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PHILADELPHIA — When Clayton Kershaw was left off the Dodgers’ roster for the best-of-three wild card round against the Cincinnati Reds, it marked the first time since his 2008 rookie season that he pitch didn’t in one of the team’s playoff series when healthy.

But on Saturday, ahead of Game 1 of the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies, the Dodgers decided to add Kershaw back in the mix, ensuring he will likely get the chance to take the mound at least one more time before entering retirement this offseason.

Kershaw and fellow left-handed pitcher Anthony Banda were the only two changes the Dodgers made to their NLDS roster Saturday, swapping them in on an 11-man pitching staff in place of multi-inning left-hander Justin Wrobleski (who didn’t pitch in the wild card series) and rookie right-hander Edgardo Henriquez (who walked two batters and gave up a hit while recording no outs in Game 1 against the Reds).

The Dodgers made no changes to their 15-man position player group from the wild card round, once again keeping three catchers on the roster (as Will Smith continues to recover from a fractured hand) as well as speedy defensive specialists Justin Deal and Hyeseong Kim.

Kershaw’s return was had been expected, even before manager Dave Roberts officially confirmed on Friday that the future Hall of Famer would be on the roster for the NLDS.

First and foremost, the Dodgers will need added left-handed pitching depth to combat a Phillies lineup that includes left-handed threats like Bryce Harper, Kyle Schwarber, Brandon Marsh and Bryson Stott. That’s why Banda was included as well.

But Kershaw, who went 11-2 this season with a 3.36 ERA, also gives the Dodgers a steady veteran presence out of the bullpen (where he is expected to pitch).

They missed that in the wild-card round, when a string of younger pitchers struggled to consistently find the strike zone while pitching in relief.

Thus, they will be hoping their 18-year veteran can provide it, in what would be his final career postseason series if the Dodgers don’t advance.

The only other major roster question facing the Dodgers entering this series is at catcher. Roberts said Friday that Smith “will be available to catch” in this NLDS, but was unsure if he’d be able to start right away in Game 1. Smith, who has taken only live at-bats in the last week while nursing his injury, did not appear in the wild-card series despite being on the roster. He took more live at-bats during the team’s Friday night workout at Citizens Bank Park.

Sept. 5 (UPI) — The job market continues to slow, according to a report released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showing that only 22,000 jobs were created in August.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by 22,000, which is well below the Dow Jones expectation of 75,000. The July increase was 79,000 and was revised up by 6,000. June saw a net loss of 13,000 after the estimate was dropped by 27,000.

Friday’s BLS report is lower than Thursday’s ADP Employment Report for August, which showed a private payroll gain of 54,000.

U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement that Americans are “benefiting from strong and consistent hourly wage growth, which is up nearly 4%. The price of goods has increased globally over the past year, but the U.S. is bucking that trend with lower inflation, thanks to the return of America First leadership.”

She also touted the U.S. Gross Domestic Product.

“Additionally, second-quarter GDP smashed many economists’ expectations, demonstrating strong growth and resilience. All job growth this year has been in the private sector among native-born Americans,” she said.

The GDP, which is a measure of all goods and services produced in the American economy, rose to an annualized rate of 3.3% from April to June instead of its earlier estimate of 3%, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said. It had declined by 0.5% in the first quarter.

The July report was slower than expected and heavily revised, leading to the firing of BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer. This is the first report to come out since her ouster. The July report showed 73,000 new jobs, which is less than half of the initially reported 147,000 jobs created in June.

“Today’s jobs numbers were rigged in order to make Republicans and me look bad,” President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Aug. 1.

He said the BLS likewise produced a false jobs report in the days leading up to the Nov. 5 general election that were favorable to the Biden administration.

Friday’s report showed that the unemployment rate, at 4.3%, and the number of unemployed people, at 7.4 million, changed little in August.

Health care added 31,000 jobs, below the average monthly gain of 42,000 over the previous 12 months. Employment continued to trend up over the month in ambulatory health care services, a gain of 13,000; nursing and residential care facilities, up 9,000; and hospitals, up 9,000.

On Thursday, Trump told reporters that the “real” jobs numbers will come out a year from now. He hosted more than two dozen tech executives at the White House for dinner.

He said that when “huge, beautiful places, the palaces of genius” open, job numbers will improve. He didn’t say what those places will be.

“When they start opening up … I think you’ll see job numbers that are going to be absolutely incredible,” Trump said. “Right now, it’s a lot of construction numbers, but you’re gonna see job numbers like our country has never seen.”

Daniel Zhao, chief economist at Glassdoor, told CNBC that the outlook is rough.

“The job market is stalling short of the runway,” he said. “The labor market is losing lift, and August’s report, along with downward revisions, suggests we’re heading into turbulence without the soft landing achieved.”

Aug. 20 (UPI) — A humanoid robot can now perform complex tasks with a large behavior model without needing hand programming for each task.

Boston Dynamics and Toyota Research Institute announced this breakthrough Wednesday in a press release.

In a video jointly released by the two organizations, Atlas performs a long, continuous sequence of complex tasks that require combining object manipulation with locomotion. By adopting LBMs, new capabilities that would have been laboriously hand-programmed in the past can now be added quickly and without writing a single new line of code.

