s stepped-up attacks on such sites over recent months.

“There are plenty of other targets. Don’t hit diesel fuel because that’s hurting. That’s hurting the world. We don’t want him to hit diesel fuel… He’s hitting diesel refineries.”

Ukraine has hit numerous Russian oil refineries far from its border with Russia, while Moscow has also intensified its long-range attacks in recent months, leading to a jump in civilian deaths.

Kyiv has been firing record numbers of drones at Russia, while Moscow has been launching all-time high missile attacks.

Trump said last week he had a “great conversation” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, insisting that Putin wanted to make a deal to end Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

Putin “is wanting to make a deal, and if Zelensky is wanting to make a deal, that’d be very nice,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

Zelensky said last week he would be willing to meet Putin at the G20 summit at Trump’s own Doral resort in Miami in December, but the Kremlin immediately ruled it out.

North Korea, enjoying support in the stands, were up 7-0 by half-time and are the favourites for the gold.

North Korea’s formidable women’s football team, cheered on by several hundred pro-Pyongyang fans in Osaka, Japan, launched their Asian Games campaign with a 10-0 hammering of Bangladesh.

The North Koreans have enjoyed stunning international success at the youth level and start among the favourites for gold in Japan.

They were far too hot for Bangladesh to handle and were seven goals ahead by half-time on Monday.

Striker Ri Song-a, who was born and raised in Japan, was in North Korea’s starting lineup and scored in the second half.

North Korea were cheered on by a large group of red-clad fans, who sang and chanted throughout the match.

The men’s and women’s football teams were welcomed by supporters waving flags as they arrived for the games last week wearing white blazers and pink ties.

More than 100 North Koreans are set to compete in 14 sports at the games, which take place in Nagoya-Aichi and officially open on September 19.

North Korea suspended participation in international sporting competitions during the COVID-19 pandemic, but returned at the Asian Games in China in 2023 and also took part in the Paris Olympics.

North Korea’s women face South Korea in a Group F grudge match on September 21.

The men’s team begin their campaign against China on Wednesday.

It’s never too late to run away and join the circus.

That’s a major theme of the Tony-nominated musical “Water for Elephants,” and living proof is on stage at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre an hour before the curtain rises on opening night. The show — about a traveling circus — boasts an ensemble with as many acrobats as actors, all of whom must warm up prior to performing. This nightly routine is a show in and of itself, with acrobats stretching, tumbling and throwing one another in the air. Another ensemble member is juggling nearby as someone spins in a giant hoop at an unnatural speed.

The night includes a special treat: The company is breaking in a new piece of equipment known as the Chinese pole, a nearly 20-foot-high cylinder the performers climb up, slide down and generally defy laws of gravity on. This pole won’t be used just yet — it arrives with a texture that can be slick or uneven, so the troupe must spend a couple weeks prepping it for better gripping and friction.

Adam Fullick, of the touring production of Broadway’s “Water for Elephants,” practices using a Cyr wheel on stage at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre.

(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)

There’s an almost comically blasé way in which the performers — who are used to such spectacles — go about their work an hour before thousands of audience members will gasp and clap at the same tricks. That’s not to mention the gorgeous puppetry work done by another set of performers as the play reveals a series of detailed circus animals.

“It’s really fun to hear the audience react to this show,” says Serafina Walker, an actor and acrobat in the ensemble who also serves as circus captain. “There’s a lot of moments that come as a surprise, you can definitely hear the audience reaction, and that is what fuels us on stage as performers.”

Walker got into competitive gymnastics at the age of 3, and at 13 she began working with a Vermont-based traveling youth circus called Circus Smirkus. She graduated from École Nationale de Cirque in Montreal a year ago and is now on her first musical tour. She is one of several performers who play the roles known collectively as “Kinker & Roust,” slang terms for acrobats/aerialists and “roustabouts,” a.k.a. circus laborers. It’s a deceptively simple title for a role that will soon have her spinning from hoops and being thrown high into the air — not to mention singing, dancing and acting alongside the ensemble.

Actor and acrobat Serafina Walker backstage at the Pantages.

(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)

Walker is one of many performers who has to blend specialty skills with traditional acting to form one flawless company. Co-choreographer Jesse Robb comes from a concert and theater background while his co-choreographer/circus designer Shana Carroll emerged from the circus world, having directed and choreographed for Cirque du Soleil. Carroll is also a co-founding artistic director of the acclaimed circus collective the 7 Fingers

“What makes the collaboration so special is that we don’t simply bring our separate perspectives to the table—we truly meld into each other in the work,” Robb says. “The boundaries between circus, Broadway, and concert language become fluid, and something new emerges from that intersection.”

Based on Sara Gruen’s 2006 novel, “Water for Elephants” tells the story of Jacob Jankowski, a 93-year-old man who reflects on his time in the 1930s with a traveling circus. As a young veterinarian student, Jacob loses his parents in a tragic accident and jumps a moving train that just happens to belong to the Benzini Bros. Circus. He is hired by the owner and ringmaster August Rosenbluth, but complications ensue when Jacob falls for August’s wife, Marlena, as they work together to train a stubborn elephant named Rosie for their star act.

Helen Krushinski and Zachary Keller perform in the touring production of “Water for Elephants” at the Pantages, which has as many acrobats as it does actors in its ensemble.

(Matthew Murphy)

The story was previously adapted into a 2011 film before being reworked as a musical with music and lyrics by PigPen Theatre Company, a book by Rick Elice and directed by Jessica Stone. After an Atlanta run in 2023, “Water for Elephants” hit Broadway in March 2024, where it earned seven Tony nominations, including best musical. The first national tour is in Los Angeles through Sept. 27 before playing the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa Nov. 10-22.

Also displaying massive versatility is Summer Severin, who, in addition to being an ensemble swing member, serves as dance captain and understudies the role of Marlena. While Severin had an extensive background in acting, singing and dancing, she has found herself learning skills she never imagined, from standing on people’s shoulders to aerial work.

Dance captain and ensemble swing member Summer Severin in her Pantages dressing room.

(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)

“I’ve never trained in acrobatics or circus or anything,” says Severin, who had to learn a trapeze act for her part as Marlena. Severin says she came in “completely raw” and took four weeks to learn the routine. And while one might think her background in movement helped, she says it actually provided a challenge. “That was the most difficult thing to learn because, as a dancer, you have such a relationship to the floor and you have to dance with an apparatus that doesn’t quite move with you.”

Fortunately, Severin says everyone has been more than generous with their time and knowledge. “Circus performers are not gatekeepers in any way,” she notes. “They want to share what they love with everyone else, and it’s completely mutual. All of the different worlds [this show] bridges, it’s infectious.”

Co-choreographer Robb gives much of the credit for cast synchronicity and camaraderie to the director. “Our fearless leader, Jessica Stone, always believed that ‘Water for Elephants’ should feel like one company,” he says. “Everyone needed to feel like they were part of the same circus troupe traveling across the country. There weren’t separate camps of actors, circus artists, dancers, musicians, puppeteers or singers. ”

Tyler West juggles on stage ahead of the production.

(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)

This philosophy also extended to his collaboration with Carroll. Though they had both worked with Cirque du Soleil, the two had never met when they entered into what he jokingly calls “an arranged marriage.” Fortunately, it worked. “We were constantly looking for the place where our disciplines could overlap and strengthen one another. The whole production became an exercise in that same idea: Take what you know, learn what you don’t, and trust the people around you enough to try something new.”

It’s one of the reasons the performers say they always feel safe, despite some of the death-defying acts seen on stage. While Walker admits two-show days can be tiring and she spends a lot of time concentrating on “energy conservation,” the performance itself is a joy.

Severin agrees, “There’s never really scary moments,” she says. “You know somebody’s going to catch you. I trust all of these people with my life, every day. It’s built into the choreography. It’s built into the nature of the show.”

Published on
14/09/2026 – 16:42 GMT+2

EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič will visit Manila next week to finalise a trade agreement with the Philippines, the European Commission confirmed to Euronews on Monday.

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The agreement is nearing conclusion as Brussels has increasingly looked to the Asia-Pacific over the past year to diversify its trade ties.

Since the return to power of US President Donald Trump, the global trade order has been shifting, with the EU seeking new markets for its exports.

The latest round of EU-Philippines trade talks took place in May, with access to public procurement emerging as the final sticking point. An agreement would mark a shift for the Philippines, which has so far kept public contracts closed to foreign bidders.

The Commission told MEPs earlier this month that the rest of the agreement was ready. The aim is to lift trade barriers between both partners in most sectors.

An official from the EU executive also told MEPs that sanitary and phytosanitary rules for food products were “ambitious”, alongside automotive standards that would improve EU manufacturers’ access to the Philippine market. The official added that the EU and the Philippines were “complementary” in both industrial goods and agriculture.

The deal is an important one for Manila, which has been hit by US tariffs in 2025 and by the war in Iran, which heavily impacted energy prices in the country.

However, the Philippines also reached “upper-middle-income country” status in August, granted by the World Bank, which makes it a promising market — “One of the most dynamic economies in the East Asia Pacific region since 2010,” the World Bank said.

Bilateral trade in goods between the EU and the Philippines amounted to €16.8 billion in 2024. That same year, the EU was the Philippines’ fourth-largest trading partner, accounting for 7% of the country’s total trade in goods, while the Philippines was the EU’s 39th-largest trading partner, accounting for 0.3% of the EU’s total trade in goods.

After the Philippines, the Commission aims to conclude talks with Thailand, making 2026 a strong year for EU trade deals across Asia and the Pacific, with agreements already reached with Australia and India.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom does not like being on Donald Trump’s side on any issue.

But when it comes to transgender girls and women in sports, particularly at the school level, the Democrat said he largely agrees with the Republican president. Newsom, one of his party’s leading White House prospects, believes it’s “deeply unfair” for people who are assigned male at birth to compete against girls.

“I don’t want to be on that side of it, but I’m being honest — I’d be lying to you if I said differently,” Newsom told the Associated Press as he was campaigning recently in South Carolina. “I haven’t been able to figure out how to make it fair from my perspective.”

Newsom is not alone.

While most Democratic officials remain steadfast supporters of the transgender community, an increasing number in red and blue states are distancing themselves from their party’s unflinching support for the transgender community’s policy priorities, such as allowing athletes to compete on teams that match their gender identity. The shift follows years of conservative attacks against Democrats on the divisive issue, which affects a relatively small number of transgender people and their families, but has emerged as one of Republicans’ most potent political weapons in the Trump era.

Soul searching over transgender issues is one facet of a sprawling identity crisis that Democrats are confronting during the midterms and before the next presidential election. Although they risk a backlash from their progressive base, there is also a sense in some corners that the party must evolve on an issue where the overwhelming majority of voters — even many Democrats — agree with Trump.

The issue was a central theme for Trump and his Republican allies on the main stage at their midterm convention in Dallas last week, where the president said he hoped Democrats would continue to stand up for transgender girls and women who want to compete in girls’ and women’s sports.

