News Desk

Finalists and honorees for the 46th Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were announced Wednesday.

Writer-curator Ekow Eshun is among the biography finalists for “The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them,” which parses Black masculinity as embodied by various civil rights activists, philosophers and other visionaries. Contenders in the fiction categories ranged from seasoned novelists like Michael Connelly to breakouts including Saou Ichikawa, whose debut novel, “Hunchback,” was longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize.

Many selected books evoke the greatest anxieties of our time, from government-sanctioned historical revisionism to the ongoing proliferation of AI.

“The Joy Luck Club” author Amy Tan will be honored with this year’s Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. Nonprofit We Need Diverse Books and novelist Adam Ross will receive the Innovator’s Award and Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose, respectively.

Winners in the remaining categories will be revealed at the 46th L.A. Times Book Prizes on April 17 at USC’s Bovard Auditorium. The ceremony is a prelude to the annual L.A. Times Festival of Books, which this year runs April 18-19.

The Oakland-born Tan will be given the marquee Robert Kirsch Award, which celebrates literature with regional and thematic connections to the Western United States, for her highly awarded body of work exploring multicultural identity and its complex effects on familial bonds.

“Throughout her extraordinary career, Amy Tan has transformed American literature by shining a light on the emotional complexities of family, identity and cultural inheritance,” said Times senior editor for Books Sophia Kercher. “Her work confronts the social and cultural legacies of the American West with rich details of the immigrant experience.”

Tan’s 1989 debut novel, “The Joy Luck Club,” which interweaves the stories of four Chinese immigrant mothers and their American-born daughters in San Francisco, is a staple of the modern literary canon and was previously a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. “The Joy Luck Club,” along with the essays, memoirs and novels Tan has since penned — most recently 2024’s “The Backyard Bird Chronicles” — have also led her to be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and earned her a National Humanities Medal from President Biden.

We Need Diverse Books, a viral 2014 Twitter campaign turned nonprofit, is being honored with the Innovator’s Award for its efforts toward promoting diversity and inclusion in children’s and young adult publishing.

According to the WNDB website, upon the nonprofit’s launch more than a decade ago, only 8% of children’s books published in the U.S. were written by authors of color. In 2023, that figure rose to 47%, in no small part due to WNDB’s grants, library partnerships and other advocacy work, per the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“We Need Diverse Books has played an important role in publishing by championing stories that reflect our world, and opening doors for writers and readers,” said Times Executive Editor Terry Tang. “We are thrilled to recognize them with this year’s Innovator’s Award, honoring their unwavering commitment to access and representation in literature.”

Ross rounds out the L.A. Times Book Prize honorees as the winner of the Christopher Isherwood Prize for “Playworld,” a semi-autobiographical novel about a teen growing up in 1980s New York that is described as “less a bildungsroman than a story of miseducation.”

In addition to the achievement awards, the Book Prizes recognize titles in 13 categories: audiobooks, autobiographical prose (the Christopher Isherwood Prize), biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award), graphic novel/comics, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science fiction, science and technology and young adult literature. Each category’s finalists and winners are chosen by panels of writers specializing in that genre.

For more information about the Book Prizes, including the complete list of finalists, visit latimes.com/BookPrizes.

Robert Kirsch Award

Amy Tan

Innovator’s Award

We Need Diverse Books

The Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiographical Prose

Adam Ross, “Playworld: A Novel”

The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction

Andy Anderegg, “Plum”

Krystelle Bamford, “Idle Grounds: A Novel”

Addie E. Citchens, “Dominion: A Novel”

Justin Haynes, “Ibis: A Novel”

Saou Ichikawa translated by Polly Barton, “Hunchback: A Novel”

Achievement in Audiobook Production, presented by Audible

Molly Jong-Fast (narrator), Matie Argiropoulos (producer); “How to Lose Your Mother”

Jason Mott, Ronald Peet, and JD Jackson (narrators), Diane McKiernan (producer); “People Like Us: A Novel”

James Aaron Oh (narrator), Linda Korn (producer); “The Emperor of Gladness: A Novel”

Imani Perry (narrator), Suzanne Mitchell (producer); “Black in Blues”

Maggi-Meg Reed, Jane Oppenheimer, Carly Robins, Jeff Ebner, David Pittu, Chris Andrew Ciulla, Mark Bramhall, Petrea Burchard, Robert Petkoff, Kimberly Farr, Cerris Morgan-Moyer, Peter Ganim, Jade Wheeler, Steve West, and Jim Seybert (narrators), Kelly Gildea (producer); “The Correspondent: A Novel”

Biography

Joe Dunthorne, “Children of Radium: A Buried Inheritance”

Ekow Eshun, “The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them”

Ruth Franklin, “The Many Lives of Anne Frank”

Beth Macy, “Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America”

Amanda Vaill, “Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution”

Current Interest

Jeanne Carstensen, “A Greek Tragedy: One Day, a Deadly Shipwreck, and the Human Cost of the Refugee Crisis”

Stefan Fatsis, “Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary”

Brian Goldstone, “There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America”

Gardiner Harris, “No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson”

Jordan Thomas, “When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World”

Fiction

Tod Goldberg, “Only Way Out: A Novel”

Stephen Graham Jones, “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter”

Mia McKenzie, “These Heathens: A Novel”

Andrés Felipe Solano translated by Will Vanderhyden, “Gloria: A Novel”

Bryan Washington, “Palaver: A Novel”

Graphic Novel/Comics

Eagle Valiant Brosi, “Black Cohosh”

Jaime Hernandez, “Life Drawing: A Love and Rockets Collection”

Michael D. Kennedy, “Milk White Steed”

Lee Lai, “Cannon”

Carol Tyler, “The Ephemerata: Shaping the Exquisite Nature of Grief”

History

Char Adams, “Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore”

Bench Ansfield, “Born in Flames: The Business of Arson and the Remaking of the American City”

Jennifer Clapp, “Titans of Industrial Agriculture: How a Few Giant Corporations Came to Dominate the Farm Sector and Why It Matters”

Eli Erlick, “Before Gender: Lost Stories from Trans History, 1850-1950”

Aaron G. Fountain Jr., “High School Students Unite!: Teen Activism, Education Reform, and FBI Surveillance in Postwar America”

Mystery/Thriller

Megan Abbott, “El Dorado Drive”

Ace Atkins, “Everybody Wants to Rule the World: A Novel”

Lou Berney, “Crooks: A Novel About Crime and Family”

Michael Connelly, “The Proving Ground: A Lincoln Lawyer Novel”

S.A. Cosby, “King of Ashes: A Novel”

Poetry

Gabrielle Calvocoressi, “The New Economy”

Chet’la Sebree, “Blue Opening: Poems”

Richard Siken, “I Do Know Some Things”

Devon Walker-Figueroa, “Lazarus Species: Poems”

Allison Benis White, “A Magnificent Loneliness”

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Speculative Fiction

Stephen Graham Jones, “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter”

Jordan Kurella, “The Death of Mountains”

Nnedi Okorafor, “Death of the Author: A Novel”

Adam Oyebanji, “Esperance”

Silvia Park, “Luminous: A Novel”

Science & Technology

Mariah Blake, “They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals”

Peter Brannen, “The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World”

Karen Hao, “Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI”

Laura Poppick, “Strata: Stories from Deep Time”

Jordan Thomas, “When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World”

Young Adult Literature

K. Ancrum, “The Corruption of Hollis Brown”

Idris Goodwin, “King of the Neuro Verse”

Jamie Jo Hoang, “My Mother, the Mermaid Chaser”

Trung Le Nguyen, “Angelica and the Bear Prince”

Hannah V. Sawyerr, “Truth Is: A Novel in Verse”

It is no longer possible to interpret the Yemeni landscape solely through the lens of politics. The developments witnessed in the southern Yemeni governorates under government control in recent months clearly indicate that security and military affairs have become the decisive factor in determining the course of power on the ground. Any governmental or political arrangements will be unsustainable unless the issue of security control and the unification of military command are resolved.

Nor can the escalating Saudi–Emirati rift between two allies who have militarily, politically and economically shaped southern Yemen in recent years be overlooked, given its direct impact on the balance of power and stability.

Over the past years, a complex security structure has taken shape across the southern governorates, comprising official units and others that emerged during the war. Some of these units are linked to state institutions, while others were established with Emirati support, such as the Southern Transitional Council’s forces, which number in the tens of thousands, or through local arrangements shaped by the circumstances of the conflict.

Although recent months have seen moves to restructure this landscape following the defeat of the Southern Transitional Council (STC), which declared its dissolution in Hadhramaut and al-Mahra on January 3, 2026, security control remains uneven from one governorate to another. Furthermore, the STC’s security and military formations have not disappeared entirely; some have been redeployed, while the fate of others remains unknown.

In Aden, the temporary capital, security agencies operate within a complex structure. Some units formerly affiliated with the STC have seen their personnel and weapons disappear, while others have been renamed or redeployed. However, longstanding networks of influence remain, and the transfer of leadership or redeployment of camps reflects attempts to rebalance power rather than a definitive resolution of the situation.

The same applies, to varying degrees, to Lahij, Abyan, Dhale, Shabwah and Hadhramaut, where the state’s ability to assert effective authority varies, as does the level of coordination between official security forces and the formations that emerged during the war.

The most sensitive issue at this stage is the integration of military and security formations into the Ministries of Defence and Interior. The state seeks to end parallel security authority, but the process faces complex challenges, including differing sources of funding for some units, varying political loyalties, fears among some commanders of losing local influence, and considerations related to the composition of these forces. As a result, integration appears gradual, relying more on redeployment and restructuring than on decisive measures that could risk triggering confrontation.

The government now based in Aden, southern Yemen, finds itself facing a delicate equation: it must impose its security authority without plunging the country into renewed internal conflict.

The transition from multiple armed groups to a state monopoly on the use of force requires political consensus, regional support and international backing. Any hasty move could reignite internal clashes, particularly given existing political and regional sensitivities, as well as fears that the Saudi–Emirati dispute could once again trigger confrontation on the ground.

For this reason, government efforts are focused first on establishing a stable security environment.

This trajectory cannot be understood without considering the regional dimension. Saudi Arabia views Yemen as a direct strategic depth for its national security and seeks the emergence of a stable state along its southern border.

The dispute between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, particularly after Yemen requested the withdrawal of Emirati forces from its territory, has become a significant factor shaping the course of the crisis, especially amid Saudi accusations that Abu Dhabi continues to support the STC and consolidate its influence on the ground.