The video shows Atlas using whole-body movements, such as walking, crouching, and lifting, to accomplish a series of packing, sorting, and organizing tasks. Throughout the sequences, researchers interject unexpected physical challenges mid-task, such as closing the lid of a box and sliding it across the floor, requiring Atlas to self-adjust in response.

Humanoid robots that have demonstrated this capability before typically separate the low-level walking and balancing control from the control of the arms for manipulation. But a single large behavior model has direct control of Atlas, treating the hands and feet almost identically.

This breakthrough is the result of the October 2024 joint research partnership between Boston Dynamics and TRI, which was designed to use their combined strengths and expertise to speed the development of smart robots.

The project, co-led by Scott Kuindersma and Russ Tedrake, is conducting research to answer fundamental questions about humanoid robots and large behavior models, to advance the field’s understanding of large models for whole-body control, including advanced manipulation and dynamic behaviors.

“This work provides a glimpse into how we’re thinking about building general-purpose robots that will transform how we live and work,” Kuindersma, vice president of Robotics Research at Boston Dynamics, said in a statement. “Training a single neural network to perform many long-horizon manipulation tasks will lead to better generalization, and highly capable robots like Atlas present the fewest barriers to data collection for tasks requiring whole-body precision, dexterity, and strength.”

Humanoids can help in many ways.

“One of the main value propositions of humanoids is that they can achieve a huge variety of tasks directly in existing environments, but the previous approaches to programming these tasks simply could not scale to meet this challenge,” Tedrake, senior vice president of Large Behavior Models at Toyota Research Institute, said in a statement. “Large behavior models address this opportunity in a fundamentally new way — skills are added quickly via demonstrations from humans, and as the LBMs get stronger, they require less and less demonstrations to achieve more and more robust behaviors.”

Humanoid robots have been an ongoing challenge. The World Humanoid Robot Games highlighted this, showing that tumbling robots is the norm.

The games featured more than 500 robots from 16 countries, including Japan, the United States and Germany, competing in 26 events.

One robot was disqualified from a 1,500-meter race when its head fell off in mid-stride.

“Keeping [the head] balanced while in movement is the biggest challenge for us,” said Wang Ziyi, 19, a member of the Beijing Union University team.

SOCIAL media slang words skibidi, tradwife and delulu have been added to the Cambridge Dictionary.

They are among thousands of new expressions, which also include the working from home term “mouse jiggler” and toxic “forever chemicals”.

Skibidi has different meanings, such as “cool” or “bad”, and can also be used with no real meaning, for example in: “What the skibidi are you doing?”

The term was coined by the creator of a viral animated video series called Skibidi Toilet on YouTube, Cambridge Dictionary said.

Tradwife — short for traditional wife — is a married woman who cooks and cleans and stays at home to look after her children.

And delulu means somebody who chooses to believe things which are not true — as in delusional.

Colin McIntosh, of Cambridge Dictionary, said: “Internet culture is changing the English language and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary.

“We only add words where we think they’ll have staying power.”

The dictionary uses a database of more than two billion words in written and spoken English to observe how new words are used by different people, how often and in which context.

Remote working helped “mouse jiggler” — a device or piece of software used to make it seem as though a shirker is working — gain its place in the dictionary.

And “forever chemicals” are man-made substances which do not naturally break down and pollute the environment or the body.

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Aug. 1 (UPI) — Jobs growth was slower than expected in July, and the unemployment rate rose, showing signs of trouble for the labor market.

Nonfarm payroll for July was up by 73,000, which is higher than June at 14,000. But the Dow Jones estimate for gain was 100,000.

The totals for May and June were revised significantly, down by 258,000 from what was announced. May was revised from 144,000 jobs added to 19,000 jobs added. June’s revision went from 147,000 jobs added to 14,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Situation Summary. Revisions come from additional reports from businesses and government agencies since the last published numbers and seasonal factors.

Unemployment raised to 4.2%, which was predicted.

“This is a gamechanger jobs report,” said Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, to CNBC. “The labor market is deteriorating quickly.”

This is in sharp contrast to what ADP reported just two days ago. The employment company’s National Employment report said private sector employment increased by 104,000 jobs in July, a reversal of June when jobs were at a 23,000 loss, a count revised from a previously announced loss of 33,000.

“Our hiring and pay data are broadly indicative of a healthy economy,” said ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson in a press release on July 30. “Employers have grown more optimistic that consumers, the backbone of the economy, will remain resilient.”

The health care industry added 55,000 jobs, which is higher than the monthly gain of 42,000 over the previous 12 months. Those jobs were mostly in ambulatory care services and hospitals.

Social assistance employment added 18,000 job growth in July.

Federal government employment lost 12,000 jobs in July and is down by 84,000 since January.

The household survey was worse than the establishment survey of total payroll gains. It showed a decline of 260,000 workers, with the participation rate at 62.2%, the lowest since November 2022.

The number of discouraged workers decreased by 212,000 in July to 425,000, largely offsetting an increase in the prior month. Discouraged workers are those who believed that no jobs were available for them.