“I’m petrified that they’ll change,” he said. “That will really hurt us.”

Republicans are already replaying some of the same political attacks that they used against Kamala Harris in the presidential campaign two years ago, when they said she’s “for they/them, not you.” On Friday, they released a new advertisement targeting James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas, with the same phrase.

Democrats confront difficult political terrain

A political group backed by billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk has begun running digital ads targeting Democrats in key Senate races in Texas, Ohio and Alaska, accusing them of allowing men to compete in women’s sports.

In Texas’ pivotal Senate contest, the new ad from Musk’s America PAC opens with a video clip of Talarico saying that “God is nonbinary.”

Talarico began to distance himself from those positions months ago. He went further in a Fox News interview last week, saying he would vote in favor of a national ban for gender-affirming surgeries for transgender minors, which are rare.

“I’ve missed the mark on some of my past statements. I will be the first to admit it,” Talarico said in an interview near the Republican convention site. “I think the reason that politicians in that convention center across the street want to talk about six sexes is because they don’t want to talk about $6 diesel.”

In Iowa, State Auditor Rob Sand, the Democratic Party’s nominee for governor, has spoken out against transgender athletes competing in women’s sports as a matter of fairness. Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton has taken a similar position, although she has drawn criticism from the left for adopting Trump’s language after saying she opposed “boys playing in girls’ sports.”

And in deep-blue Massachusetts, transgender rights became a defining campaign issue during the state’s recent Democratic U.S. Senate primary, illustrating the potential backlash that party members can face.

Sen. Ed Markey, 80, secured the nomination and later credited his win to not shying away from advocating for transgender rights. He used the issue to attack his Democratic opponent, Rep. Seth Moulton, who had said he wouldn’t want his daughters to play against transgender athletes.

Moulton apologized for his comments, which drew outrage from some progressives, but the damage was done.

While Moulton lost his primary, his position — not Markey’s — is in line with the majority of voters nationally.

A June poll from Quinnipiac University found that about 7 in 10 registered voters think that transgender women and girls should not be allowed to play on women’s and girls’ sports teams. About one-quarter think they should. Democrats are divided, with about half saying transgender women and girls should be allowed and about half saying they should not.

A Pew Research Center poll conducted last year found that just over half, 55%, of Democrats would be “not too” or “not at all” comfortable with athletes playing on teams that don’t match their sex at birth, while 21% said they were “somewhat” comfortable and only 23% said they were “extremely” or “very” comfortable with this.

There’s division among activists

Markey’s public commitment to transgender rights stood out because Democratic politicians are increasingly running away from the issue, said Tyler Hack, executive director of the Christopher Street Project, which is dedicated to electing supporters of transgender rights to federal office.

“The reality of being a transgender person in America in 2026 is that on election nights, while other folks are talking about who had a good night and who had a bad night, sometimes you are quietly wondering, ‘Am I going to be OK?’” Hack said.

At the same time, even transgender activists are divided over supporting Democrats who have positions that are unfriendly to transgender people.

Erin Reed, an advocate and independent journalist covering transgender issues, this month put out a guide flagging Democratic candidates who she accused of taking anti-transgender positions. She highlighted 15 states that have such Democrats, saying that she would not vote for the “worst offenders” even if it means a Republican wins.

She doesn’t want Democrats to see that “throwing transgender people under the bus is a winning strategy.”

“One seat can be won back,” Reed wrote. “A party cannot.”

Meanwhile, Hack would probably vote for a Democrat even if that candidate supports some policies the Christopher Street Project opposes, in hopes that the party can take control of Congress. However, those candidates shouldn’t expect the organization’s endorsement.

“While I hope many of them win, I think they can do it without our resources and without our support,” Hack said.

Laws are changing around the country

The political debate is evolving as transgender people increasingly become the target of conservative backlash through state laws and the Trump administration.

Sports participation has become one of the main fronts in a political battle over transgender rights, although most Republican-controlled states have also implemented policies that affect a bigger slice of the population. There are bans on some gender-affirming health care for transgender young people and rules against transgender people from using the bathrooms that match their gender identity in schools and occasionally other public places.

At least 25 states are now enforcing laws or policies banning transgender women and girls from competing in at least some women’s and girls’ sports and three others have adopted laws but have enforcement blocked by the courts.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld state laws barring transgender girls from school teams.

Transgender athletes make up a small portion of team rosters. NCAA president Charlie Baker testified in 2024 that he knew of fewer than 10 transgender college student-athletes out of more than 500,000 total.

The debate is a preview for 2028

The debate within the Democratic Party heading into the 2026 midterms offers a preview for those Democrats contemplating presidential bids in 2028.

Newsom, who is considered a frontrunner in the shadow primary, highlighted his long record of supporting LGBTQ+ priorities, including sanctioning same-sex marriage as the San Francisco mayor decades ago and later appointing the first trans judge in California history.

But in sports, he thinks it’s unfair to allow people assigned as males at birth to compete against girls.

“It’s a hard issue. I struggle with it,” Newsom said. “I think people know where my heart is, my soul is. I have a trans godson.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, another likely Democratic presidential contender, has taken the opposite position.

He has consistently criticized state-level bans and restrictions on transgender athletes, calling them “bullying” and a “setback for equality.” Following the recent Supreme Court ruling that upheld state bans on transgender athletes, Pritzker, whose cousin is transgender, reaffirmed his position on social media.

“There’s a place for you in Illinois,” he wrote.

In Pennsylvania, Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro opposes bans on transgender athletes in school sports, which he’s called cruel and designed to discriminate. He argues that athletic participation and eligibility should not be dictated by politicians, but rather handled by local athletic organizations — a stance in line with several LGBTQ+ groups.

He’s also raised questions of fairness, however.

“Look, I think it’s a tough deal being born into the wrong body. And I don’t think these kids deserve to be persecuted and bullied by the president of the United States,” Shapiro told The Atlantic last year. “I also don’t think they deserve an unfair advantage on the playing field.” Research has been mixed on whether transgender women have advantages in sports, and it depends partly on whether they went through puberty as boys.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is gay and a potential presidential contender, said on Fox earlier in the year that he takes people seriously on both sides of the debate “whether you’re talking about parents who are wondering what this means for fairness for their kids competing, or parents who want to make sure that their kids aren’t being discriminated against and get a chance to participate.”

“But I also have to tell you,” he added, “I would be surprised if this is a top three or even a top 10 voter issue in the midterms this year.” ___

Peoples and Mulvihill write for the Associated Press. AP writers Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, R.I., and Amelia Thomson DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.

America’s nuclear weapons deterrent and how it is controlled is increasingly critical in the face of the rapidly-expanding arsenals across multiple adversaries. A new fleet of E-4C nuclear-hardened survivable airborne operations center aircraft is now in development, as is the U.S. Navy E-130J, which will provide next-generation communications with nuclear ballistic missile submarines deep beneath the waves. Focus is also turning to a mission that’s dedicated to emergency communications with the U.S. nuclear forces in times of crisis, a role known as Operation Looking Glass, which is also poised for updating under a program dubbed Looking Glass-Next.

The comprehensive modernization of America’s nuclear strike muscle involves three major elements – new B-21 Raider stealth bombers, the LGM-35A Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program to replace Minuteman IIIs, and new Columbia-class nuclear ballistic missile submarines. A fourth facet that ties all these new elements, as well as existing ones, together is the next generation nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3) architecture. It securely connects nuclear weapons systems to decision-makers. Without it, America’s nuclear deterrent isn’t a deterrent at all.

America’s nuclear modernization is set against a backdrop of rapidly-developing nuclear strength across adversaries and pacing threats, which could threaten not only U.S. fighting forces, but also the existing aging NC3 infrastructure. This could impede the collective responsiveness and effectiveness of the American nuclear enterprise. For example, a coordinated attack on NC3 could degrade the National Command Authority chain, which could prevent communications that are necessary to conduct a retaliatory strike.

If fixed underground command posts are targeted and rendered inoperable, the current strategy would involve turning to a set of highly-survivable air assets that are designed to be on hand to execute emergency war orders. This includes the U.S. Air Force’s E-4B National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) “Nightwatch” aircraft, and the E-6B Mercury that is operated by the U.S. Navy.

A major recapitalization effort is already underway for the NAOC E-4Bs, which are being superseded under the E-4C Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC) contract. It is being led by defense contractor SNC. The new SAOC aircraft are based on the far more modern 747-8i, and are planned to have a much broader mission set than the four E-4B Nightwatch types they are set to replace, as you can read more about here.

The Navy’s E-6B Take Charge and Move Out (TACAMO) aircraft have a primary role of strategic connectivity with the ballistic missile submarine fleet. These converted 707s also execute another mission known as the Airborne National Command Post (ABNCP), more recently renamed “Looking Glass.” For this they are manned by U.S. Air Force missileers and U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) battle managers who are responsible for running the airborne nuclear NC3 systems.

The joint service team on Looking Glass mirrors some operations performed by USSTRATCOM’s underground command posts, and a small portion of what the NAOC executes. The Looking Glass mission is really focused on performing an airborne backup mission solely for USSTRATCOM to ensure another means of communicating with fielded nuclear bombers, their assigned tankers, ICBMs and deployed nuclear submarines. It is best known for its ability to supply airborne communications connectivity to the USAF’s ICBM force on the ground and can command remote launches of those weapons if necessary.

Additional NC3-related modernization is coming on the heels of SAOC, with the new E-130J set to assume the Navy’s TACAMO role from the ageing E-6Bs, assuming strategic connectivity for nuclear ballistic submarines. It means that at some point roughly two-thirds of the E-6 current mission will go to the new E-130J aircraft – raising the question of what will fulfill the critical Looking Glass mission.

Since the E-130J is not planned to take on the Looking Glass role, the USAF is in the early stages of what’s dubbed Looking Glass-Next (LG-N), which presents the future pathway for USSTRATCOM’s mobile contingency operations. This could take on a number of forms, including NC3 communications functions being increasingly moved to space-based assets and more distributed operations across the ground, although an air platform is still likely to form a major part of the overall capability.

The need to modernize America’s NC3

Brian Golden is a retired USAF colonel who intimately understands nuclear command and control (NC2) and the associated NC3 equipment and processes from both a service and industry perspective. As a subject matter expert for SNC, he draws on his extensive experience as a former E-4B NAOC commander and he commanded much of the USAF’s multi-domain NC3 systems, including the Airborne Launch Control System onboard the current E-6B Looking Glass. He is also extremely familiar with all the nation’s continuity of government and continuity of operations missions for both Congressional and executive branches of the U.S. government.

“Everyone referred to the nuclear triad as the platforms that were controlled through the NC3 architecture,” Golden told TWZ during a detailed discussion. “Those platforms received their messages and executed their missions. But this isn’t just about that platform triad. The U.S. nuclear enterprise has four primary pillars, and nuclear command, control, and communications is a critical part of it. Without a robust NC3 system, it’s like having a brand new Bugatti Veyron but without the keys! It looks awesome on the driveway, but you can’t drive it.”