Yemen today is part of a broader regional landscape, intertwined with Red Sea dynamics and maritime routes, competition for influence in the Horn of Africa, and tensions stretching from Sudan to Somalia to the Gulf. For this reason, international actors — particularly the United States — are keen to keep the situation in Yemen under control, fearing that a security collapse could trigger intra-Gulf conflict, threaten international shipping, create space for a new wave of armed groups, or allow the Houthis to exploit the situation.

In the next phase, the government is likely to continue efforts to consolidate security control in Aden and other southern governorates, including Hadhramaut, which borders Saudi Arabia, while gradually integrating military units and maintaining political balances to prevent renewed conflict.

The success of these efforts will determine whether the country is moving towards gradual stability or another round of reshaping power centres. Given this reality, the central question remains: who truly possesses the ability to impose security on the ground, particularly as some actors continue to push the Southern Transitional Council towards escalation that could reignite the conflict?

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

The U.S. Navy is exploring options for a new long-range anti-radiation missile designed to home in on radars to help neutralize enemy air defense networks. The capabilities the service wants for this Advanced Emission Suppression Missile (AESM) sound curiously similar to the ones it is already working to acquire through the AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER). There is one crucial difference: the AESM needs to be able to engage targets in the air, as well as on the ground. This would give the Navy a single missile it could use to attack critical airborne early warning and control planes, as well as potentially other aerial targets, and air defenses down below.

Naval Air Systems Command’s (NAVAIR) Program Executive Office for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons (PEO U&W) recently put out a contracting notice regarding the AESM.

NAVAIR is “conducting market research to identify potential sources capable of providing an advanced, anti-radiation guided missile weapon system, or key subsystems thereof, with a longer range than existing in the Navy’s current inventory, including associated engineering, manufacturing, testing, and logistics support,” the notice explains. “This All Up Round (AUR) must be compatible with existing launch platforms (e.g. F-18, F-35) and infrastructure currently supporting the Navy and Air Force’s existing inventory of anti-radiation guided missiles.”

The notice later elaborates that AESM needs to be compatible, at least, with the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler, and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It is unclear whether “existing inventory of anti-radiation guided missiles” includes the AARGM-ER, which is a substantial new evolution of the AGM-88 design and is still under development. TWZ has reached out to NAVAIR for more information.

“NAVAIR is seeking to enhance its capabilities to suppress and neutralize enemy air defenses in contested environments,” the AESM notice adds. “This effort aims to identify and potentially acquire a weapon system that provides similar or improved capabilities compared to its current weapons inventory, focusing on extended range, advanced targeting, counter-countermeasures, and integration with existing and future platforms.”

No specific range requirement is included in the notice beyond that AESM needs to be capable of “engaging targets at significant standoff distances.” The missile also needs to have an “advanced anti-radiation seeker with broad frequency coverage,” the “ability to target modern and advanced radar systems,” a “precision navigation and guidance system (e.g., GPS/INS with anti-jamming capabilities),” and the “potential for pre-emptive targeting capabilities.”

Much of this sounds, at least in broad strokes, like the requirements for the AGM-88G. “The AARGM-ER incorporates hardware and software modifications to improve AGM-88E AARGM capabilities to include extended range, survivability and effectiveness against future threats,” according to NAVAIR’s own website.

However, as noted, the requirements laid out in the AESM notice notably differ from those for AARGM-ER in one key respect: the explicit call for anti-air engagement capability. Prospective offers are required to “describe ability to engage air-to-air and air-to-ground targets.”

AESM also needs to have “robust ECCM [electronic counter-countermeasures] capabilities to defeat enemy countermeasures, including chaff, flares, jamming and anti-ARM [anti-radiation missile] techniques.” This might also point further to emphasis on the air-to-air role. Radar blinding chaff and infrared decoy flares are countermeasures typically associated with the air and naval domains.

U.S. military interest in very-long-range air-to-air capable anti-radiation missiles traces all the way back to the Cold War, primarily as a means for engaging enemy airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) planes. Anti-air weapons designed around this role are often colloquially referred to as ‘AWACS killers,’ a reference to the U.S. E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. A very-long-range air-to-air missile could be used against other aerial targets, as well.

This is also not the first time the Navy, as well as the U.S. Air Force, has pursued an air-launched weapon that would blend together traditional anti-radiation and air-to-air capabilities. Starting in the mid-2000s, the two services worked together on a single missile to replace the AGM-88 and the AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) dubbed the Joint Dual-Role Air Dominance Missile (JDRADM), which then evolved into the Next Generation Missile (NGM). The NGM effort came to an end, at least publicly, in 2013, ostensibly over high costs. A more secretive parallel development effort, called the Triple Target Terminator (T-3), continued for at least some time afterward. A possible successor to T-3, called the Long Range Engagement Weapon (LREW), emerged in 2017. How far the LREW effort subsequently progressed, and what its current status might be, are unclear.

All that being said, the value of an ‘AWACS killer’ missile is clear-cut. AEW&C are critical surveillance and battle management assets. Shooting them down deprives an opponent of those capabilities, inherently reducing their ability to effectively maneuver air assets and share important information, including with other nodes on the ground or at sea, as well as in the air. Knocking out these flying radar stations, which can be especially well-suited to spotting lower flying threats from their high perches, just hampers an enemy’s overall situational awareness.

The issue, of course, is that AEW&C planes typically orbit well behind the front edges of a conflict, creating additional challenges for targeting them. This is where something like AESM could come into play. A weapon of this type could engage other aerial targets by zeroing in on the radiofrequency emissions they pump out. This could include electronic warfare aircraft, and potentially other aerial targets. AESM might be able to take on a more general anti-air role with the addition of an active radar and/or imaging infrared seeker, as well as datalinks allowing for the use of networked targeting data. AARGM and AARGM-ER both feature an active millimeter-wave radar seeker to enable them to hit fleeing ground targets, but a similar concept could be adapted for air-to-air use.

AARGM F-18

For the Navy, as well as other branches of the U.S. military, this is all particularly relevant in the context of a potential future high-end fight with China, which has made major investments in its fleets of AEW&C and electronic warfare planes. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has also been pursuing ever-longer-ranged anti-air missiles, including types that could be used to target American AEW&C platforms, as well as other key support aircraft.

TWZ has previously highlighted much of this in a past feature discussing the use cases for the Navy’s new AIM-174B air-launched version of the Standard Missile 6 (SM-6), which was officially unveiled in 2024. Navy officials have previously hinted at further long-range air-to-air capabilities to come when talking about the AIM-174B.

How The Navy’s New Very Long-Range AIM-174 Will Pierce China’s Anti-Access Bubble

“Clearly we recognize that we’ve got to find opportunities to increase reach and range for our weapons,” Navy Rear Adm. Michael “Buzz” Donnelly, then director of the Air Warfare Division (N98) within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, said at the Navy League’s annual Sea Air Space symposium in April 2025. “We’re doing it in air-to-air. We just recently fielded the air-launched SM-6, or the AIM-174, that we’re capable of carrying off the F-18 Super Hornet. And we’ll look at increasing range and incrementing beyond that.”

“That’s [the AIM-174B] an operational capability. And, as you can see, that one being revealed and shown into the area, there are many more behind [it], things that we’re doing there, making sure that we are staying ahead of the conflict, making sure that we’re prepared for the fight that’s going on,” Navy Rear Adm. Keith Hash, head of NAVAIR’s Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD), also said during a panel discussion at the WEST 2025 conference in January 2025. “And those activities and that development is active and strong.”

In addition, the Navy is now working together with the U.S. Air Force on the development of the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile. The AIM-260 is intended as a longer-range and otherwise more capable direct successor to the AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM).

As described now, AESM would also offer air-to-surface capabilities in line with a traditional anti-radiation missile in the same package. Even in a future missile ecosystem that also includes the AGM-88G, AIM-174B, and AIM-260, having a single hybrid anti-air/anti-radiation missile would offer extremely useful additional flexibility, especially for addressing threats that might appear unexpectedly in the course of a mission.

One missile capable of being used in those disparate roles could also offer valuable magazine depth benefits, particularly if it has a form factor that allows it to be carried internally by various stealthy crewed aircraft, such as the F-35, and/or advanced combat drones. There had been some speculation that the aforementioned LREW effort, and possibly one or more of its predecessors, had been aiming for a missile that could serve in the anti-radiation and air-to-air roles, and fit inside F-22 and F-35 weapon bays. At the same time, a missile designed to be carried externally could help maximize range, which would be an important consideration for AESM. As an aside, scalable missile concepts have been raised in the past as a way to readily adapt a core design for internal or external carriage.

Altgoether, there is a possibility that AESM requirements could be met by a further variation on the AARGM-ER design. The U.S. Air Force is also already acquiring a more general high-speed strike derivative of that missile called the Stand-In Attack Weapon (SiAW). Prime contractor Northrop Grumman has also proposed a surface-to-surface version called the Advanced Reactive Strike Missile (AReS).

The “market research” the Navy is doing now is intended to see what other options might be available. The AESM contracting also highlights the possibility of a weapon that could be further exported to allies and partners. Additional customers could help defray development and acquisition costs, and support production at scale.

Much is still to be learned about the Navy’s plans for AESM, but the Navy certainly seems to have kicked off a new hunt for an ‘AWACS killer’ type missile that could also be used against other targets in the air and on the surface.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

“Strip Law,” a new cartoon premiering Friday, finds Netflix in an Adult Swim state of mind, which is to say there was no thought of it being made for everybody. (Possibly including some of the people it was made for.) It’s rude, lewd, surreal in a banal sort of way, at times ridiculously violent — that is, the violence is ridiculous.

It was the cast that attracted me: Adam Scott, once more the schlemiel as leading man; Janelle James, sure of her own magnificence, not far from her character on “Abbott Elementary”; and Keith David, whose deep, sonorous voice is almost necessarily one of authority, turned to good or evil or in between as the script demands. James and David, especially, I could listen to for days.

Created by Cullen Crawford, (“The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” “Star Trek: Lower Decks”), the series is centered on a failing Las Vegas law firm, headed by Scott’s Lincoln Gumb, with James as Sheila Flambé, “a magician and three-year all-county sex champion” he hires as his “co-counsel in charge of spectacle.” Niece Irene (Shannon Gisela), an iron-pumping 16-year-old, works as his investigator; she wears a blindfold labeled “Underage” whenever she’s required to be in a bar. Stephen Root plays his disbarred (later undisbarred — rebarred?) lawyer uncle, Glem Blorchman, the strangest of them all — “It’s 115 degrees out so I put marshmallows in gin,” is something he says as they gather to watch Christmas movies. And David plays Lincoln’s nemesis, Stevie Nichols, the very successful former partner of Lincoln’s late mother, upon whom the son remains perversely fixated.