Golden explains that the current NC3 enterprise consists of a series of exquisite systems that are extremely reliable, but that are in need of modernization to stay ahead of the steepening threat curve, and stay in front of supply chain constraints. “What we have currently is very reliable, robust, and very survivable, but it can be difficult to maintain some of our legacy systems. Additionally, as threats evolve we must ensure our communications pathways also evolve. 

“Our nation’s industrial base engineers figured out extremely robust methods of nuclear communications when these systems were fielded. Looking at the overall command and control [NC2], and then the NC3 communications pathways, any new systems that we introduce must be sustainable, scalable and modular.”

The U.S. nuclear enterprise is facing greater threats than ever with adversaries challenging U.S. nuclear infrastructure in multiple domains: space, cyber, ground, air. Because of this, NC3 demands a continuous process of improvement.

Going forward, the NC3 enterprise will likely need to integrate upgraded proven legacy systems with all-new technology. “Sometimes the physics of radio waves may dictate the need for a legacy approach with upgraded systems, such as communicating with a submarine that’s very deep in the ocean.”

Golden’s view is that NC3 requires a layered, open architecture approach as modernization is evaluated. “Applying those same physics and then adding new layers such as artificial intelligence may determine a better way of doing things.”

Upgrading to SAOC

Golden points to the SNC-led E-4C SAOC program as a clear example of critical NC3 modernization, while emphasizing that the NC2 mission is far from being the primary role of the E-4B and its forthcoming successor. “Nuclear command and control is only a fraction of what the current NAOC does and what the future SAOC will do for our nation and our allies and partners.”

The E-4B initially featured just a handful of communications systems, which have grown over time, leading to what Golden calls the “King Kong” of communication capabilities today. The E-4 is not a battlefield communications platform, its mantra is all about supporting Presidential-level requirements across the board. It does possess an extensive NC3 suite, but it also serves the White House Communications Agency (WHCA) and the Department of Homeland Security, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in many other crisis roles. Another mission the E-4B fleet performs is to safely transport the Secretary of War on trips within the United States and abroad.

The E-4B NAOC and Looking Glass are two complementary tiers of the same survivable architecture. The NAOC (and future SAOC) is designed to anchor national-level decision-making and government continuity from the very top, while Looking Glass provides USSTRATCOM with the dedicated airborne command and battle-management capacity required to direct forces. Both roles are critical and non-negotiable.

“The new E-4C SAOC, like the E-4B before it, will deliver an expansive communications suite and increased capacity supported by a larger fleet,” Golden explains. “SAOC is built to ensure the President and national leadership can direct the entire country through any crisis. Looking Glass supports an equally vital and highly specialized mission. It is dedicated to USSTRATCOM’s operational needs, connecting directly to bombers, ICBMs and submarines. Attempting to merge these unique missions on a single airframe would compromise the unique, essential role that each was created to perform.”

Looking Glass-Next

The Looking Glass role and the platform that fulfills it is not classified as a national-level mission. As Golden alluded to earlier, it’s not assigned to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs or to the Secretary of War. It’s exclusively assigned to USSTRATCOM; however, without the Looking Glass mission being upgraded soon, America has a gaping hole in its nuclear architecture.

The commander of USSTRATCOM is the customer and ultimately the decision-maker when it comes to Looking Glass-Next, and the USAF has been tasked by the Secretary of War to develop and field it. SNC is looking at several options for the requirement, with some sort of air platform at its core, which Golden refers to as an “E-6C.” He endorses that the current E-6B is one of the “cogs in the wheel that has to be replaced,” but adds that this doesn’t mean the next-generation Looking Glass is just an aircraft.

“At SNC, we have significant expertise and experience with mission system integration,” says Golden, adding that SNC is evaluating what he calls “aggressively creative options,” for the modernization requirement. He further noted that the modern threat is driving a requirement for Looking Glass-Next to be very difficult to target and must be dispersed.

“Having an aircraft as the only option for this USSTRATCOM mission is a legacy mindset,” Golden states. “We have advanced multi-domain capabilities, including numerous space capabilities available through the Sierra Space Corporation. Future mission resilience requires a creative and integrated approach.”

“We believe a creative approach to provide NC3 options will ensure a robust, reliable, survivable and cost-effective solution.”

Golden endorses this approach to creativity and development and indicated that SNC will continue to inform and respond to the ongoing Looking Glass-Next requests for information that may result in a future program.

“SNC has leaned heavily into the nuclear command, control, and communications architecture and it’s a natural fit for us, building on our work with the Department of War and our subcontractors on the E-4C SAOC. Our Looking Glass-Next responses and inputs will leverage relevant work and experience gained from SAOC, but we are also focused on being creative. We’re small enough to be agile, but big enough to deliver. That’s why we think we’re very well positioned in the NC3 space.”

The majority of SNC’s work on the E-4C SAOC is being completed at the NC3 Center of Excellence, housed in the Aviation Innovation and Technology Center (AITC) in Dayton, Ohio. 

Golden believes the timing couldn’t be better to deliver bold and creative NC3 solutions. “The USAF is already asking the right questions, and industry is really able to innovate, which will result in a transformational era for nuclear command, control and communications.”

Garth Brooks, Zach Top and Riley Green will headline 2027’s Stagecoach country music festival, organizers announced Monday, bringing together one of the genre’s veteran standard-bearers with two of Nashville’s ascendant stars.

The three-day event, scheduled for April 23-25 at Indio’s Empire Polo Club, will also feature Hardy, Brothers Osborne, Willie Nelson, Shaboozey, Stella Lefty, Charley Crockett, Stephen Wilson Jr., Turnpike Troubadours, Gretchen Wilson, Ernest, Hudson Westbrook and a reunited Florida Georgia Line.

Among the non-country acts on the bill for the annual show, which for years has been expanding its stylistic footprint, are Kelly Clarkson, Pitbull, David Lee Roth, Sean Paul, Flo Rida, Matchbox Twenty, the Fray and Journey, the last of which was scheduled to perform at this past April’s festival but whose set was called off after high winds temporarily shut down Stagecoach.

Brooks, who previously headlined Stagecoach in 2018, launched an arena tour last month, while Top and Green both just picked up nominations for November’s CMA Awards: Top for male vocalist of the year and album of the year (for his “Ain’t in It for My Health”) and Green for musical event of the year (for his and Carly Pearce’s duet “If I Don’t Leave I’m Gonna Stay”).

Other acts scheduled to perform at next year’s festival, which takes place on the same grounds as Coachella the weekend after that event, include Carín León, Cody Jinks, Melissa Etheridge, Dasha, Waylon Wyatt, Tedeschi Trucks Band and Laci Kaye Booth.

Passes for Stagecoach, which start at $549 and go up past $4,000 for various VIP packages, will go on sale Friday. Goldenvoice, the Los Angeles-based promoter that puts on Stagecoach and Coachella, announced last week that its inaugural Ocean Way festival, which was to be held on the beach in Santa Monica on Sept. 26 and 27, had been canceled due to erosion caused this month by Hurricane Marie.

RIYADH: Madinah region has strong potential to turn date palm waste into value-added products, leveraging its competitive advantage in the palm and date sector to create investment opportunities in the circular economy.

According to Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah Chamber’s economic bulletin, the region has about 26,000 farms and approximately 8.1 million date palms, representing nearly 21 percent of Saudi Arabia’s total.

Each palm generates between 20 and 23 kg of waste annually, bringing the region’s estimated annual total to between 162,000 and 186,000 tonnes, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Products made from date palm waste include wood and composite boards, organic fertilizer, biochar, charcoal briquettes, biofuel pellets, natural fibers, insulation materials, date seed oil, wooden products and handicrafts.

These industries could create new production chains, from waste collection, sorting and processing to manufacturing and marketing. This would open investment opportunities, diversify the palm sector’s products and improve resource-use efficiency.

Democratic state parties announced Monday that they are launching an operation for the midterm elections they’re calling the “New Battlefield Project,” intended to recruit 10,000 volunteers to guard polling places in case armed federal officers show up.

Activists are planning mass protests if the Trump administration tries to interfere with voting or ballot counting. And legal scholars are distributing white papers advising judges what they should do if the government tries to seize ballots.

The unprecedented efforts are in response to President Trump’s equally unprecedented moves to interfere in this year’s midterm elections, which include attempts to impose proof-of-citizenship requirements to register to vote and directing the Postal Service to play a central role in deciding which voters should get a mail ballot.

The anxious contingency planning as voting gets underway has become a marker for how fraught democracy has become in the country that once stood as an example to the world.

“We have never prepared for an election sabotage event like we have now,” said Ezra Levin of the left-leaning group Indivisible.

Trump has given Democrats plenty of reasons to organize a resistance

Democrats say they have reason to plan for doomsday scenarios. During his first term, Trump refused to accept his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden and attempted to overturn the vote, only to be defied by career officials and more establishment Republicans. Upon returning to power, Trump has stocked his administration with those who helped his 2020 efforts, has used the federal government to target his political enemies and pardoned more than 1,000 people prosecuted for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that was intended to halt the certification of Biden’s win.

Incumbent presidents’ parties usually lose ground in the midterms, but Trump has pulled out the stops to try to keep that from happening this time. He’s demanded Republicans redraw maps to create more safe seats for themselves in the House of Representatives, held last week’s unusual midterm convention and tried to change election rules even as states begin to send out ballots.

The advice for judges asked to approve search warrants for ballots, for example, was inspired by the Trump administration’s seizure of 2020 ballots and other election records in Fulton County, Georgia, which includes Atlanta, based on old, disproven conspiracy theories.

Rick Hasen, a UCLA Law professor and director of the school’s Safeguarding Democracy Project, noted that Trump has expressed regret that he didn’t take more aggressive action to overturn the 2020 results, such as ordering voting machines to be seized.

“All these things take what was off the wall and put it on the wall,” Hasen said. He said that while it is important not to unduly scare voters about what might happen, it’s “hard to walk the line between alarmism and complacency.”

Trump’s actions worry Democrats. Administration calls them common sense

Last year, Democrats worried that Trump might intervene in off-year elections in California, Virginia and elsewhere, only to have voting go smoothly with no clashes with the federal government.

“The only ‘fears’ Americans have about our elections are being fueled by extreme liberal Democrats who refuse to support commonsense legislation that ensures Americans, and Americans only, decide our elections and other basic election security measures like Voter ID,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Blis said in a statement.

Still, the stakes are far higher in the midterms, which will determine whether Republicans continue to control both houses of Congress. So far Trump has been unable to change voting procedures before the midterms.

Courts halted Trump’s first attempt to reshape election rules via executive order last year. The president backed a bill in Congress to make even more sweeping changes but it’s stalled in the Senate because of opposition from Democrats and some Republicans.

Then Trump tried to limit mail voting by executive order, but the courts again blocked it, saying the changes couldn’t happen before the midterms. That case is before the Supreme Court. Election officials warn that it would be impossible to implement Trump’s requirements in time for this election.

Litigation about election rules has reached such a pitch that the National Bar Association last week announced an initiative to help voters of both parties understand last-minute election rule changes and to create a hotline for those who encounter trouble casting ballots.

Concerns that polling places will become targets for immigration agents

Every election, the two major parties mobilize massive operations of attorneys, staffers and volunteers to monitor polling places and ballot counting. The Republican National Committee said it’s already recruited a record number of poll watchers.

“The RNC has spent this entire cycle preparing not just to defy history in November, but to protect it,” spokeswoman Ally Triolo said. “We’ve built the largest election integrity operation in Republican Party history because our mission is simple: secure every legal vote and ensure Americans can trust the outcome of our elections.”

Democrats also have expanded their operations, and the Association of State Democratic Parties is adding to that effort with its “battlefield” recruitment project. That also will include a network to share information about online threats and manipulation, said Jane Kleeb, the chair of the group and of the Nebraska Democratic Party.

“If they’re saying they’re going to put armed people outside polling places, we should put friendly people outside polling locations to film them,” Kleeb said in an interview. “There’s a whole new battlefield we have now.”

Kleeb was referring to widespread fears among Democrats that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will be deployed to the polls, something that multiple administration officials for months have denied will happen. There have been scattered instances of ICE officers at polling places over the past year, usually saying they’re in pursuit of or investigating a specific person. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said this month it’s possible that could happen again in November.

In an indication of the distrust of the administration’s reassurances, civil rights groups and the city of Denver last week filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to formally bar ICE from polling places. They cited a law dating to the Civil War era prohibiting armed federal agents at election sites.

“This administration is basically using the rhetoric that undocumented citizens are voting and that they’re going to have DHS and ICE at the polls to try and intimidate and suppress the Latino vote,” said Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the plaintiffs.

Activists see Minneapolis immigration protests as a midterms model

A staple of the election buildup is a series of tabletop exercises in which each side runs hypothetical scenarios to practice its response. As part of that, Democrats and civil rights groups are rehearsing for the possible deployment of ICE agents or the National Guard to polling sites, although the Pentagon has said it has no plans to deploy troops to the polls.

Levin, of Indivisible, said his group has run 17 different scenarios preparing for what could happen in November. But the first priority, he said, is to boost turnout.

The No Kings network, which has spearheaded large anti-Trump protests over the president’s second term and includes Indivisible, is launching a campaign encouraging early voting that will peak with rallies Oct. 17.

Others are organizing among both left-wing and more traditional groups to push back if the administration is aggressive in November. Some look to the anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis as a possible model.

Two activists were shot and killed by ICE agents during those January demonstrations, and the administration eventually backed off the aggressive crackdown the president had launched against the city.

“We recognize there might be a similar moment in November, where Trump attempts to do that again, where everyday working people and students need to band together and say, ‘Actually, no, this is our country, you don’t get to decide who gets elected or who gets to take office,’” said Kidus Girma of the left-wing Sunrise Movement.

Riccardi and Brown write for the Associated Press.

If you’re looking to add more magic to your life after watching Practical Magic 2, one woman has praised a village which feels like the real deal – and it’s in the UK

The highly anticipated sequel to the cult classic film Practical Magic recently premiered in cinemas. But while it’s always magical to return to the universe of your favourite film, what if you could visit a real life Practical Magic village?

In the book and the film, the Massachusetts small town where the Owens family lives appears to be the idyllic small town. And with the added element of having witches living there, many fans dream of visiting. But one village in the UK also has a unique connection to witches, making it the perfect alternative.

One holidaymaker named Emma decided to share snippets of her visit to the Hampshire village, naming it a ‘real life Practical Magic village’.

“POV: You found a real life Practical Magic village in England,” she wrote in the overlay text of the TikTok video, showing the various witchcraft and magic-inspired shops, as well as the wild horses that are known to explore the village of Burley.

Burley is a small village in Hampshire, located in the heart of the New Forest. It’s famous for its associations with witchcraft, as it had a self-proclaimed witch living there in the 1950s. However, there is plenty of other things to do there with an opportunity for walking, cycling, and horse-riding trails, plus horse-drawn carriage rides through the forest.

Emma added in the caption of the post: “Today, the village is filled with cosy cafes, witchy boutiques, and wild horses roaming down the streets.”

The village still maintains the ancient New Forest tradition of “commoning,” meaning ponies, cattle, and donkeys wander freely through the streets.

“It genuinely feels like stepping straight into the Owens family hometown,” she said. “Gather your coven and save this for your next UK day trip.”

Why is Burley considered a ‘witchy’ village?

Burley is associated with witches primarily because it was home to a woman named Sybil Leek. The famous self-proclaimed “white witch” lived in the Hampshire village during the 1950s.

She became a media sensation by openly practicing witchcraft shortly after the UK repealed the final Witchcraft Act in 1951. She regularly walked through the village wearing a long black cloak with her pet jackdaw, Mr. Hotfoot Jackson, perched on her shoulder.

But as locals were upset by her presence, Sybil decided to move to America where she continued to study and write about the occult and astrology.

Burley has since embraced its witchy history, as there are several shops specialising in magic, including A Coven of Witches, which was not only named by Sybil but you can also find a portrait of her hanging above the fireplace.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index rose on Monday, gaining 13.89 points, or 0.13 percent, to close at 10,878.46.

The total trading turnover of the benchmark index was SR4.19 billion ($1.12 billion), as 78 of the listed stocks advanced, while 182 retreated.

The MT30 Index also rose, gaining 1.38 points, or 0.09 percent, to close at 1,460.13.

The Kingdom’s parallel market Nomu slipped 78.28 points or 0.36 percent to close at 21,500.91. This comes as 25 of the listed stocks advanced, while 46 retreated.

Top performers

The best-performing stock was Saudi Arabia Refineries Co., surging by 9.98 percent to close at SR58.95.

Other top performers included Wafrah for Industry and Development Co., which saw its share price rise by 6.25 percent to SR22.77, and Mutakamela Insurance Co., up 4.72 percent to SR13.32.

Worst performers

On the downside, the worst performer of the day was Riyadh Cement Co., whose share price fell by 4.91 percent to SR22.46.

Armah Sports Co. and Advanced Building Industries Co. also saw declines, with their shares dropping by 4.18 percent and 3.66 percent to SR68.85 and SR27.34, respectively.

Arabian Drilling signs 8 more land rigs

On the announcement front, Arabian Drilling Co. announced the signing of a new five-year contract with SLB for the provision of eight additional land rigs for Gas LSTK operations.

The agreement adds approximately SR2 billion to the company’s backlog, following its previously announced five-year contract with SLB covering 11 existing land rigs.

Together, the two contracts add approximately SR5 billion to backlog, taking Arabian Drilling’s total backlog to a record SR16 billion, the highest in its history, and constituting the largest Gas LSTK commitment ever secured by the Company.

The financial impact of the new contract is expected to begin reflecting on the company’s results starting from the final quarter of 2026.

Arabian Drilling Co.’s shares rose 2.99 percent to close at SR96.35.

Tetiana Bubynets collapsed on the asphalt after a Russian drone exploded at a gas station in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.

Despite the violent shockwave and blast of drone shrapnel produced by the attack on July 6, the 18-year-old accounting student had no visible wounds except for a nosebleed.

She was rushed to hospital and pronounced dead shortly after, alongside two other civilians, aged 41 and 48.

One of her lecturers, Tetiana Melikhova of Zaporizhzhia National University, said Bubynets was an only child and that her mother “lost the meaning of life” after she died.

“She couldn’t speak. At the funeral, she just lay on the coffin; she couldn’t let her child go,” Melikhova told Al Jazeera.

The strike that killed Bubynets was the first recorded case of Russia’s use of a fully autonomous attack drone powered by artificial intelligence (AI), according to a New York Times analysis.

While drone strikes have hammered Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukrainian officials who examined the wreckage found the unmanned vehicle to be unlike others.

In place of an antenna, it featured an AI-powered minicomputer sold commercially by US technology company Nvidia, which rendered it capable of directing itself to the type of target it was programmed to spot – likely propane tanks in this case – lock on to it and proceed to strike.

AI-powered drones are the tip of the iceberg as Russia and Ukraine race towards boosting tech infrastructure aimed at coordinating reconnaissance and attack, according to analysts.

“It’s not about a drone having AI in it, and then seeing something and striking,” Marina Miron, researcher at the defence studies department at King’s College London, said. “Rather, it’s the drone seeing something, communicating to a software complex which knows how to map the GPS coordinates on a live battlefield map, and notifying the closest artillery unit.”

Referred to as reconnaissance-strike architecture, these unified battlefield management systems act like a central command. They track the location of friendly forces and identify enemy positions.

AI acts as the accelerator, instantly processing massive amounts of data collected through sensors in drones or any other military products, including interceptor missiles or artillery units.

The tactical advantage on the battlefield is given by the system’s ability to compress the kill chain – meaning coordinating and distributing the intelligence to military assets on the ground to find, track and destroy targets in a matter of minutes.

In such an ecosystem, AI-powered automated drones are just pieces of a broader puzzle.

Ukraine is known to be developing its system, which it named DELTA. Following operational trials in late 2025, Russia has been rolling out its version, the Svod Tactical Situational Awareness Complex, to front-line units.

Both sides claim that once the battlefield data is processed, a decision support system (DSS) presents a military commander with options to choose from, keeping a human in the decision-making loop, said Miron.

“In how far that is true is, of course, impossible to find out,” she added.

Acknowledging full AI autonomy would provoke ethical and legal questions.

Even if humans were to retain final decision-making authority, research has shown AI systems subtly shape choices, predetermining outcomes.

“Under time and pressure, commanders often do as AI suggests,” said Miron, whose research focuses on military AI and remotely piloted and autonomous systems.

Towards full automation

Coordinated AI-powered military systems are the next frontier of modern warfare, said Serhiy Beskrestnov, a Ukrainian Ministry of Defence adviser on loitering munitions, known by his callsign Flash.

“That’s what it will all come to,” he posted on his Telegram channel on July 1. “Navigation, search for a target, and attacks will be fully autonomous.”

Drones with some autonomous capabilities are already being deployed at scale.

Heorhii Volkov, commander of Ukraine’s Yasni Ochi drone strike unit, said this is currently mostly used in the final phase of long-distance strikes, where first-person view (FPV) drones are likely to lose radio connection due to electronic warfare or the curvature of the Earth.

The use of AI in so-called last-mile operations solves this battlefield hitch. If the signal is lost, an integrated AI-enabled onboard module takes full control of the unmanned vehicle, autonomously locks on the target and carries the strike to completion.

Yaroslav Azhnyuk, founder of Ukrainian technology company The Fourth Law, which develops AI-powered autonomy software for unmanned vehicles, said Russia and Ukraine were working to deploy a wider range of autonomous systems.