Much of it is the sort of thing that will work or not work depending on your mood, but generally I prefer the small throwaway jokes to the big gross ones. There are self-reflexive meta gags about “hard-working cartoon writers” and “reappropriating out-of-date catchphrases.” There are many nods to “The Simpsons,” including “frosty chocolate milkshakes” and James L. Brooks’ Gracie Films logo. The final episode, of 10, takes place within the finale of a “Suits”-like legal dramedy. (“It’s against their nature to let something be sweet and fun and airy,” that firm’s bromantic lawyers say of Lincoln’s team. “They have to make it dark and strange and crass.”) And there are left-field references to Cocteau Twins and Bikini Kill, whose “original bass player” Glem claims to be. (“I don’t know what Bikini Kill is,” says Irene. “Neither did I, according to Kathleen Hanna,” says Glem.)

There are various oddball judges (nothing remotely legal happens in a courtroom); “local character” Lunch Meat, who turns up in many roles; a barman, Mr. O’Raviolo, who switches between exaggerated Irish and Italian accents in mid-sentence. Comedian George Wallace plays himself as the mayor of Las Vegas. A Halloween Christmas episode parodies “Miracle on 34th Street”; another takes off on Colton Burpo, the “boy who saw Heaven,” which includes a live-action trailer for a faith-based film featuring Tim Heidecker as a coke-snorting atheistic Lincoln. A virtual reality HR seminar is hosted by “a computerized amalgamation of all five personalities of the Rat Pack,” an immersive Autoverse, in which actors create situations that somehow amount to a driving test. There are the “Nevada-grown” Hot Dates, a sexualized version of the California Raisins; riots occur when the characters are redesigned to be more respectable (“They’re walking away from years of established canon,” laments Lincoln.)

The series felt a little off-putting at first, as if it were straining for effect, but gathered steam as it went on, either because the later episodes are weirder or better written, or because one just gets used to being in that world with those people. There is just enough character in the comedy to create stakes in the narrative; its misfit energy has fueled the screen’s bands of outsiders throughout the years. (“Even when you’re a disaster, you’re a disaster for the right people,” Irene tells Lincoln.) As to the famous fine line between stupid and clever, the stupidity and the cleverness are all but inextricable, and to the point.

The credits declare that the series is “proudly made by real, non-computer human beings,” which is pleasant to know, and in 100 years will still have been the best way to make cartoons, even if by then they are only made by and, for all we know, for machines. The thin-lined drawing style is standard for more or less realistic 21st-century adult TV animation, with perhaps a hint of comics artist Daniel Clowes laid on. But the characters are expressive, and the medium is used to unreal ends, which is, after all, what cartoons are good for.

More than 600 people may be in custody for political reasons, one Venezuelan rights group estimates.

Venezuela’s acting president has signed into law an amnesty bill that could see hundreds of politicians, activists and lawyers released soon, while tacitly acknowledging what the country has denied for years – that it has political detainees in jail.

The law, signed on Thursday, in effect reverses decades of denials in the government’s latest about-face since the United States military’s January 3 attack in the country’s capital, Caracas, and the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro.

Opposition members, activists, human rights defenders, journalists and others who were targeted by the governing party over the past 27 years could benefit from the new law.

But families hoping for the release of relatives say acting President Delcy Rodriguez has failed to deliver on earlier promises to release prisoners. Some of them have been gathered outside detention centres for weeks.

Venezuela-based prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal has tallied 448 releases since January 8 and estimates that more than 600 people are still in custody for political reasons.

The new law provides amnesty for involvement in political protests and “violent actions” which took place during a brief coup in 2002 and during demonstrations or elections in certain months going back to 2004.

It does not detail the exact crimes which would be eligible for amnesty, though a previous draft laid out several, including instigation of illegal activity, resistance to authorities, rebellion and treason.

People convicted of “military rebellion” for involvement in events in 2019 are excluded. The law also does not return assets of those detained, revoke public office bans given for political reasons or cancel sanctions against media outlets.

Opposition divided

“It’s not perfect, but it is undoubtedly a great step forward for the reconciliation of Venezuela,” opposition politician Nora Bracho said during a debate on the bill in the legislature on Thursday.

But the law was criticised by other members of the opposition, including Pedro Urruchurtu, international relations director for opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado.

“A true amnesty doesn’t require laws, but rather will, something that is lacking in this discussion,” he said on X on Thursday. “It is not only an invalid and illegitimate law, but also a trap to buy time and revictimize those persecuted.”

Since Madura’s abduction, US President Donald Trump has praised Rodriguez, Maduro’s former deputy, while downplaying the prospect of supporting the opposition.

For her part, Rodriguez has overseen several concessions to the US, including freezing oil shipments to Cuba and supporting a law to open the state-controlled oil industry to foreign companies.

The US has said it will control the proceeds ⁠from Venezuela’s oil sales until a “representative government” is established.

US President Donald Trump has warned Iran it has 10 to 15 days to reach a deal over its nuclear program, or “really bad things” will happen. Iran’s envoy to the United Nations said Tehran will respond “decisively” to any military aggression.

MELISSA Joan Hart has sparked an online debate after posting a video of herself punting her former co-star, Salem the Cat.

The actress’s talking black cat, Salem – voiced by Nick Bakay – was a staple character on the ABC sitcom Sabrina the Teenage Witch, on which she starred from 1996 to 2003.

However, it turns out Melissa, 49, wasn’t a big fan of the cuddly creature and made it known in a shocking Instagram clip.

In the video shared on Thursday, the TV star filmed herself stroking a fake black cat perched on her lap.

She wore casual attire of blue jeans and a skintight red tank top, with her blonde hair flowing straight down.

The words, “When people ask me if I’m a cat person,” were written over the clip.

HART TO HEART

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Things then took an unexpected turn when a white blast of glitter appeared, and Melissa suddenly threw the cat in the air and kicked it out of sight.

The scene then magically turned into Melissa, formally dressed in a white dress and her hair in a ponytail, while petting a large dog at her feet.

“No Salems were harmed in the filming of this silly video. PS I like cats, but I love dogs!” the TV star clarified in her caption.

Although Melissa made it clear that the cat in the video wasn’t real, nor did she have magical powers like her character, Sabrina, fans had mixed reactions to her stance on cats vs. dogs.

“Not going to lie this was a bit heartbreaking, poor Salem lol,” one person commented.

“Cats are the absolute best in this world, amazing creatures that should be treasured,” demanded another.

“Dyyying. Sorry cat people! Love kitties too. That was just the right kind of wrong Melissa,” said a third

“No! It’s okay to LOVE them both…” insisted a fourth.

“This just broke something in me,” reacted a fifth.

“I’m ok you not loving cats but saying it like that was just not funny for me,” added a sixth.

“This was unnecessary. People hurt black cats every day. This is not nice. Tasteless…” someone else wrote.

“That hurt. You can love both cats and dogs. No need to choose one,” chimed in another.

“Awwww but we all got black cats because of you!” one more pointed out.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch ran on ABC for seven seasons and was a part of the Friday night (TGIF) lineup.

Melissa’s co-stars on the show include Beth Broderick, Caroline Rhea, Nate Richert, Jenna Leigh Green, Lindsay Sloane, Elisa Donovan, and Martin Mull.

In June 2024, Melissa led the cast in paying tribute to Martin, who played Principal Willard Kraft, after his death.

US president’s announcement comes amid a surge of interest following comments on aliens by ex-President Barack Obama.

United States President Donald Trump said he is directing federal agencies, including the defence department, to begin “identifying and releasing” government records related to unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and alien life forms.

Trump did not specify whether classified documents would be released to the public, but added that the files should include “any and all other information connected to these highly complex, but extremely interesting and important, matters”.

“Based on the tremendous interest shown, I will be directing the Secretary of War, and other relevant Departments and Agencies, to begin the process of identifying and releasing Government files related to alien and extraterrestrial life, unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), and unidentified flying objects (UFOs),” Trump said late on Thursday in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The move appears to stem from a surge in public attention following recent comments by former US President Barack Obama, who suggested in a podcast interview that aliens are “real”, but that he had not personally seen one, and none were being kept in secret government facilities.

On Sunday, Obama released a statement on Instagram, clarifying what he meant by his comments, which have since gone viral.

“Since it’s gotten attention let me clarify. Statistically, the universe is so vast that the odds are good there’s life out there,” he said.

“But the distances between solar systems are so great that the chances we’ve been visited by aliens is low, and I saw no evidence during my presidency that extraterrestrials have made contact with us. Really!”

Earlier on Thursday, Trump had criticised Obama for his remarks regarding aliens, telling reporters that Obama “was not supposed to be doing that” and implying that the former president’s comments bordered on classified information.

“He made a big mistake,” Trump said of Obama.

No evidence has yet been produced of intelligent life beyond Earth, and the Pentagon in 2024 released a report stating that it had no proof that UFOs were alien technology, most being spy planes, satellites and weather balloons.

Nevertheless, messages of support poured in swiftly on social media and from Capitol Hill following Trump’s announcement to release all documents.

“Thank you POTUS!” wrote Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, who chairs a congressional task force on unidentified aerial phenomena.

“As the Chairwoman of the Task Force that investigates these subjects, we are incredibly grateful for you doing this! I look forward to going through all the footage, photos, and reports with the public!” she wrote.

Democratic Senator John Fetterman also voiced support during an appearance on Fox News, calling Trump’s decision “fantastic” and saying that “America and the world deserve this”.

Tripoli, Lebanon – Hossam Hazrouni points underneath a concrete staircase to the exposed foundation of the building where he lives.

“Inside, there, look,” the 65-year-old says. “The interior pillars are all broken. It’s covered in water. Everything inside is wet.”

A few metres away lies a pile of smashed concrete blocks and twisted metal. It is the rubble of a building that collapsed on February 8, killing at least 15 people.

In Tripoli, collapsed buildings are fast becoming common. This is the fourth building to collapse this winter alone. Today, hundreds of buildings are at risk of collapse due to a lethal combination of ageing infrastructure, unregulated construction, Lebanon’s 2019 economic crisis, the 2023 earthquake that fractured much of the local infrastructure’s foundation, and a relatively heavy rain season.