“This is not simply a race to demonstrate a fully autonomous drone. It is a race to make autonomy reliable, affordable and deployable at scale,” Azhnyuk told Al Jazeera. “Electronic warfare, increasingly long engagement distances and the growing number of drones are making human-controlled systems less sufficient. Autonomy solves exactly these constraints.”

Azhnyuk believes autonomy will become a game-changer over the next six to 12 months.

“The decisive advantage will belong to the side that can deploy reliable autonomy across tens or hundreds of thousands of systems, not just demonstrate it in prototypes,” he said.

Kateryna Bondar, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), noted the dangers of AI’s reliance on algorithms.

“The system doesn’t understand what it’s doing; it’s just following the algorithm and the rules which people created,” said Bondar, who works at the CSIS’s Wadhwani AI Center. “AI has to be trained to recognise targets and engage these targets,” but writing code that distinguishes between a bus and a tank is easier than between a Russian and a Ukrainian soldier.

Additionally, cost-effective FPV drones have low-quality cameras and their resolution can be lowered further by adverse atmospheric conditions.

Military units using autonomous systems therefore “delegate the decision to a very imperfect technology that cannot distinguish between a civilian and a military person, combatant or non-combatant”, Bondar said.

“This is why there is a conversation around who makes a decision and who has responsibility for mistakes and errors.”

RIYADH: The performing arts in the Kingdom is undergoing a transformation driven by cultural investment, new venues, international collaboration, and a growing network of local professional and academic institutions, making it tempting for young Saudis to pursue.

While academic study in the field is comparatively new, Saudi theatrical production is not. The Kingdom has long produced recognized theater throughout the Gulf and regionally, but many practitioners studied overseas.

Today, Saudi Arabia is localizing the education of its creative talent through academic and professional training in the country.

Since 2020, Saudi has dedicated a Theater and Performing Arts Commission to regulate and develop a sector encompassing theater, dance, circus, improvisational comedy, street performance, ballet and opera.

Not only through training but also national competitions and workshops.

Undergraduate programs are offered at King Saud University, Princess Nourah University and most recently the Riyadh University of Arts. While the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts provides postgraduate and diploma-level education, Scene Institute, and Ithra have further professional training.

As Saudi universities begin their academic year, many students are continuing their conventional degrees. Other creatives are pursuing their passions academically, making the most of the opportunities the Kingdom has to offer.

Osama Almutairi, a final-year Bachelor of Arts in Theater student at King Saud University, spoke to Arab News about the feasibility of his academic choice.

“My love and passion for the arts, particularly theater, naturally led me to this specialization.”

Theater was not his first choice. “I initially considered studying political science but was accepted into theater as part of the first cohort at the College of Arts,” he said.

“Despite my initial interest in pursuing a conventional degree in the humanities, the continuous development of Saudi Arabia’s arts sector encouraged me to take this step.”

Saudi Arabia has been taking proactive measures while localizing performing arts scholarships.

The Ministry of Culture has been running a fully funded Cultural Scholarship Program that supports creative specializations at 278 approved institutions across 15 countries, including performing arts.

One beneficiary is Majed Al-Muwallad, an actor and theater teacher at Afaq Academy, who completed his Bachelors in Theater Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London.

“I travelled to London in 2021. During my studies, I participated in several theatrical productions, ranging from small projects to larger, more academically oriented university productions.

“I had loved acting since I was about 14 years old. I loved films, acting, stories and dramatic texts. When the scholarship opportunity appeared, I thought: ‘Why should I let this opportunity pass?’ I decided to take it.”

Al-Muwallad said he left a job at Aramco to pursue his childhood dream, although members of his community were uncertain about his unconventional choice.

“They were not sure about the professional opportunities available or where such a career could lead,” he said.

“It was a major career change, and leaving Aramco to pursue acting was an unfamiliar idea. People do not usually leave Aramco to become actors,” he added.

Now that he has graduated and is teaching Saudi youth to act, Al-Muwallad believes it was a good decision.

He is even considering pursuing a master’s degree in the performing arts, specifically in performance design. For him, the opportunities are not limited to acting. He hopes to build on his studies in costume, lighting and set design.

“Every theatrical production needs design. It requires a set, costumes and lighting. Rather than limiting myself to the acting and performance side of theater, I would like to develop expertise in design and contribute to the audience’s overall visual experience.”

Almutairi believes perceptions will continue to change as Saudi artists demonstrate the value of academic training.

“The future is wide open for the arts and artists. Society’s perception will continue to change as academically trained Saudi artists demonstrate their ability to represent their communities and country.

“This change is already becoming evident, with society playing an increasingly important role in supporting the success of Saudi artists nationally and internationally.”

For Al-Muwallad, theater should be approached holistically — not only as a career or degree, but also as a journey of self-discovery.

“I learned a great deal before I even began teaching the students. I had to learn how to communicate theatrical knowledge and present information in a way students could understand.

“The experience has taught me a lot about communication and how to identify students’ talents. Theater teaches communication and helps students discover themselves.”

Al-Muwallad encourages young people in Saudi Arabia to pursue their passions academically. “My advice is not to treat university as merely a stage that you pass through and finish,” he said.

“Students should engage with the experience deeply and benefit from it in every possible way.”

He said soft skills can be learned through theater, including communication, emotional intelligence and teamwork.

“Another piece of advice we were always given in London was to always ask questions. A question produces an answer, and that answer often generates another question.

“Asserting that openness and eagerness to learn is vital to a good actor, theater itself is founded on curiosity.

“Students should watch a wide variety of theater and explore different traditions, including Arab, English, Greek and Russian theater, as well as influential approaches such as Russian (theatre practitioner Konstantin) Stanislavski’s.”

On Saudi having a relatively emerging academic orientation to performing arts, Almuwallad sees it as a big opportunity rather than a challenge or a barrier.

“Saudi Arabia is still developing in this field, which means students now have an opportunity to participate in shaping it. What they create can become visible and make an impact relatively quickly.”

“Students should recognize that they are important. They should not treat themselves as secondary characters in this development. They have the opportunity to play a central role because the field is still new.”

For Saudi youth choosing an arts degree over a safer, conventional path, there is an opportunity to turn passion into a profession, and ultimately shape the nation’s creative scene.

KILLER drug fentanyl has long had a vice-like grip on the US, devastating everyone from high profile celebrities to everyday families across the country.

Just today it was revealed that actress Hayden Panettiere, who died last month age 36, had allegedly taken a pill laced with fentanyl before she passed away.

The mum-of-one was found dead of a suspected overdose of oxycodone at a luxury AirBnB in South Carolina on August 17 just days before her 37th birthday.

Cops are said to be “zeroing in” on her alleged long-term dealer from whom she is suspected to have purchased several black-market prescription drugs from.

Toxicology reports are still pending but, according to the US news outlet, the working theory within law enforcement is that it was the suspected fentanyl-laced oxycodone pill killed Hayden.

But she is far from the first celebrity to have succumbed to the drug.

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Others include music icon Prince, who died age 57 from an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2016, long before many had even heard of the drug.

Rappers Mac Miller and Coolio, rock star Tom Petty and actors Michael K Williams and Angus Cloud all lost their lives to the drug, while singer Demi Lovato survived but was left with life-changing side effects.

And the fentanyl crisis is showing no signs of going away as dealers use it to lace other drugs to maximise their profits.

A former NYPD chief of detectives James Essig explained: “Fentanyl is relatively cheap while heroin is expensive. 

“You take a kilo of heroin and then add in a tiny bit of fentanyl and stretch it out for more profitability.”

Fentanyl is an opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.

Opioid addiction became rife in America during the 90s when pharmaceutical companies flooded the market with super-strong painkillers.

But when the government began to crackdown in the 2000s, the Mexican drug cartels spotted a gap in the market and moved in with heroin, and before long they started adding fentanyl to juice up its potency.

Raymond Donovan, former Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) chief of operations, says: “That really started the wave of the opioid crisis that we are in now. 

“Very quickly it went from increasing the strength of heroin to pure fentanyl. You had kilos coming across the south west border.

“The Mexican cartels started buying fentanyl directly from China, pressing it into pills and then selling it as if it was a known opioid, like something that was made by a scientist in a laboratory, but it is not, it is a fake pill.”

It was two years after Prince’s death when investigators finally released their findings.

They had found counterfeit Vicodin pills in his house, laced with fentanyl – but police were unable to establish who had provided the drugs.

Prince’s death put fentanyl in the headlines, but it wasn’t long before another famous name was tragically linked to the drug.

The following year rock n roll legend Tom Petty was found dead – and two forms of illicit fentanyl were found in his system. 

He was also using a medically supplied fentanyl patch for pain caused by a fractured hip.

His family released a statement saying they wanted his death to act as a wake-up call in a bid to save others from suffering their heartbreak.

But the opioid crisis was only just starting. In 2018 more than 30,000 people died of fentanyl overdoses – up by 10 per cent – and in July that year singer Demi Lovato almost lost her life.

The star had been open about her struggles with drug addiction and had been in and out of rehab.

Entertainment journalist Chris Witherspoon explains: “Despite years of sobriety Demi Lovato went out with some friends in Hollywood, ran into a dealer she knew and she got some heroin that was laced with fentanyl.”

Speaking about her ordeal Demi said: “I had three strokes, I had a heart attack. I suffered brain damage from the strokes. I can’t drive any more.

Her survival was down to being given the drug Narcan in hospital which helps to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.

It was a huge wake-up call with celebrities including Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and Ariana Grande sending her public messages of support.

But another celeb was not going to be as lucky as Demi. Just two months later rapper Mac Miller was found dead at the age of just 26.

Like Demi he had been open about his own struggles with addiction, writing about it in his music.

Investigators discovered he had been looking to buy oxycodone, but ended up with something laced with fentanyl.

Miller’s drug dealer and the men who supplied him with the drugs were later jailed.

But it isn’t just celebrities that have fallen victim to the fentanyl crisis sweeping America.

Thousands of ordinary families have been left grieving the deaths of their loved ones, too.

Matt Capelouto lost his college student daughter Alex to the drug in December 2019.

“We didn’t know anything about fentanyl at the time,” he says. “Lots of things were going through my head and this was a period of shock.”

Alex, 20, had contacted a drug dealer on Snapchat looking to buy the prescription painkiller Perocet.

But what he, in fact, delivered to her was counterfeit pills made with lethal doses of fentanyl.

“My daughter took half of one of these pills before going to bed and my wife found her dead in her bed the next morning,” says heartbroken Matt. 

“I wanted to find out who this drug dealer was. Who sold my daughter death?”

They eventually got into Alex’s phone and discovered the identity of the drug dealer.

But the family were told that the dealer was unlikely to face any charges as California does not have a death by dealer statute that holds dealers responsible for users’ deaths.

But the case was taken over for federal prosecution, which has a different burden of proof, and the dealer, Brandon McDowell, was charged with one count of distributing fentanyl resulting in death and jailed for nine years.

Matt says: “Locking up a drug dealer won’t bring my daughter back, but it will save someone else’s child.”

Michael K Williams, star of TV series The Wire and Boardwalk Empire, was the next celeb to lose their life after taking fentanyl-laced heroin in 2021.

He had been open about his battle with addiction, and just five days before his death spoke on a podcast about how acting offered him a road to recovery.

Two weeks after he passed away the New York City Medical Examiner said he died from an unintentional overdose from a deadly mix of drugs including fentanyl.

In April 2023, drug dealer Irvin Cartagena pleaded guilty to selling the mix of heroin and fentanyl to Williams that resulted in his death. He was jailed for 10 years.

In September 2021 comedian and presenter Kate Quigley went to a party in Venice, California, where she and her friends thought they were using cocaine, but it contained fentanyl.

Kate passed out, fell over and was unconscious for 17 hours. She woke up disorientated, unable to move her legs, and then made a harrowing discovery.

Three of her friends were lying dead; comedian Fuquan Johnson, Natalie Williamson and Enrico Colangeli had suffered fatal overdoses.

The dealer was never identified.

Washington Post reporter Nick Miroff says: “One of the many tragedies of the fentanyl epidemic in the United States is this repeat of mass overdose events.

“A group of friends partying together and they think they are buying cocaine or some other drug, and they don’t know that what they are buying is laced with fentanyl and because they don’t have any opioid tolerance, they drop dead. 

“So that’s why we have seen horrible crime scenes with three, four, five adults on the floor at a party where they have literally died in a couple of minutes.”

In July 2022, cops discerned a shocking new twist in the fentanyl story. 

The drug was now being used as a weapon by robbery gangs, and a famous fashion designer was one of their victims.

Katie Gallagher, who had designed for Rita Ora and Lady Gaga, was found dead in her bed.

Police told her parents that Katie had died from an overdose – but she had been murdered.

Detectives had uncovered a robbery crew that was using drugs laced with fentanyl to incapacitate victims before using facial recognition technology to open their phones and empty their bank accounts.

Police believed Katie had been given what she thought was cocaine, but it was laced with fentanyl.

Police arrested and charged Kenwood Allen, 33, in relation to five deaths and a drugging and robbery spree targeting a total of 21 victims. 

He pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

In September 2022, rapper Coolio became the next victim of fentanyl. 

At first it was thought he had died of an asthma attack, but the medical examiner’s report revealed he had died from an accidental overdose of heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl.

The authorities are struggling to stop the flow of fentanyl from Mexico into the US.

The drug is so compact and so potent that it is easy for the cartels to smuggle it across the border.

In 2023, Homeland Security launched Operation Blue Lotus to try to stop the flood.

And the US targeted the Chinese suppliers that were selling fentanyl to the cartels.

But despite the Government efforts the fentanyl crisis continued to spread across America and claimed the life of yet another of Hollywood’s brightest stars.

Actor Angus Cloud was just 25 when he died at his family home in California.

He shot to fame playing a drug dealer in the hit series Euphoria. But his own struggle with addiction after suffering an ankle injury and losing his dad to cancer made him vulnerable.

He was found to have died of an accidental overdose of a cocktail of drugs, including fentanyl.

YOU’VE probably strolled past the Tower of London at least once – but did you know it’s the city’s oldest tourist attraction?

Parts of it have been open to the public since 1661, and it’s just started a new tour to meet eight of its feathery residents.

Called the Ravens Experience, the new early morning tour gives visitors a chance to meet all eight permanent residents, and early access to the tower itself.

The ravens are very important to the Tower of London as the legend is that if the birds ever leave, the country will fall to ruin.

Dubbed a ‘truly unique early mornings experience’, the new tour starts at 8.15am.

It begins with a 45-minute talk from a Yeoman Warder (a guardian of the Tower of London) about the ravens – before the cage is opened.

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Visitors can learn more about the ravens named Harris, Jubilee, Poppy, Edgar, Georgie, Chaos, Henry and Poe.

There’s a chance to take pictures and see them being released into the tower too.

The ticket also includes early entry to the Tower which means you skip the admission queue and are first in line as the Crown Jewels exhibition opens

And ticket holders get access to all public areas of the Tower of London.

Tickets for adults are £90, children between 5-16 are £50.00, concession tickets are £70 and under 5s go free – you have to book the tour in advance.

Building work first started work in 1078, so the historical attraction has been standing for almost 950 years.

Parts of it were first accessible since 1661 when the Crown Jewels were first put on display.

Other events at the Tower of London include Halloween special when the past will ‘creep back to life’.

There will be special visits from the ghostly past residents including a poet, pirate a queen, an astronomer – even a bear.

The Halloween trail is more family-friendly than scary and will take place between October 24 and November 1.

For those on Universal Credit, general admission tickets cost £1 each.

It was recently announced that the Tower of London will undergo a £70million project as it opens community spaces and learning centres.

CHEAP all inclusives aren’t just for Brits lucky enough to afford foreign holidays – there are some great value breaks with free food and drink in the UK too, if you delve deep enough.

Pay one price upfront and all your food, drinks, snacks and entertainment is provided on tap, meaning you can leave your wallet and your worries in your room – the issue is, most people have no idea they even exist.

All across the UK, secret staycation packages have started popping up with food and drink offers included in your booking.

The Sun’s Travel team have found some fab deals to book now, including autumn half term holidays and frugal festive breaks:

All prices are per person per night.

Butlin’s, Bognor Regis, £28pp a night

Famous for its family-friendly facilities, Redcoat entertainment and huge indoor waterpark, Butlin’s is now offering even more value for money with their new all-inclusive food and drinks bundles.

Available in Bognor Regis and Skegness, savvy guests can choose from a variety of packages starting with the budget-friendly Food Court deal, which includes both a buffet-style breakfast and dinner served in a sit-down restaurant.

Expect full English breakfast, an omelette bar, plus cereals and pastries and tea, coffee and juices.

Dinner options include a nightly roast option and dishes like piri-piri chicken and lasagne, as well as a salad and dessert bars – and it’s eat-all-you-want.

These cost £25.95 per day for adults (age 15 up), £15.50 for 6-14 year olds and £7.50 for 2-5 year olds, under 2’s go free.

You can also upgrade to slightly fancier options like Off-Peak Premium Dining, a time-restricted package in The Deck, The Yacht Club and Coast restaurants.

These cost £33.95 per day for adults (age 15 up), £19.50 for 6-14 year olds and £9.50 for 2-5 year olds, under 2’s go free.

All offer buffet-style dining, but with additional grill, pasta and wok stations.

Or there’s the premium DineAround package that lets you pick whichever resort restaurant you’d like to dine in, instead of being given a designated place to eat.

This includes family favourite, The Firehouse Grill – which serves burgers, nachos and chicken platters.

The DineAround package costs £36.95 per day for adults (age 15 up), £22 for 6-14 year olds and £10.50 for 2-5 year olds, under 2’s go free.

As part of the Showtime Bundle, all-inclusive drinks can also be included on all-dining packages, with alcohol served from 11am (only sold on certain holiday dates). 

Enjoy Madri lager, Bacardi Rum and Gordon’s Gin at Bognor’s all-inclusive bars like the Beachcomber Inn and Hotshots, as well in restaurants and show venues like Centre Stage and Studio 36.

The food and drink bundles on Showtime Breaks start from £28 per person, per night for a family of four.

This includes mid-week festive breaks. Butlins.com

Parkdean Pendine Sands, Carmarthen, £26pp a night

One of the best things about an all-inclusive holiday is not having to cook, and Parkdean Resorts have just launched an add-on dining package in several of their parks.

At various locations, including Pendine Sands in South Wales, you can now go all-inclusive with your stay.

Packages start from from £80 per adult and £30 per child (under 12) per break (Monday to Friday only).

The deal includes breakfast, lunch and dinner in the on-site restaurant, a dedicated kids’ menu, and unlimited hot and cold drinks all day (although, sorry folks, booze is extra).

Unlike Butlin’s, the all-inclusive deal at Parkdean includes three meals a day and is usually a sit-down meal rather than a buffet.

You can expect dishes like Churrasco steak and fries, katsu curry, pizzas, salad bowls, as well as milkshakes, soft drinks and Costa coffees.

The downside is it’s only available Monday to Friday and the very few dishes – chicken and rib combo, for example – that are priced over £19.99 will add a £5 surcharge.

While booze is extra, you can get a pint of Carling for £5.95 or Madri for £6.55, while a glass of Pinot Grigio is £4.30.

However, as all holiday-parkers know, you can still bring your own drinks or buy some in the resort supermarket to drink on the deck of your caravan once the kids go to bed.

Warner Hotels, Norton Grange Coastal Village, Isle of Wight, £114.50pp a night (adults only)

With hotels, holiday villages and resorts dotted across the UK, Warner Hotels specialises in adults-only holidays.

Several properties in Hampshire and on the Isle of Wight now offer all-inclusive deals that include alcohol, which is brilliant for couples and friends wanting a stress-free stay.

With Christmas coming up, you can also get the deal on Warner Hotels’ themed breaks, such as the Turkey and Tinsel weekend.

These can sometimes be cheaper than standard breaks like Weekend Live with Motown and Soul, where you pay more for specialist entertainment.

However, all breaks include some kind of evening entertainment, such as live tribute acts to Tina Turner, Celine Dion and George Michael.

All three-and-four night breaks include half-board accommodation, all entertainment, and a variety of alcoholic drinks from 6pm until midnight.

At Norton Grange, meals are served in the Market Kitchen restaurant, where you have buffet breakfasts with hot food bars and omelette stations.

For dinner, guests can enjoy three-courses with chef specials like rump steak and king prawns, as well as salad bars, carvery stations, wok show kitchens.

If you get peckish in the afternoon, you can also add a classic afternoon tea for £22.50 per person, served in the lounge.

Be aware that drinks are only included from 6pm to midnight, but include brands Carling lager, Doom Bar Cask Ale, Bell’s and Gordons.

But the rule is single measures only and only two drinks per guest, per round.

Get the deal: Warner Hotels, Lakeside Coastal Village, Hampshire, £259 per person for a two-night break. warnerhotels.co.uk

Potter’s Resorts, Hopton-on-Sea, Norfolk, £209pp

Often voted the best holiday park in the UK, Potter’s offers a slightly elevated experience, which is refelected in the price.

Family-run Potter’s was the first UK’s all-inclusive holiday and is hugely popular with Brits.

Potters Resorts have two locations – Five Lakes in Essex and Hopton-on-Sea in Norfolk, famous as the home of World Indoor Bowls Championships.

Both resorts offer three or four night breaks, including four meals a day, all soft and alcoholic drinks and a daily activity programme.

Five Lakes has a golf course – and both locations have a West End-style show each night.

While most breaks in both parks are adults only, there are some family-friendly dates offered at Hopton-on-Sea. 

With four meals on offer every day, there’s little chance of going hungry.

At Hopton-on-Sea, all meals are served in the elegant The Garden restaurant, with its domed ceiling, or the Gallery, which is a little more intimate.