Locals like Hazrouni are afraid their buildings will be next.

“They told us that you should evacuate and you shouldn’t stay, but how are we supposed to leave when we are in a bad situation?” he asked, raising his palms to the sky. “Where are we supposed to go?”

Collapsing structures

In the 1950s, Tripoli, Lebanon’s second-largest city and the largest in the country’s north, was a hub for trade and shipping in the region. But in the intervening years, its status has fallen to become one of the poorest cities on the Mediterranean Sea.

It is also a city of massive disparity. Multiple billionaires live in Tripoli, including the former Prime Minister Najib Mikati and former Minister of Finance Mohammad Safadi, while about 45 percent of the city’s population lives in poverty, according to a 2024 World Bank report.

Over the years, most of Tripoli’s middle- and upper-class residents have moved to the southern edge of the city, leaving behind its impoverished classes to inhabit the decaying old city. Many of the poor know their concrete buildings are ageing and in poor condition, but have little means to fix them.

“The first problem is that the structures are old,” Fayssal al-Baccar, an engineer, told Al Jazeera from a restaurant in southern Tripoli. Al-Baccar is also the founder of the Tripoli Emergency Fund, a private initiative started in response to the collapsing building issue that has been fundraising to help the city.

“The lifespan of concrete is between 50 to 80 years,” al-Baccar explained, and in many of the buildings in central Tripoli, that lifespan is coming to an end. On a sheet of white paper with a blue pen, he drew a model of a building’s foundation.

“Through time, the pH [level] of the concrete will become more and more acidic,” he said, sketching lines around the base of his drawn wall. “Then it will corrode the steel – the steel will self-destruct – and the building will collapse.”

The issue has been exacerbated by a few incidents in particular. When a 2023 earthquake devastated northern Syria and southern Turkiye, it was widely felt in Tripoli as well. Local officials say that it damaged much of the infrastructural foundations of older buildings, many of which have had irregular or unregulated floors added to them, making them weaker. The area has also suffered from neglect and a lack of infrastructure for years, even before the 2019 economic and banking crisis.

Lastly, there is the issue of water damage. This year, Lebanon has received more rainfall than in the last couple of years. And in the days leading up to the collapsed building on February 8, it rained multiple times. “Water is infiltrating into the concrete and is also making the steel worse,” al-Baccar said.

That is why al-Baccar has recruited whom he described as some of the city’s “best and most successful” to help fill governmental gaps.

One of those people is Sarah al-Charif, the Tripoli Emergency Fund’s spokesperson and fundraising committee member. She is also the Lebanon director for Ruwwad Al Tanmeya, a nonprofit focused on youth and disenfranchised communities, and was appointed vice president of Tripoli’s Port Authority last year.

“You’re talking about areas where most, if not all, of the buildings are old and dilapidated, some of which are actually on the verge of collapse,” al-Charif said from her office at Ruwwad Al Tanmeya’s office in Bab al-Tabbaneh, less than a kilometre (0.62 miles) away from where the building collapsed on February 8.

“The fact that the problem is so big reflects decades of accumulated neglect by a state that hasn’t fulfilled its obligations towards this city,” she said.

Al-Charif said she doesn’t hold the current government – which took office a year ago – responsible, but that historically, “people who were in positions of power didn’t do anything, they weren’t fulfilling their duties”.

“There’s also a part that falls on the landlord, a part that falls on the tenant, and a part that falls on the merchants who are the builders. Maybe they’re using substandard materials,” she said. “So everyone has to take their share of the responsibility.”

Historical neglect

Standing on the street, Wissam Kafrouni, 70, points to the top floor of a building just a few doors down from the structure that collapsed on February 8. A crack runs zig-zagging down the building’s side, in the pattern of descending stairs. His nephew rents the top-floor apartment, he says, but the landlord is claiming that repairs are the responsibility of the tenant.

Locals in this neighbourhood say that many officials have visited the site in recent days, including Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. They also say that they’ve been told for years that the local municipality has plans to fix the infrastructure, but that little has come about from it.

The local government has known about the issue for years, but until now, little has been done. Deputy Mayor Khaled Kabbara is part of a new municipal government elected in 2025.

“The issue of cracked buildings is a very old issue in the city of Tripoli, and unfortunately, it has not been dealt with in previous periods,” he told Al Jazeera from Tripoli’s municipality headquarters. But this new municipal government that was elected in 2025, he said, has “raised its voice”.

Kabbara also said that Tripoli has been historically ignored by Beirut “since independence” in the 1940s, but that the current government was working with the local government to find solutions.

“Honestly, this is the first time that we feel that someone is listening and there is someone who is working with us,” he said.

A group of engineers are currently inspecting buildings around the city to decide if damaged buildings can be repaired or must be evacuated and demolished. Evacuation warnings have been issued for 114 buildings, though that number is expected to rise substantially.

Families that evacuate should receive a one-year shelter allowance to secure alternative housing. Religious institutions have opened their doors to evacuees, while Turkiye has also promised to donate about 100 prefabricated houses.

A call centre has also been set up for residents to report suspected issues with their buildings. The hotline has so far received reports on approximately 650 different buildings, Kabbara said.

One of the buildings previously reported to the call centre was the building that collapsed on February 8. Locals had heard a creaking sound coming from the building.

Kabbara acknowledged that the report was received and that the residents were afraid. However, he said, the engineers had not inspected it before it collapsed because nothing in the report indicated it needed an urgent inspection.

What comes next?

Back in Bab al-Tabbaneh, numerous locals expressed frustration and fear. They said many officials and associations have visited the site, but few have delivered on promises to help them.

“We’ve been told there is a plan to fix the infrastructure since the Siniora government,” Samir Rajab, 56, said, referring to Fouad Siniora, the prime minister of Lebanon from 2005 to 2009. “But nothing happens.”

Next to the destroyed building site, Mustapha al-Abed, 54, repaired a broken washing machine out of a small workshop. He said his work was not very fruitful lately, as poverty forced many in this area with broken appliances to wash their laundry by hand.

He looked over at the site where the building had gone down just days earlier. “The problem is not here any more. These people are already dead,” he said. He then pointed across the street to a bustling neighbourhood, where people were doing their Ramadan shopping.

“The problem is all the other buildings.”

Brandi Glanville finally has some answers about what caused her mysterious facial issues — her breast implants.

The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” alum is “taking care of the face now that [she’s] figured out what was wrong,” Glanville told TMZ on Wednesday. The outlet caught up with her as she was leaving a doctor’s office where she had been treated with “lasers and different things.”

Last week, InTouch reported that Glanville had surgery to remove her breast implants earlier this month. According to the outlet, she got her implants in 2007 after the birth of her son Jake. Glanville was told her left implant had a “slow leak,” while her right implant was “completely ruptured.”

“I had silicone all over my lymph nodes,” the reality TV star told TMZ. “That’s what caused the infection in my face. … [I]t couldn’t get out because my lymph nodes were all clogged.”

Glanville had been struggling for the last few years with a mysterious ailment that caused recurring facial swelling, speech impairment and the loss of teeth, leaving her reluctant to go out in public. In 2024, she revealed that, after she’d spent more than $70,000 on treatments, doctors were still stumped by what could be causing her facial disfigurement, though some suggested it could be because of a parasite. Glanville even tried using Nair, the hair-removal product, to fight the parasite.

Glanville told TMZ that she had been shocked to learn that her breast implants had been the cause of her facial disfigurement. She said she had visited 21 doctors over the years trying to investigate her condition, to no avail. She only learned that her nearly 20-year-old breast implants were damaged after having them examined with a sonogram.

“I learned a really, really hard lesson,” said Glanville, advising people to make sure to get their implants checked after 10 years even if they feel fine.

“I’m not saying don’t [get implants],” she added. “Just do it and make sure you stay on top of it. [And] you really have to be vigilant about [getting] sonograms. Ask you doctor.”

Glanville appeared to be in good spirits now that she is on the road to recovery. She plans on getting her teeth fixed next.

Despite doctor’s orders, “I can’t rest,” she said. “I’ve been home for three years.”

Feb. 19 (Asia Today) — Internal divisions resurfaced within the conservative People Power Party on Thursday after former President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life in prison in a first-instance ruling on charges of leading an insurrection.

Younger lawmakers within the party called for an apology and a clear break from Yoon, while party leader Jang Dong-hyuk refrained from issuing an immediate statement.

The party said it plans to announce an official position as early as Friday after gathering views from within the leadership and rank-and-file members. Chief spokesperson Choi Bo-yoon said a consolidated statement is likely to be released after further deliberation.

Some party members interpreted Jang’s silence as a strategic move aimed at broadening the party’s appeal to centrist voters. In a television interview the previous day, Jang said “transition is more important than severance,” a remark seen by some as signaling a shift toward focusing on economic and livelihood issues rather than internal factional conflict.

However, several figures urged the leadership to distance the party from what they described as “Yoon Again” supporters.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said he felt “devastated” by the court’s ruling as a member of the party that produced the former president and argued that cutting ties with Yoon is an unavoidable step for the conservative movement.

Lawmakers affiliated with the reform-minded group Alternative and Future also called for an official declaration of separation from pro-Yoon factions, warning that continued alignment with far-right elements could harm the party’s future.

The group urged the leadership to demonstrate “new leadership that unites rather than divides,” as the party weighs its response to the unprecedented life sentence handed to a former president.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260220010005937

How do you comfort a man who has just watched years of his life turn to smoke?

Sulaiman Mustapha remained seated inside the mosque after the dawn prayer, long after others had left. He put both hands on his head as if trying to hold his brain in place. He could not speak. No wailing. No outburst. Just the stillness of a man whose world had collapsed overnight. Those around him tried to console him, but the words sounded distant, almost irrelevant. 

Less than a month ago, Sulaiman bought a new motorcycle to make his trips to Singa Market in Kano, North West Nigeria, easier. For him, it was not just a bike. It was a milestone. For years, he had gone to the market with his brother as a worker, running errands for established traders. With time, he began handling purchases. Then he began trading in small quantities for himself. The profits were modest but steady.

The motorcycle symbolised a shift. It meant he would no longer spend heavily on transport. It meant more capital for his small shop. It meant growth. Then, in a matter of hours, fire erased that growth. Now it was metal frames and ash. 

On Saturday, Feb. 15, around 4 p.m., a fire broke out at Gidan Glass, a plaza at Singa Market. Witnesses say the fire spread quickly, leaping from shop to shop before traders could salvage much. It burned for two days. By the time it was contained, dozens of shops had been reduced to charred frames.