In both resorts you can expect a full cooked breakfast buffet, a three-course lunch, with dishes like scampi and fries, chicken tikka masala, and salads and cold meats.

For dinner, you can order dishes such as deep fried filo prawns and steamed fillet of cod, as well as a nightly carvery.

Then, if you’re still hungry after all that, the chefs offer a late-night dish every night from sausage rolls to bowls of chilli.

All-inclusive drinks are available from 3pm on arrival day to 10.30am on departure day and you can expect brand-name spirits like Jameson’s whisky and Bacardi Rum, as well as draught and bottled beers, wines and plenty of no-alcohol options too.

Plus, when it’s too early for a tipple, try one of the barista-style coffees with your favourite syrup.

Get the deal: £629 per adult, £479 for 10-17 year olds, £379 for 3-9 year olds and £30 for under 3’s for a three-night break this October half term. pottersresorts.com

Z Hotel Gloucester Place, London, £55pp

Fancy an all-inclusive city break? Look no further.

Spread across a row of restored Georgian townhouses in the heart of Marylebone, Z Hotel Gloucester Place is within easy reach of Regent’s Park, Madame Tussauds and the Wallace Collection, while Oxford Street is a short bus ride away.

Standard rooms are smart and comfortable, however, it’s well worth upgrading your stay to the Z Club experience.

Few people know this, but if you book a Z Club Junior Suite, you’ll get complimentary breakfast, an all-day snack menu, afternoon cakes, a cheese buffet each evening, plus unlimited wine, fizz, cold beers and soft drinks.

Snacks like ham and cheese toasties, chicken and avocado sandwiches, a cheese board are available from the moment you check in at 3pm until late into the night.

Packets of crisps and nuts are also complimentary. There’s also a nice terrace garden to enjoy a sundowner or two, including a good selection of wines like Malbec, a pale pink rosé and two different white wines.

Cans of pop and cold bottled beers and ciders, including Punk IPA and Peroni are also on offer.

Get the deal: Rooms are priced from £110 per room, per night thezhotels.com

Ennerdale Country House Hotel, Cleator, £79pp a night (adults only)

After a hike around the hills and fells of the Lake District, this classic country house hotel near Ennerdale Water is a real treat.

Great Little Breaks offer two-night stays throughout the year at Ennerdale Country House Hotel, a Grade II listed house with five acres of landscaped gardens and Italian fountains.

It includes bed and breakfast, lunch and dinner on both days, unlimited tea and coffee, plus free-flowing house wine, draught beer and soft drinks between 6pm and 10pm each night.

Meals are served in the Fountain Room restaurant, which overlooks the hotel’s beautiful gardens.

Breakfast includes a full English and a simple buffet with pastries and cereals, lunch is soup and a sandwich, while a two-course dinner from the ever-changing table d’hote menu often includes dishes like fish and chips, and herb chicken.

However, if you fancy something like steak off the a la carte menu, you’ll be charged a supplement.

Get the deal: From £159 per person for a two-night stay based on two adults sharing. (Over 25s-only). greatlittlebreaks.com

Lavender Hotels Collection, £32.25pp

The Lavender Hotels Collection is a trio of properties across Lancashire, each offering value all-inclusive packages.

Higher Trapp is a country house with panoramic views across the Pendle Valley, the Old Mill has a similar vibe but with a leisure club and a pool, while Everglades in Widnes is a little more contemporary.

An overnight stay includes a £25pp dinner allowance, drinks including unlimited house wine, draught beers and branded spirits from 6pm until 11pm, plus a full English breakfast in the morning.

If you are visiting with kids, the £25 dinner voucher isn’t extended to them, but kids meals start from £8.

All inclusive drinks include SRS lager, Magner’s cider, house red and white wines, and some branded spirits like Gordon’s Gin and Bells whiskey.

Drinks are only served in the Resident’s Bar between 6pm and 11pm –one glass per person, single measures only.

Guests can book the AI Ultra package for another £12.50 and get upgraded draught beers like Stella Artois and Guinness, flavoured Whitley Neill gins and Fever Tree mixers, as well as more premium wines like Baco de Seta Prosecco and Berri Estates Merlot.

At Higher Trapp, dinner is served in Fitzy’s Restaurant, a cosy space with beautiful views over the Ribble Valley. The £25 meal allowance will get you a 8oz steak and chips, but note that sauces like béarnaise, or brandy and pepper will cost you an extra £4.

Other meals come in around £16 to £19 mark, which allows a little wiggle room for extras. At the Old Mill, you’ll dine in the Sir Robert Peel restaurant on the first floor, which has lovely high-beamed ceilings.

The meal voucher here includes a starter and a main, but some dishes like curried mussels and lamb shank do attract an additional charge.

Get the deal: From £129 per room, per night (currently offering 25% off all autumn breaks) lavenderhotels.co.uk

TWO picturesque UK train routes will close for a number of weeks as part of a £22million upgrade.

The first route to close will be the West Highland railway line, which is well-known for being used in the Harry Potter films, from November 9 to 17.

The picturesque train journey which links Glasgow to Oban and Mallaig and crosses the Glenfinnan Viaduct, will undergo a £13million upgrade.

Work will be carried out between Helensburgh, Fort William and Mallaig and includes repairing parts of the track.

There will be replacement buses during the closure period.

Gerry McQuade, capital delivery director at Network Rail Scotland, said: “The West Highland Line is one that people really depend on, whether they’re travelling to work, visiting family or exploring some of Scotland’s most spectacular scenery.

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“This work is about making sure the route continues to provide a dependable service for the communities and visitors who use it every day.”

And it isn’t the only route in Scotland that will close for an upgrade.

The scenic Kyle Line between Dingwall and Kyle of Lochalsh will close for three weeks starting at the end of November.

No trains will run between Dingwall and Kyle of Lochalsh from November 28 to December 18.

Work will be carried out on the Carron Viaduct, as well as Inverness Station.

The £9million project is expected to take a few weeks with four miles of track being renewed.

McQuade said: “The Kyle line is one of Scotland’s most scenic and important routes, connecting communities across the Highlands.

“This £9m investment will allow us to carry out a significant amount of work in a short period of time, helping us keep the railway safe, reliable and resilient for the future.”

SACRAMENTO — President Trump and the Republican Congress have unintentionally provided California state government with the financial means to subsidize — help save — endangered local news reporting.

Now it’s up to Gov. Gavin Newsom to capitalize on the unanticipated gift.

He can sign or veto legislation to end state tax breaks for large corporations paying top executives $1 million-plus salaries and, instead, provide tax breaks for struggling California news outlets employing local reporters.

The state legislation would conform California law to a little-known provision of Trump’s “Big Beautiful” tax bill that eliminated corporate deductions for execs’ compensation exceeding $1 million.

California newsrooms — print, broadcast, digital — would receive an estimated $43 million in tax credits for employees’ wages. There’d still be a net $15 million left over for a small state revenue boost.

I’ll admit to feeling a bit squeamish about this.

First, it’s a conflict of interest, arguing that a governor — whom my colleagues and I write about often — should shovel public dollars into our profession.

Second, why should state government and taxpayers be asked to subsidize a private enterprise that’s flailing in the marketplace? Especially one that prides itself in being an impartial watchdog over government actions and politicians’ behavior. The dog shouldn’t be begging for food from the critters it watches.

Well, one answer is that state government provides tax breaks for lots of interests, including Hollywood movie studios. We’re allotting $750 million annually in tax credits for films produced in California.

And there’s a bill on the governor’s desk to offer $100 million annually in tax credits for post-production work, such as editing, sound mixing and visual effects.

That’s all fine. What would California have become without a healthy Hollywood? I don’t want to imagine.

Newsom also recently provided $3,500 rebates to first-time electric vehicle buyers, benefiting Tesla and other EV makers. It was “investing in our future,” the governor explained.

OK, but subsidizing local news reporting is investing in democracy. Robust coverage of city halls, school boards, Sacramento politicians and the like is essential for self-government.

And that journalism is in free fall all across America as exploding technology and social media opportunism have altered news consumption, mostly bypassing local communities and often spewing misinformation.

So this legislation, AB 2222 by Assemblyman Christopher Ward (D-San Diego), reaches far beyond just helping the troubled news industry. It’s about more than providing media outlets with financial incentives to retain and hire local reporters. It’s bolstering democracy.

Independent journalism is a pillar of democracy, providing citizens with reliable, fact-based information about how their elected representatives are performing their duties, fulfilling their campaign promises and cozying up to special interests.

You’re not going to glean that information from the politicians. You’re going to get mostly self-serving spin — government propaganda — whether it emanates from the White House, the state Capitol or the local mosquito abatement district.

That’s why the nation’s Founders protected press freedom in the Constitution’s 1st Amendment.

Thomas Jefferson famously wrote: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Of course, that was early in Jefferson’s political career, before he became vice president and later president. He ultimately turned into a harsh press critic. For example: “Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.”

Jefferson, like countless politicians ever since, apparently carried a huge chip on his shoulder because of reporting on his job performance that ticked him off.

Newsom is a master at attracting friendly national news coverage, especially on cable TV. But he naturally shudders at more critical coverage by Sacramento beat reporters.

As of this writing, the governor hadn’t publicly disclosed how he feels about the local reporter tax credit bill.

His finance department, which crafts the state budget, opposed the measure when legislators were considering it. The state would “not [be] receiving any incremental economic benefit to justify the expenditure,” its analysis read.

Again, even if that were true, citizens and democracy would benefit.

Also, the analysis contended, the tax credit would likely “provide windfall benefits” for news media owners “rather than encourage new hiring activity.”

That’s not quite accurate. Anyway, it could discourage layoffs and save reporters’ jobs.

Late last week, the McClatchy newspaper chain — owner of the Sacramento Bee and several medium-sized California papers, plus dozens across America — announced massive newsroom layoffs.

Since 2002, more than 12,000 local journalism jobs have been lost in California, according to the bill’s sponsor, the advocacy group Rebuild Local News. More than 3,500 newspapers have closed nationwide.

Many communities have become “news deserts.”

When that happens, fewer citizens turn out to vote, tax money gets spent more carelessly and political corruption increases.

Under the legislation, California media outlets — big and small — would be granted modest tax credits for each employee covering state and local news. There’d be $20,000 for up to five full-time positions and $15,000 for each of the rest. On top of that, there’d be an additional $15,000 for every new full-time job that’s created. Part-timers would be entitled to $7,500.

“National news outlets would be excluded. So would partisan ‘pink slime’ sites controlled by political action committees,” says Matt Pearce, policy director for Rebuild Local News, a former Los Angeles Times reporter and newspaper guild leader.

It would be the most ambitious program of its kind in the country. New York, Illinois and New Mexico currently offer local news subsidies.

“It’s about civic infrastructure and the foundation of democracy. We’re teetering toward autocracy,” says former state Sen. Steve Glazer (D-Orinda), an ex-mayor who has long pushed for stronger local news coverage.

This bill won’t save local newsrooms. But it may give them breathing room while the big thinkers try to concoct a more profitable business model for democracy’s watchdog.