Sulaiman and his brother’s shop was among them.

When he sat in the mosque that morning, he was mourning years of hard work — the savings, the small profits he reinvested, and his mother’s inheritance. “After his grandfather died, the inheritance was shared,” his close friend, Abba Abubakar, told HumAngle. “His mother gave him her portion to grow the business.”

Now, everything is gone. 

The fire that tore through Singa Market is the latest in a long line of infernos that have become almost routine in Kano markets. Within 48 hours, early estimates placed losses in billions of naira. But beyond the figures lies a deeper story: how recurring fires, weak emergency infrastructure, and structural neglect continue to threaten the livelihoods of thousands of small-scale traders who form the backbone of the city’s informal economy.

Sulaiman’s story is that of hundreds of traders whose stalls were destroyed. In markets like Singa, capital is built slowly from daily turnover and rarely backed by insurance. Many traders rely on family contributions, cooperative loans, or personal savings. A single disruption can undo a decade of effort.

For small-scale traders, the market is their safety net. It funds school fees, hospital bills, rent, and other family obligations. When the market burns, the consequences ripple far beyond the charred stalls.

By Monday afternoon, some traders had returned to sift through ashes, hoping to salvage metal frames or partially burned goods. Others simply stood in clusters, calculating debts they still owed suppliers.

There are still unanswered questions about what triggered the fire and whether preventive measures were in place. For now, what remains visible is the human toll.

The full extent of the damage and how traders will rebuild is still unfolding.

But how did it start? 

Between sparks and sorrow

Around 3 p.m. that Saturday, Abba Abubakar noticed thick black smoke rising into the sky. The sight unsettled him immediately. Some weeks earlier, he had seen a similar column of smoke before a fire gutted Gidan Mazaf at the same Singa Market.

“But this one was very close,” he told HumAngle.

Abba is not a trader at Singa. He sells wrappers and garments at Abubakar Rimi Market, popularly known as Sabon Gari, just across the road. His fear was instinctive. Fires are not unfamiliar in that commercial district. When smoke appears, traders do not wait for confirmation. They imagine the worst.

“We rushed out of our shops and later realised it was solar panels burning on top of Gidan Glass,” he said. “By the time we got there, it had already consumed part of the upper floor, and the fire was raging.”

From another part of the neighbourhood, Muttaka Musa, who works in one of the affected stores, also saw the smoke. He had been at a nearby plaza known as Gidan Gwaggo Laraba when he looked up and saw the sky darken.

“Immediately I got there, the fire had already finished one of our stores and had started catching the other,” he said. Muttaka said people had been warned when the fire first broke out. But warnings in markets often compete with denial. No one expected the flames would escalate to that scale.

Auwal Ibrahim Gaya lost two shops in the blaze. He was performing the afternoon Asr prayer when he received the call. “When they told me the fire had started, I was at the mosque,” he said. “I rushed there, and when I saw it, I began reciting prayers. I said Allah is testing us, and we accept His decree.”

Faith, in moments like this, becomes both refuge and resignation.

As the fire intensified and traders failed to contain it, emergency services were called. But by then, the scene had drawn large crowds. Onlookers filled the narrow access roads, making it difficult for fire trucks to reach the core of the market.

One firefighter, who asked not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press, told HumAngle that “almost all the fire service trucks we have in Kano were mobilised. But the fire kept spreading from the top. It was moving across the upper structures, so it was difficult to control. If there had been a helicopter, it could have quenched it from above.”

An investigation by HumAngle found that the Nigerian Federal Fire Service does not currently operate firefighting helicopters. Announcements about acquiring one circulated between 2021 and 2024, but the purchase never materialised. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), which previously had access to such support, is also reported to have non-functional aerial equipment.

As a result, even with the presence of the Federal Fire Service, NEMA officials, the Kano State Emergency Agency, and the state governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, at the scene, the fire burned for two days before it was finally largely subdued.

What causes market fires in Kano? 

Market fires are not new in Kano. Almost every year, a section of the city’s commercial heart goes up in flames. Sometimes it is a cluster of stalls. Sometimes an entire block. The pattern has become disturbingly familiar. Traders rebuild. Business resumes. Then another fire breaks out.

In the two months of 2026 alone, at least five fire incidents have been recorded within the Kano metropolis. Four occurred in markets: Kofar Ruwa yan Katako, Gidan Mazaf Singa, Gidan Glass Singa, and near Abbatuwa cemetery. One affected a filling station along Madobi Road. For a city whose economy leans heavily on trade, these events are structural tremors.

A 2021 study by Sulaiman Yunus, an urban risk and disaster management researcher at Bayero University, Kano, documented 366 fire incidents between 1974 and 2017. On average, that translates to at least eight outbreaks annually in markets alone. The data suggests a chronic vulnerability embedded within Kano’s commercial architecture.

But what explains this cycle? Why do the fires persist, despite decades of losses?

Sulaiman found that outbreaks are most frequent in highly concentrated, densely built, older commercial hubs. Large central markets such as Kantin Kwari Market, Kasuwar Kurmi, and Sabon Gari Market were identified as particularly vulnerable.

These markets evolved long before modern urban planning standards. Stalls are packed tightly together. Extensions are added informally. Electrical wiring snakes across wooden beams and zinc roofs. Access routes are narrow, often clogged with traders, buyers, and transporters. When fire breaks out, it meets fuel.

The study notes that most affected markets lack functional fire hydrants and emergency suppression facilities. In many cases, traders rely on buckets of water or improvised extinguishers in the crucial first minutes. By the time fire trucks arrive, flames have often climbed to rooftops and leapt across adjoining structures.

Temporal analysis in Sulaiman’s study shows a clear seasonal pattern. Fire outbreaks peak during the dry season, particularly between November and March. The Harmattan months record the highest incidence rate because the air is drier and the winds harsher. Materials that might otherwise resist ignition become combustible.

Yet climate alone does not ignite markets.

The research found that electrical faults and power surges account for the majority of recorded incidents. Illegal connections and overloaded circuits were identified as primary ignition sources. In markets where dozens of traders tap into a single supply line to power freezers, grinding machines, bulbs, and charging points, the system is often stretched beyond capacity. Electricity, meant to enable commerce, becomes the spark that destroys it.

The Singa Market fire fits within this broader history. Its scale may be exceptional, but its underlying conditions are not. The questions raised in its aftermath echo those of previous disasters: Were safety standards enforced? Were electrical systems inspected? Were access routes kept clear?

For now, attention has shifted to relief. The Federal Government has approved a ₦5 billion intervention fund for traders, while the Progressive Governors’ Forum also donated ₦3 billion, signalling recognition of the magnitude of the loss. But compensation, even when fully disbursed, rarely mirrors destruction. For small-scale traders, relief funds often dissipate before reaching the lowest tiers. Many operate without formal registration, insurance, or documented inventories. Their losses exist in memory, not in audited balance sheets. A bag of rice here. Ten kegs of oil there. A motorcycle bought less than a month ago.

Billions of naira in pledges may soften the blow at a macro level. Yet, for the petty trader who relied on daily turnover to survive, recovery is measured not in billions but in whether he can reopen with even a fraction of his former stock.

In Kano’s markets, fire is no longer an anomaly but a recurring chapter in the city’s commercial story. Each outbreak exposes the same structural weaknesses. Each investigation repeats familiar findings.

And each time, traders return to rebuild in the same crowded corridors, under the same fragile wiring, hoping that this season’s wind will be kinder than the last

ERIC Dane has died aged 53 after a brave battle with ALS.

The Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria actor passed away with his wife, Rebecca Gayheart, and daughters Billie and Georgia by his side, his rep said in a statement on Thursday, February 19.

“With heavy hearts, we share that Eric Dane passed on Thursday afternoon following a courageous battle with ALS,” the statement began.

“He spent his final days surrounded by dear friends, his devoted wife, and his two beautiful daughters, Billie and Georgia, who were the center of his world. 

“Throughout his journey with ALS, Eric became a passionate advocate for awareness and research, determined to make a difference for others facing the same fight.

“He will be deeply missed, and lovingly remembered always. Eric adored his fans and is forever grateful for the outpouring of love and support he’s received. 

health battle

Eric Dane’s Grey’s co-star reveals ‘heartbreaking’ update on ALS battle

“The family has asked for privacy as they navigate this impossible time.”

SCARY DIAGNOSIS

Eric had been battling ALS, a fatal neurodegenerative disease also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease, since early 2024, when he first began experiencing symptoms.

The star announced his diagnosis in April 2025, which quickly progressed to near full paralysis in the months before his death.

Eric had to bow out of multiple public appearances due to his worsening condition.

In January 2026, he withdrew from the ALS Network’s Champions for Cures and Cares gala just hours before the event began.

The TV star also missed his scheduled appearance at the Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2025 because of complications from the disease.

In December 2025, Eric shared an update on his health during a virtual panel for IAMALS.org.

At this point, the father of two had lost mobility in his arms, had noticeable changes in his speech, and was confined to a wheelchair.

“I have no reason to be in a good spirit at any time, on any given day,” an emotional Eric shared.

“I don’t think anybody would blame me if I went upstairs in my bedroom, crawled under the sheets, and spent the next two weeks crying.”

Despite his drastic health decline, Eric vowed to continue acting and that he wouldn’t give up fighting.

“I’m not about to concede my purpose for some disease. I just am not capable of doing that.

“I’m fairly limited in what I can do physically as an actor, but I still have my brain, and I still have my speech, so I’m willing to do just about anything.”

BRAVE FIGHT

In November 2025, Eric starred in an episode of the NBC medical drama Brilliant Minds, playing a firefighter living with ALS.

“The hardest thing for me to do was separate myself from the character because it was something that was so fresh and it was something that was so real to me,” Eric told the Daily Mail about the role.

“I’ve never played a character who’s going through something, and something that I’m dealing with in real time, in real life as well,” he continued.

“So, it was hard, and there were moments where it was very difficult for me to get the lines out. 

“But overall, I was really grateful for the experience. I found it to be a bit cathartic.”

Eric is also reprising his role as Cal Jacobs in the third season of Euphoria, which will premiere on HBO in April, after a four-year hiatus.

In late January, Eric received praise from his Grey’s Anatomy co-star, Patrick Dempsey, for his bravery since his brutal diagnosis.

“I do try to stay in touch and see how he’s doing. I think he’s been incredibly courageous in the face of this horrible disease,” Patrick told Parade in an interview.