What else you should be reading

The must-read: Architect of billionaire tax tried to ‘extort’ support for the measure and targeted women, union reports find
Money (That’s what I want): Becerra backers with business in Sacramento spend tens of millions boosting his gubernatorial bid
The L.A. Times Special: Will ‘Coxon Day’ save us from AI destruction?

Until next week,
George Skelton

—
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Whereas players in sports like football earn a salary based on a contract with the team that employs them, and athletes in individual sports like tennis and golf can earn a great deal from prize money at major tournaments, athletics competitors rely much more heavily on personal sponsorships and endorsements.

That is because they are paid no direct annual salary, and the only standardised prize money on offer is $50,000 (£37,000) for winning gold in one of the 48 track and field events at the Olympics.

That prize money was only introduced at the 2024 Games in Paris, and is paltry compared to the potential millions in winnings on offer in other major sports.

Some nations – including the USA – also choose to pay athletes who win medals from their own resources, but Britain does not.

Instead, athletes are awarded funding and grants by UK Sport, with the majority of the money coming from the National Lottery.

UK Sport ranks athletes by how likely they are to win medals at major events, and gives more funding to those whose chances it believes are better.

Athletes typically use that funding to pay for training camps, equipment, travel and, in some cases, personal support staff like physiotherapists, nutritionists and chefs.

So why would athletes be instructed to wear national team kit at the Ultimates?

The Ultimate Championship is billed as three fast-paced evenings with a record $10m (£7.4m) prize pot on offer for the biggest stars in athletics.

The condensed schedule and focus on star names is designed to appeal to viewers on television and social media – the latter likely playing a role in the focus on short, sharp bursts of action which can capture attention online.

Most viewers of athletics are used to watching athletes compete while wearing national kit at the Olympics and World Championships. Put simply, the use of a national kit makes it easier for the casual viewer to quickly spot who they should be rooting for and feel invested in the action.

But Kerr’s comments have highlighted the fact that something which may well improve the viewing experience can be felt as a direct financial negative by the athletes themselves.

With the next edition of the Ultimate Championship set to take place in September 2028, shortly after the Olympics in Los Angeles, the battle between brands and country could continue to heat up.

During a recent visit to the Shizuoka Cancer Center, a leading medical and research institution in Japan’s Shizuoka Prefecture, I found myself confronting two realities at once.

The first was an impressive expression of modern medicine: advanced treatment, exacting research and an institution seeking to connect clinical care with pharmaceutical innovation. The second was quieter but more powerful. Nearly every patient I passed was facing cancer and beside most stood a relative whose life had also been changed by the diagnosis.

A hospital may contain some of humanity’s most advanced knowledge. It also contains some of its oldest fears.

In such a place, medical excellence is anything but an abstraction. In a hospital, every scientific advance eventually arrives at one person in a vulnerable moment. Every diagnosis enters a life filled with memories, relationships, responsibilities and hopes. Illness inhabits one person but its consequences touch a family and a community.

This is where any serious consideration of health resilience should begin.

Health resilience is not one program within transformation; it is part of transformation’s capacity to serve human life

Dr. Ghazi Faisal Binzagr

The term is commonly associated with the ability of health systems, including hospitals, to withstand emergencies: pandemics, natural disasters, supply shortages or sudden pressure on medical capacity. These capabilities are indispensable. COVID-19 demonstrated, however, that a health emergency does not remain within healthcare. It also moves through families and schools, work and travel, economies and supply chains, and ultimately into the heart of national decision-making and security.

Yet a health system may remain operational while the health of society deteriorates.

Health resilience must therefore mean more than keeping institutions functioning through crisis. It must encompass the ability of a society to cultivate health before illness, respond intelligently when illness arrives and preserve dignity and meaning when medicine cannot restore the body to what it once was.

Such resilience is not created by strong institutions standing apart. It grows when their knowledge and capabilities remain connected — to one another and to the human being they ultimately serve.

Not far from the cancer center, at the University of Shizuoka, I encountered two practical examples of how such connections are cultivated.

Japan and Singapore are very different yet each has cultivated something approaching a national miracle

Dr. Ghazi Faisal Binzagr

Students of pharmaceutical sciences were being trained in the administration of medicines, including injections, although many would never perform such procedures professionally. The purpose was not to blur professional boundaries but to prevent pharmaceutical knowledge from becoming detached from human experience. A medicine is not only a compound to be formulated, tested or dispensed. It eventually enters a living body, carried by trust and accompanied by consequence.

Nearby, the university’s botanical garden, used in pharmaceutical, nutritional and food studies, extended the same principle in another direction. If the training connected medicine to the person who receives it, the garden connected modern science to the living world from which much medical knowledge first emerged. It did not ask students to choose between inherited observation and scientific rigor but to understand how one can inform the questions the other tests.

The cancer center, the pharmaceutical training and the botanical garden were not simply three interesting encounters. Together, they revealed that health resilience depends not only on the strength of individual institutions but on their capacity to remain connected: to the person who suffers, to the professional who carries responsibility, to the society in which illness occurs, and to the sources from which medicine continues to learn.

Saudi Arabia’s transformation gives this understanding immediate relevance. Vision 2030 has widened the connections through which the Kingdom understands progress, while COVID-19 revealed how inseparable health is from the economy, education, mobility and national security. Health resilience is not one program within transformation; it is part of transformation’s capacity to serve human life.

The burden of chronic disease makes this urgent. Diabetes affected an estimated 5.3 million Saudi adults in 2024, with an age-standardized prevalence of 23.1 percent. At such scale, illness cannot be treated as a succession of isolated clinical episodes. It is a continuous human reality and care must learn to become continuous with it.

Behind those numbers, in Saudi Arabia today is a person who can sleep while their glucose levels continue to be monitored. As family members rest nearby, readings can reach health institutions, helping reveal change, anticipate risk and guide care. Technology does not replace the concern of those beside that person; it allows the health system to join them in caring, extending institutional capability into the home without displacing the relationships that make it a place of belonging.

But continuity cannot begin only after diagnosis.

Through my years with the Saudi Sports for All Federation, I have witnessed how accessible movement, rooted in families, neighborhoods and communities, can turn health from something medicine repairs into something society creates. Health transformation, Sports for All and the Kingdom’s quality of life ambitions shape the same human life from different directions.

The encounters in Shizuoka formed part of a larger Japanese lesson. Japan’s longevity is a civilizational achievement but it is also requiring the country to reconsider care, independence, community and purpose. Its value lies in the knowledge it continues to accumulate: how to support older people within their communities, connect medical and long-term care, use technology to strengthen human presence rather than replace it, and ensure that years added to life remain years of contribution and belonging.

Japan’s use of robotics offers a striking example. Wearable systems can assist movement, surgical robots can extend the physician’s precision and robotic avatars can enable people confined by illness or disability to participate from afar. The machine matters but the deeper achievement is human: preserving agency and belonging when physical strength changes form.

Saudi Arabia is shaping new systems while its population remains comparatively young; Japan is adapting established systems as longevity transforms society. Their differences make them valuable to one another. The opportunity is not simply to transfer solutions but to discover how health systems can remain technically advanced, socially connected and fully human.

My years in Japan have reminded me of another country I have visited and studied repeatedly for more than a decade. Singapore’s achievement lies not in one health program but in its practice of national transformation: balancing access, quality and affordability while connecting health to housing, mobility, economic sustainability and quality of life.

What has impressed me most is the movement between scale and detail. National objectives provide direction; close observation reveals where policy must be refined. Concepts are tested against daily life and reconsidered whenever progress in one field creates consequences in another.

Japan and Singapore are very different yet each has cultivated something approaching a national miracle — not perfection but a distinctive capacity built from history, necessity and human effort. Saudi Arabia brings its own: the energy of a society transforming at exceptional speed, technological ambition joined to enduring family bonds, and a vision placing quality of life within national progress.

The invitation is larger than an exchange of best practices. It is for societies to bring their finest qualities into a deeper relationship. No country contains the complete wisdom the future requires. Through the quality of their connections, nations may create possibilities that none could produce alone.

These reflections return me to where they began: the Shizuoka Cancer Center and to the unsettling lesson cancer itself offers about change. Life depends upon change: cells divide, organisms adapt and societies renew themselves. Yet not every change serves life. Growth detached from the order that sustains the whole can become destructive.

The analogy must not be pushed too far. But it raises a question at the heart of every national transformation: How can change strengthen the whole rather than advance one part at the expense of others?

Speed is not, by itself, evidence of progress, nor is the accumulation of technology or wealth. A healthy transformation holds together economic sustainability, good governance, security and a quality of life that reveals what they are ultimately for. Its measure is whether the whole has grown more capable of sustaining human life — especially when life becomes vulnerable.

For vulnerability is not a temporary defect that successful societies will eliminate. It is part of being human. We begin life dependent upon others. Many will encounter illness or disability. Those who live long enough will experience some loss of physical capacity. A society reveals its understanding of progress not only in how it celebrates strength but in how it accompanies people when strength changes form.

Arabic and Islamic tradition offers a name for the wisdom such a society requires. The physician was often called “al-hakim,” the wise one. The word implied more than command of remedies. It joined knowledge with judgment, the body with the person and the act of treatment with responsibility for the balance of life.

Perhaps the future asks us to enlarge this meaning beyond the individual physician. The wisdom of al-hakim may become a collective quality: science exact enough to determine what can be done; judgment broad enough to ask what should be done; and societies humble enough to place their finest knowledge in one another’s service.

For we are embodied beings but we are not bodies alone. We are memory and relationship, aspiration and responsibility, matter and spirit. Medicine can preserve life and relieve suffering. Society must help ensure that the life preserved can still find belonging, dignity and meaning.

The future of health will not be decided only by what medicine becomes. It will also be decided by what society remembers a human being to be.

GENEVA: The United Nations rights chief called Monday for countries and “frontier” artificial intelligence companies to act urgently to rein in a technology he warned posed “unprecedented risks”.

In a letter sent to countries and AI developers and shared with the media, Volker Turk cautioned that the world was “on the cusp of irreversible change, affecting not just us but generations of humanity to come”.

“The current race towards ever more powerful AI is a step change towards greater existential risks to every aspect of our lives.”

He sent the letter at a time when worries over the risks of “superintelligent” computer systems have been on full display, after a researcher publicly resigned from leading AI firm Anthropic over fears that the technology could escape human control.

Another Anthropic employee, who did not resign, stated publicly that “we really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans”, and that he thought the chances were greater than “10 percent within the next decade”.

Amid the outcry, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called Saturday for AI companies to “pace the frontier” — or coordinate a slowdown in the technology’s development, with his chief competitors, xAI’s Elon Musk and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, publicly supporting him.

“In today’s world, we are almost entirely reliant on a small number of powerful companies to make the right choices on Al development for all of humanity,” Turk lamented.

“I call on States and companies to mobilise urgently through multilateral fora to chart a path for action to govern advanced, frontier AI models, grounded in international human rights law.”