He also said that he tried to get Eric on his new crime thriller series, Memory of a Killer, but his condition made it “virtually impossible.”

Eric is survived by his two children, Billie Beatrice, 16, and Georgia Geraldine 14, whom he shares with Rebecca.

The couple separated in 2018, but called off their long divorce once Eric received his diagnosis.

Kazakhstan and Kosovo have also pledged to participate, while Egypt and Jordan will provide training for police officers.

Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania have pledged to send troops to Gaza, the commander of a newly created International Stabilization Force (ISF) has said during a meeting of United States President Donald Trump’s so-called Board of Peace.

US Army General Jasper Jeffers, who has been appointed as the head of a future Gaza stabilisation force by Trump’s board, said on Thursday that the Indonesian contingent to the mission has “accepted the position of deputy commander”.

“With these first steps, we will help bring the security that Gaza needs,” Jeffers said during a meeting of the board in Washington, DC.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, who was among several world leaders participating in the meeting, said his country would contribute up to 8,000 personnel to the planned force “to make this peace work” in the war-torn Palestinian territory, where Israel’s genocide has killed at least 72,000 people.

Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said his country will also send an unspecified number of troops, including medical units, to Gaza, while Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said that his country is ready to deploy police officers to Gaza.

Albania, whose prime minister recently made a two-day official visit to Israel, has also said it will contribute troops, while neighbouring countries Egypt and Jordan have said they will participate by training police officers.

Indonesia, which was one of the first countries to commit to sending troops, has sought to reassure potential critics that its participation is intended to ensure international law is upheld in Gaza, amid Israel’s genocidal onslaught.

‘Indonesian troops will not be involved in combat operations’

Indonesia’s foreign minister met with both United Nations chief Antonio Guterres and Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour in New York on Wednesday, in advance of President Subianto’s participation in the Board of Peace meeting.

“Indonesia’s mandate [on troop deployment] is humanitarian in nature with a focus on protecting civilians, humanitarian and health assistance, reconstruction as well as training and strengthening the capacity of the Palestinian Police,” Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a recent statement, according to the Jakarta Post newspaper.

“Indonesian troops will not be involved in combat operations or any action leading to direct confrontation with any armed group,” the ministry said, responding to questions raised over its future role in Gaza by Amnesty International.

The head of Amnesty International Indonesia, Usman Hamid, has voiced concerns that Indonesia risked violating international law through its participation in the Board of Peace and the planned stabilisation force for Gaza.

Hamid warned that Indonesia’s deployment of troops to Gaza “means putting Indonesia at risk of participating in a mechanism that will strengthen violations of International Humanitarian Law”.

“The Peace Council does not include members from the most disadvantaged Palestinians, but instead includes members from Israel, which has for nearly eight decades carried out an illegal occupation and apartheid against the Palestinian people, even committing genocide in Gaza,” Hamid wrote last week in an open letter to the speaker of the People’s Representative Council of the Republic of Indonesia.

Palestinians have also voiced concerns that Trump’s Board of Peace will only further entrench Israel’s illegal occupation of the Gaza Strip, as Israeli forces continue to carve out more “buffer zones” and restrict the entry of food and other aid, months into a so-called “ceasefire” with Hamas, during which almost 600 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks.

The Gaza stabilisation force differs from other peacekeeping forces deployed by multilateral organisations such as the UN or the African Union.

In neighbouring Lebanon, more than 10,000 peacekeepers from 47 countries continue to participate in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which was created in 1978.

Indonesia, along with Italy, is one of the largest contributors of troops to UNIFIL, which has repeatedly come under fire from Israeli forces, despite a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

Road accidents, often linked to speeding, claim thousands of lives each year in Egypt.

A collision between a truck and a passenger pick-up in Egypt’s northeastern Port Said province has left 18 people dead, mostly fishermen, and three others injured, according to reports.

The crash at approximately 12:30pm local time (10:30 GMT) on Thursday occurred on the 30 June Axis highway, to the south of Port Said, according to Egypt’s state-run Al-Ahram newspaper.

Survivors of the collision are being treated in hospital, and public prosecutors have launched an investigation into the circumstances of the accident, according to Al-Ahram.

Images from the scene of the accident posted online showed the aftermath of the crash, with a pick-up truck crushed between two large cargo trucks and debris scattered across the road, The Associated Press (AP) news agency reports.

AP said the pick-up truck was transporting fishermen to work at fish farms in the coastal Port Said area.

Attending the inaugural meeting of United States President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace in Washington, DC, on Thursday, Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly sent his condolences to the victims of the collision and ordered that financial assistance be provided to relatives of the deceased and injured.

Madbouly said in a statement posted on Facebook that he was following up on the incident through reports from the governor of Port Said province.

Deadly road accidents are common on Egypt’s roads and claim thousands of lives each year in crashes often involving microbuses and heavy trucks. Speeding, poor road conditions, and lax enforcement of traffic laws have been cited as contributing factors in collisions.

In June last year, a truck collided with a minibus, killing 19 people, most of them teenage girls, according to local officials.

Actor Eric Dane, best known for wooing “Grey’s Anatomy” audiences as plastic surgeon Dr. Mark “McSteamy” Sloan, has died following a public battle with ALS.

A TV star whose career spanned from “Saved by the Bell” to “Euphoria” and beyond, Dane died Thursday, his publicist announced in a statement. He was 53.

“With heavy hearts, we share that Eric Dane passed on Thursday afternoon following a courageous battle with ALS. He spent his final days surrounded by dear friends, his devoted wife, and his two beautiful daughters, Billie and Georgia, who were the center of his world,” the statement reads. “Throughout his journey with ALS, Eric became a passionate advocate for awareness and research, determined to make a difference for others facing the same fight. He will be deeply missed, and lovingly remembered always. Eric adored his fans and is forever grateful for the outpouring of love and support he’s received. The family has asked for privacy as they navigate this impossible time.”

Dane publicized his ALS diagnosis in April 2025. A former competitive swimmer and water polo player, he said ALS — also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease — initially caused the right side of his body to stop working. Prior to his death, the actor channeled his personal experiences with the condition to portray a firefighter living with ALS on TV and advocated for legislation related to the condition.

In Shonda Rhimes’ “Grey’s Anatomy,” Dane’s Sloan was a welcome addition to Seattle Grace Hospital’s staff of heartthrobs who couldn’t seem to keep their gloved hands off each other amid shifts of wild and dramatic cases. He first appeared in Season 2 of “Grey’s Anatomy” in 2006. Sloan, within minutes of his arrival, takes a punch to the face from Patrick Dempsey’s Dr. Derek Shepherd and introduces himself to Ellen Pompeo’s Meredith Grey as one of the fellow “dirty mistresses” who broke up Shepherd’s marriage to ex-wife Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh).

Dane had initially agreed to appear in only one episode of the long-running ABC drama, but remained a fixture — and eye candy for fans — for more than 130 episodes until 2012. Nicknamed “McSteamy” for his looks, Sloan pursued relationships with Drs. Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh), Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and Teddy Altman (Kim Raver) over the course of Dane’s tenure. His character was killed off early in Season 9 after a devastating Season 8 plane crash that also claimed the life of Leigh’s Lexie.

In 2021, Dane returned to “Grey’s Anatomy” for a cameo in Meredith’s COVID-19-induced dreams.

Prior to breaking out with “Grey’s,” Dane played minor roles in series including “Saved by the Bell, “Roseanne,” “Gideon’s Crossing” and “Charmed.” Dane followed up his “Grey’s Anatomy” tenure with appearances on the ABC spinoff “Private Practice,” a leading role in TNT’s “The Last Ship” and a stint as a secretive real estate developer and dad in HBO’s teen drama “Euphoria.”

He also appeared in several movies following “Grey’s Anatomy,” including “X-Men: The Last Stand,” “Marley & Me,” “Burlesque” and Garry Marshall’s “Valentine’s Day,” which reunited him with co-star Dempsey.

Dane did not plan to be an actor until he unexpectedly landed a role in his high school’s production of Arthur Miller’s “All My Sons,” but he “fell in love with it,” he told the Gulf Times in 2014.

“I was like this is the greatest feeling ever,” he added.

Eric William Dane was born Nov. 9, 1972, in San Francisco. His father, a Navy man-turned-architect, died of a gunshot wound when the actor was 7, leaving his mother to raise her two children with assistance from her parents.

Dane attended Sequoia High School and San Mateo High School but dropped out prior to graduation to pursue acting in Los Angeles.

He partied often in his 20s and first entered rehab at age 26. Amid his “Grey’s Anatomy” fame, Dane struggled with addition to painkillers and prescription medicine. He relapsed in 2007 during the Writer’s Guild of America strike, he recalled in 2024.

Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart bring their daughters to the March 2015 world premiere of “Cinderella” in L.A.

(Richard Shotwell / Invision / Associated Press)

“If you take the whole eight years I was on ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ I was f— up longer than I was sober and that was when things started going sideways for me,” he said at the time. Notably, he entered rehab again in 2011 to address issues with prescription drugs he had been prescribed for a sports injury.

Dane also spoke openly about his struggles with depression, which reached a head in 2017 amid production on his series “The Last Ship.” During a 2017 “Today” appearance, Dane explained that he was taking medication to manage the disorder, which he said hit him “like a truck.”

“I had to take some time off,” he said at the time. “I went away, I took care of it, and I’m feeling great.”

Dane married “Loving” actor and model Rebecca Gayheart in 2004 in Las Vegas the same day he proposed to her. Infamously, their relationship was subject to scrutiny when in 2009 leaked video showed the spouses in the nude and intoxicated lounging in a bathtub with actor Kari Ann Peniche. Marty Singer, attorney for the spouses at the time, dismissed the controversy.

However, the couple separated in 2017 and Gayheart filed to divorce Dane in 2018, but the split was never finalized. Then in March 2025, right before he went public with his ALS, she filed a request to dismiss the original petition.

In Dane’s role after revealing his diagnosis, he appeared in an episode of the NBC medical drama “Brilliant Minds” as a heroic firefighter struggling to tell his family he has ALS. The episode aired in late November; Gayheart revealed in a late December New York magazine essay that the actor was receiving 24/7 nursing care and she was covering most of the caregivers’ missed shifts.

“We haven’t lived in the same home for eight years; he’s dated other people, I’ve dated someone,” Gayheart wrote in the essay, which discussed Dane’s diagnosis and how it had affected the family. “It’s a very complicated relationship, one that’s confusing for people. Our love may not be romantic, but it’s a familial love. Eric knows that I am always going to want the best for him. That I’m going to do my best to do right by him. And I know he would do the same for me.

“So whatever I can do or however I can show up to make this journey better for him or easier for him, I want to do that,” she continued. “And I want to model that for my girls: That’s what you do. That’s the right thing to do.”

Dane is survived by daughters Billie, 15, and Georgia, 14, whom he shares with Gayheart.

These are the key developments from day 1,457 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is where things stand on Friday, February 20:

Fighting

• Russian forces launched 448 attacks on 34 settlements in Ukraine’s front-line Zaporizhia region in a single day, injuring a six-year-old child and damaging homes, cars and other infrastructure, regional governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on the Telegram app.
• Russian drone, missile and artillery attacks on Ukraine’s Kherson region injured five people and damaged homes, including seven high-rise buildings, the local military administration said on Telegram.
• Russian attacks also continued in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions, but local officials there noted that “fortunately, no people were injured”. According to the Kyiv Independent news outlet, overnight was “unusually quiet” following weeks of “heavy fire” in the two regions.
• A man was killed by shrapnel from a Ukrainian drone attack on Sevastopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea, Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram.
• A Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at an oil depot in Velikiye Luki in Russia’s Pskov region, local official Mikhail Vedernikov said, according to Russia’s state TASS news agency.
• Russian forces shot down 301 Ukrainian drones, 10 missiles and two guided bombs in a 24-hour period, Russia’s Ministry of Defence said, according to TASS.

Peace process

• United States President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace held its first meeting in Washington, DC, without Belarus participating, despite Trump extending an invitation to the Russian ally.
• Belarus’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that its delegation to the meeting did not receive the necessary visas to enter the US “despite carrying out all the required procedures”.
• The Foreign Ministry questioned, “What kind of peace and what kind of sequence of steps are we talking about if the organisers cannot even complete basic formalities for us to take part?”

• France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Pascal Confavreux expressed surprise to see the European Commission had sent a commissioner to participate in Trump’s meeting, noting that it “does not have a mandate from the [European] Council to go and participate”.

• Confavreux also said France would not take part in Trump’s initiative until the Board of Peace returned its focus to Gaza in line with a United Nations Security Council resolution.
• Several European Union member states have said they will not participate in the peace board after Trump extended an invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and is subject to an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court.

Regional Security

• Dutch intelligence services AIVD and MIVD said on Thursday that European countries, including the Netherlands, were facing increased hybrid threats from Russia, including cyberattacks, sabotage, influence campaigns and disinformation.

Energy

• Ukraine’s Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is operating on its sole remaining main power line after losing its only backup power line more than a week ago, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said in a statement.
• Hungary is considering halting power and gas exports to Ukraine and will take such steps unless Ukraine resumes the flow of crude oil shipments via the Druzhba pipeline, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff told a briefing.
• The Druzhba pipeline, parts of which run through Ukraine, is crucial for the transfer of Russian crude oil to Hungary and Slovakia. Oil flows have reportedly halted since an attack on the pipeline in January, which Kyiv has blamed on Russia.
• France’s Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry Roland Lescure said his country would provide 71 million euros ($83.5m) in additional funding for Ukraine for services including energy, health and clearing land mines.

Politics and diplomacy

• The head of Russia’s FSB security service accused Telegram messaging app founder Pavel Durov of condoning criminal activity on the platform, in an escalation of Moscow’s rhetoric as it moved to restrict the service that is used by many Russians and Ukrainians to communicate about the war.

•  Dismissing a Russian government allegation that foreign intelligence services are able to see messages sent by Russian soldiers on Telegram, the popular platform said it had not found any breaches of its encryption codes and called Russia’s claims a “deliberate fabrication”, according to the Reuters news agency.

Military aid

• Sweden announced a 12.9 billion crown ($1.42bn) military aid package for Ukraine that will include air defences, drones, long-range missiles and ammunition.

The United Nations announced that the United States has paid approximately $160m towards its nearly $4bn in outstanding dues.

The payment goes towards the UN’s regular operating budget, according to spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

But the shortfall comes as the administration of US President Donald Trump has openly questioned its commitment to the UN and has slashed money earmarked for the international body.

Still, on Thursday, Trump appeared to endorse funding the UN during the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace in Washington, DC.

“We’re going to help them money-wise, and we’re going to make sure the United Nations is viable,” Trump said. “And I think it’s going to eventually live up to its potential. That will be a big day.”

The UN has indicated that the US owes about $2.196bn to its regular budget, including $767m for the current year. Another $1.8bn is owed for the UN’s peacekeeping operations.

A financial crisis

For years, the UN has faced a financial crisis, with a growing shortfall of contributions. Each of the organisation’s 193 member states is required to contribute, based on its economic ability.

Poorer countries could be asked to contribute as little as 0.001 percent of the UN’s regular budget. Wealthier countries could reach the maximum contribution amount of 22 percent.

But unpaid dues have already forced the UN to slash its spending and reduce its services.

In a stark warning last month, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned that the international body faces an “imminent financial collapse” unless its financial rules are overhauled or all 193 member nations pay their dues.

Guterres revealed that the UN’s regular operating budget could be depleted as early as July, a scenario that would severely jeopardise its global operations.

The US is the largest donor to the UN, as the world’s largest economy. But it currently owes billions in unpaid dues.

UN officials have stated that the US accounts for approximately 95 percent of the arrears to the organisation’s regular budget.

‘Empty words’

Since returning to the White House for a second term in January 2025, Trump has elevated concerns that US dues might go unpaid.

The Republican leader has repeatedly criticised the UN as ineffective, even articulating that sentiment at September’s UN General Assembly.

“What is the purpose of the United Nations?” Trump asked the assembly. “All they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up. It’s empty words.”

Throughout his second term so far, he has cut foreign aid spending and withdrawn from international commitments. In January, for instance, his government pulled out of 31 UN programmes, including its democracy fund and a body that works on maternal and child health.

But on Thursday, at his Board of Peace meeting, Trump appeared to take a warmer stance towards the UN, saying he planned to work “very closely” with the organisation.

“Someday, I won’t be here. The United Nations will be,” he said, seeming to endorse its longevity.

Trump also acknowledged the organisation’s financial distress: “They need help, and they need help money-wise.” He did not mention the US arrears.

While the Board of Peace establishment was meant to oversee the Gaza ceasefire, many see it as an attempt by Trump to rival the UN Security Council’s role in preventing and ending conflicts around the world.

Critics have described the board, which Trump chairs, as a “parallel system” that risks undermining the UN’s authority and operations.

Trump himself appeared to position his Board of Peace as an oversight body for the UN in Thursday’s remarks.

The Board of Peace, he said, “is going to almost be looking over the United Nations and making sure it runs properly”.

The following article contains spoilers for Episode 7, “1:00 P.M.,” of “The Pitt” Season 2.

The education begins almost immediately. A young woman who has just experienced a sexual assault is in triage, and “The Pitt’s” Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) enlists Dr. Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi) to assist charge nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa) with the patient.

“We can call for a SANE,” another nurse suggests when Dana says she’ll be occupied.

“On a holiday? Could be hours,” responds Dana, a veteran who knows better, as the Fourth of July shift enters afternoon hours. “We’re not going to make this patient wait. And since I’m the only SANE on staff …”

A what? The quick reference sets in motion what “The Pitt” aims to shed light on: a sexual assault forensic exam, also known as a rape kit exam. The episode delves into the confidential medical procedure to collect DNA and evidence and gives one of the most detailed depictions of the process for television.

But before cameras venture into the room with the patient, Dana gives recent nursing school graduate Emma (Laëtitia Hollard) — and the audience — an overview. A SANE is a sexual assault nurse; they perform forensic exams, collect evidence and hand it over to the police, if a report is made. They also provide resources, support and may even testify in court.

The storyline serves a dual purpose, according to Kirsten Pierre-Geyfman, who co-wrote the episode with the show’s creator, R. Scott Gemmill. “We wanted to highlight the very important and incredible work of a SANE, especially in the department setting,” she says. “And we also wanted to see the bravery it takes for a survivor to come forward, let alone do a rape kit … It’s not an easy decision for somebody to make, and it’s not an easy process for somebody to go through.”

To help construct a realistic and sensitive portrayal of the exam process, “The Pitt’s” writing team and actors worked with a number of consultants, including the UCLA Health Rape Treatment Center and Pittsburgh Action Against Rape (PAAR).

“I wanted people to understand the extent of the exam, I think that’s a misconception among a lot of people,” said Dr. Kathleen Sekula, a SANE at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh who also consulted the show’s team.

Ilana (Tina Ivlev) arrives at the ER in Episode 7 of “The Pitt.”

(HBO)

The case in Episode 7, “1:00 P.M.,” involves a visibly shaken young woman, Ilana, played by Tina Ivlev. The writing team knew they wanted to detail the process, not the trauma, Pierre-Geyfman said, so the information about what Ilana experienced is minimal: She was at a barbecue with friends when she was assaulted by a male friend.

“The thing that struck me was the fact the other shows might focus on what happened and then dive into that,” Ivlev said. “What I loved about this, the minute she starts talking about it, they cut [away]. There’s so much underneath it. I wanted it to be similar to real life when you have a traumatic situation happen — sometimes you can be hyperfocused on certain details, then other things are cloudy. Her head is spinning. She’s in shock.”

As with many of “The Pitt’s” cases, the story serves to bolster the emotional arc of the show’s healthcare providers, in this case Dana, who assists with the exam from start to finish as the department’s certified SANE nurse. Last season, she was brutally punched in the face by a disgruntled patient while taking a smoke break. That violent attack left her rattled and contemplating an exit from the job, but after taking a few weeks off, she ultimately returned to work — though the assault’s lingering impact has sharpened her edges.

“With Dana’s arc and her own assault last season, she’s definitely calcified a little this season,” Pierre-Geyfman said. “She’s trying to create a little bit of distance between her and her patients, and is really trying to prioritize her nurse’s safety. You see her struggle a little bit with that with this patient. She’s wanting to do more for her.”

On screen, the assessment begins with Dr. Al-Hashimi checking to see if Ilana has any injuries that need immediate attention and getting an intake of prescription medications and any known allergies to medications. Securing two triage rooms to complete the exam as a way to ensure privacy in the busy emergency department, Dana, with help from Emma, begins the evidence collection while carefully outlining the process to Ilana. For starters, once Dana opens the kit, Ilana cannot leave the room but is free to take a break as needed.

To avoid contamination, Dana puts on a face shield and opens the kit, which is a rectangle-shaped box that contains items like paper bags to store evidence and swabs for collecting biological samples. The first step requires Ilana to change into a robe, undressing on top of pads placed on the floor so each item of clothing can be packaged into separate bags and collected as evidence. She’ll be given new clothes, Dana assures her. Dana raises a large piece of cloth to give Ilana privacy as she completes the process.

Eventually Dr. Al-Hashimi returns to examine Ilana, checking for any pain on her body or need for X-rays or imaging — she notes two areas of bruising to be documented by Dana with photos. Dana seals the camera’s memory card in an evidence envelope. Next, with the lights off, Dana runs a black light over Ilana’s body. Dana relays that if there’s a part of Ilana’s skin that glows, she’ll swab it with a wet, then dry, cotton swab. Dana next swabs Ilana’s mouth — the inside of her cheek and along the gum line — and her finger nails. At various points, Dana is careful to assess Ilana’s comfort with each step and uses statements like “This will not define you,” while Ilana shows signs of stress about the length of the process.

Emma (Laëtitia Hollard) assists Dana (Katherine LaNasa), who leads the exam as the SANE (sexual assault nurse) on duty.

(HBO)

At one juncture, an advocate from Pittsburgh Action Against Rape, otherwise known as PAAR, arrives to further detail the resources and assistance they can offer, a service that’s available regardless of whether a patient decides not to complete the rape kit exam. Throughout the process, Ilana is assured that she can complete the exam even if she’s vacillating on whether to file a police report — that decision can be made at a later time and none of it goes on her permanent medical record. But when the exam pivots to external and internal vaginal collection, Ilana panics once she’s instructed to place her feet in stirrups to get into position. Dana suggests a break.

“I don’t want a break, I want to stop,” Ilana proclaims. “He’s my friend. He knows all my friends. It was just a dumb — he was drunk. He didn’t mean — it didn’t mean anything.”

It brings a pause to the process, which will carry over into Episode 8. In trying to show the scope of the exam, the medical drama takes liberties in its completion time. Sekula said it’s rare for an exam to be completed in under three to four hours.

Not all nurses are certified to be a SANE, and certification requirements vary by state, according to Sekula. It’s a role that requires extreme attention to detail and thoroughness, as their work bridges the healthcare and legal systems. While preparing for the episode, Hollard said she marveled at the precise protocols involved and the support that’s provided.

“On a technical level, it’s so meticulous,” Hollard said. “There’s so many parts, so many envelopes. You have to take these swabs and they can’t touch each other. And the legality of it all — the way this kit is happening is how they would do it with PAAR in Pittsburgh, but that’s not the same way they do it in California, or [the way] they do it in different states.”

While “The Pitt” is frequently recognized for its hyperrealistic medical procedures, the episode’s director, Uta Briesewitz, knew she wanted to film the exam in a way that mirrored the sensitivity healthcare professionals strive to exhibit, with shots that weren’t invasive or fixated on Ilana’s body. For example, when Ilana is undressing, the camera is fixed on Dana being mindful to give her privacy even in their close proximity — an out of focus glimpse of Ilana’s bare backside comes only when getting a reaction of Emma taking in the weight of the moment. Later, when the blue light is being run down Ilana’s body, her hospital gown is carefully place to avoid exposure. In addition to a SANE consultant being on set to assist with queries about the process, there was also an intimacy coordinator to help with the comfort level of filming the scenes.

“On a technical level, it’s so meticulous,” said Laëtitia Hollard of the process. “There’s so many parts, so many envelopes. You have to take these swabs and they can’t touch each other.”

(HBO)

“It was a very sensitive line because women can get re-traumatized,” Briesewitz said. “I remember one of our more detailed conversations with our SANE nurse was about when Dana had to look with the black light for bodily fluid. How do we make sure she would not miss anything but, at the same time, give the victim the feeling that they’re still protected? It was super helpful to have our SANE advisor on set to say the way she would do it. ‘One arm comes out of the sleeve, then I hold up her gown this way, and I would do it like that …’”

LaNasa found her time at the UCLA Health Rape Treatment Center crucial to chart both her character’s ease in the room and her sensitivity to the task at hand: “I went back a second time because I knew I was going to have to use the kit … I wanted it to look like I had used the kit many times and I knew what I was doing.”

Reflecting on the case as a mirror to her character’s journey, LaNasa pointed out that Dana never pressed charges against Doug Driscoll, the man who assaulted her.

“It’s different in this situation,” LaNasa acknowledged. “I thought it was great information that we got out of this, which is that you can go and do a rape kit, you can have the evidence collected, and you don’t have to decide on that day when you’re traumatized if you want to press charges or not. I think that part of Dana’s hypervigilance is probably because there was no justice for her. I think why she’s cracked this season is because she didn’t take care of herself. She’s reeling from that. She let him beat her up. At the same time, she doesn’t want Tina’s character to feel any pressure, but I think she wants it for her. She wants her to have the ability to change her mind later.”

“We’re going to hear Dana, later in the season, refer back to this process that these people have to go through, in defense of a sexual assault victim,” LaNasa teased. “It’s big on her mind. She’s been doing it quite a while.”

Kim focuses on improving economic activity in opening speech at Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

North Korea has kicked off a rare party congress of the ruling Workers’ Party, held once every five years, that will see the leadership in Pyongyang set major policy goals in defence, diplomacy and the economy, state media reports.

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said on Friday that the Ninth Congress of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) was under way, marking the start of the country’s most consequential political event since 2021.

“The Ninth Congress of the WPK opened with splendour in Pyongyang, the capital city of the revolution,” KCNA said, reporting that the high-level meeting started on Thursday and observers say it is expected to run for several days.

South Korea’s official Yonhap News Agency said the gathering will be closely followed for any signs regarding North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons or overtures towards the administrations in Seoul and the United States, which the North considers its chief foes.

Yonhap reports that North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un, made no mention of relations with either South Korea or the US in his opening speech to the congress on Thursday and, instead, focused on boosting the country’s economy.

“Ahead of our party are heavy and urgent tasks of advancing economic development and improving people’s livelihoods, and transforming all aspects of social life in the country as quickly as possible,” Kim said, according to KCNA.

While the true state of North Korea’s often struggling economy is hard to gauge, The Associated Press news agency reports that outside experts suggest the country has seen a gradual recovery in economic activity, helped by a post-COVID boost in trade with China and the export of weapons to help Russia in its war against Ukraine.

Several thousand North Korean troops have fought on Moscow’s side against Ukraine, and Pyongyang is believed to have exported large amounts of ammunition to help the Russian invasion of its neighbour.

North Korea’s ‘biggest enemy’

South Korea’s spy agency said last week it was monitoring the congress for any sign that Kim will officially designate his teenage daughter, Kim Ju Ae, as his potential successor, formalising her position as heir apparent in a fourth-generation succession of the Kim family as North Korea’s leaders.

At the previous party congress five years ago, Kim declared that the US was his nation’s “biggest enemy”, the AFP news agency reports, and there is deep interest in whether the North Korean leader will soften his rhetoric – or double down – at this year’s congress, particularly amid the US presidency of Donald Trump.

Trump – who met Kim in 2019 when he briefly stepped foot into North Korea to shake Kim’s hand and pose for photos – said during a tour of Asia late last year that he was “100 percent” open to meeting Kim again.

So far, Kim has demurred on Trump’s overtures to meet again.

Observers of North Korean politics are reported to be scouring satellite imagery for any signs of the vast military parades that have accompanied previous congress meetings in Pyongyang.

Such parades will be closely watched for signs of a shift in North Korea’s weapons capabilities, as the country has used previous processions to show off its newest and most advanced weapons.

Kim held a ceremony on Thursday to unveil the deployment of 50 new launch vehicles for nuclear-capable short-range missiles as the congress kicked off.

According to Yonhap, the congress brings together some 5,000 party representatives from across the country, including 200 senior officials from the WPK’s headquarters. More than 4,700 officials from regional and industrial sectors are also in attendance.

The cause of death for Peter Greene, a character actor known for playing villains in movies including “Pulp Fiction” and “The Mask,” has been revealed by New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner.

Police found Greene, 60, dead in his apartment Dec. 12. They didn’t suspect foul play.

His death was ruled an accident, the M.E.’s office said via email. Greene died from a “gunshot wound of left axilla with injury of brachial artery,” the office said. In everyday English, that means he shot himself in his left underarm and injured a significant artery that starts in the shoulder and runs down to the elbow crease.

Police found the character actor in his Lower East Side apartment, Deadline reported, after neighbors heard Christmas music playing for days and one of them called authorities and the landlord for a wellness check.

Greene had a history of addiction, per the New York Post, and attempted suicide in the 1990s. He was scheduled to go in for a procedure to remove a benign tumor near his lung on the day he was found, the outlet said. His manager had talked to him two days before he was found.

“He sounded OK … It was just a totally normal conversation. He was a little nervous about the operation going in, but he said it wasn’t super serious,” manager Gregg Edwards told the Post in December. “He was talking about that and hoping that I was going to be OK and wishing me well as I was wishing him well. We’re good friends. I love the guy.”

Greene’s best-known role was the villain Zed, who was brought in to torture Bruce Willis and Ving Rhames’ characters in Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 classic “Pulp Fiction.” In “The Mask,” also released in 1994, he played mobster Dorian Tyrell, antagonist to Jim Carrey’s Stanley Ipkiss, a.k.a. the Mask.

Those roles came only a couple of years into Greene’s career, which per IMDb included nearly 100 TV and film credits from 1990 to 2026. His TV credits included episodes of “Chicago P.D.,” “Hawaii Five-0,” “Law & Order,” “Justified” and more.

He started out with parts in a couple of TV shows in the early 1990s before landing the lead role in “Laws of Gravity.” In 1995, Times movie critic Kenneth Turan called the 1992 film “independent American filmmaking at its best” and described Jimmy (Greene) as “a small-time street outlaw who, though horrified at the thought of actual work, is stable by local standards” in Brooklyn’s then crime-ridden Greenpoint neighborhood.

The New Jersey native, born Oct. 8, 1965, studied Method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute in New York City when he was in his 20s. He told Premiere magazine in 1996 that he ran away from home at age 15 and lived on the streets, using and dealing drugs and hiding from other dealers in theaters, where he got into acting. His drug use overlapped with his early success on screen.

After a 1996 suicide attempt, the actor said, he got treatment for addiction and sobered up.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.