Those employed part time for economic reasons, at 4.7 million, changed little in July. These are people who wanted full-time employment but were working part time because their hours had been reduced or they were unable to find full-time jobs.

New docuseries shows what really goes on behind the scenes at WWE

I was a childhood fan of WWE and Netflix have just added the series I always wanted to watch.

While it was still referred to as a federation, I grew up as the wrestling company entered its Attitude Era. I was all about the rivalry between The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin, Dudley Boyz smashing tables and Triple H’s feuds and that Hell in a Cell match.

However, it lost it’s hook in me. Getting older means understanding the soap opera nature of WWE but for some reason or another I lost interest and couldn’t enjoy it in the same way. I did however, still wonder just how the sauce was made. How did they do it?

It’s a common question to ask just how much of it is real. Now, a new docuseries now streaming on Netflix, WWE Unreal, finally gives me the behind the scenes glimpse I’ve craved. It’s almost enough to reignite the passion for the greatest in sports entertainment.

For the first time ever with Unreal, fans are invited to step into the WWE writer’s room and in areas outside the ring that dictates what goes on with your favourite Superstars. According to the synopsis, the drama can be just as intense offstage as it is under the spotlight.

The five-part series shows how WWE made the transition from traditional broadcasting, to its Netflix debut, leading up to this year’s Wrestlemania event.

When Netflix released the Mr McMahon documentary, it didn’t feel like we were being given the full picture of how the company is run. It felt like there were some corners the cameras were still not allowed to focus on. Although it really attempted to hammer home that it was a family business run by people who apparently cared most about the fans.

That last point seems more poignant than ever with Unreal. From Head of Content Paul Levesque, AKA Triple H, AKA Hunter to ‘face of the company’ Cody Rhodes, a soon to be retired John Cena and team of match producers, all who are experienced former wrestlers. Each one of them speak with so much passion about what they do.

Many of the current performers have wrestling in the blood. From Ric Flair’s daughter to Rikishi’s sons they all have no problem showing what being part of the industry means to them.

It’s tough to dismiss their jobs as just faking it. They are all aware they are putting on a show. They just want it to be one of the best shows you’ve ever seen.

This time around, unlike Mr McMahon, Unreal even allows some warts to show. That includes when their Superstars suffer severe injuries but are promised their comeback will be all the sweeter. There’s a debrief when a move goes wrong and plenty of bitter rivals hugging backstage.

There’s even a tense moment when two performers go off script and allow their verbal altercation to get a bit too personal. A message is quickly sent to their locker rooms that it will not be expected and they must keep their professionalism.

WWE Unreal plays a big risk in showing just how much shown during Raw, Smackdown and its pay-per-view events is manufactured. Yet it still dares viewers, in particular, the lapsed fans like myself, to dive right back in.

WWE Unreal is streaming on Netflix.

Added to the World Heritage list are two prisons: Tuol Sleng and M-13, as well as the execution site Choeung Ek.

Three notorious locations used by Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime as torture and execution sites to perpetrate the genocide of Year Zero five decades ago have been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

Two prisons and an execution site were inscribed on the list by the United Nations cultural agency on Friday during the 47th Session of the World Heritage Committee in Paris.

It coincided with the 50th anniversary of the rise to power by the communist Khmer Rouge, which caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture and mass executions during a four-year reign of violence from 1975 to 1979 before it was brought to an end by an invasion from neighbouring Vietnam.

UNESCO’s World Heritage list lists sites considered important to humanity and includes the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodia’s Angkor archaeological complex.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet issued a message on Friday directing people to beat drums simultaneously across the country on Sunday morning to mark the UNESCO listing.

🔴 BREAKING!

New inscription on the @UNESCO #WorldHeritage List: Cambodian Memorial Sites: From centres of repression to places of peace and reflection, #Cambodia 🇰🇭.

➡️ https://t.co/seTyyVu3sT #47WHC pic.twitter.com/SPl7zlxeFh

— UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 (@UNESCO) July 11, 2025

“May this inscription serve as a lasting reminder that peace must always be defended,” Hun Manet said in a video message aired by state-run television TVK. “From the darkest chapters of history, we can draw strength to build a better future for humanity.”

Two sites added to the list are in the capital, Phnom Penh – the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and the Choeung Ek Genocide Centre.

Tuol Sleng is a former high school that was converted into a notorious prison known as S-21, where an estimated 15,000 people were imprisoned and tortured.

Today, the site is a space for commemoration and education, housing the black-and-white mugshots of its many victims and the preserved equipment used by Khmer Rouge tormentors.

The UNESCO inscription was Cambodia’s first nomination for a modern and non-classical archaeological site and is among the first in the world to be submitted as a site associated with recent conflict, Cambodia’s Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said in a statement on Friday.

‘The Killing Fields’

Choeung Ek – a former Chinese cemetery – was a notorious “killing field” where S-21 prisoners were executed nightly. The story of the atrocities committed there is the focus of the 1984 film “The Killing Fields”, based on the experiences of New York Times photojournalist Dith Pran and correspondent Sydney Schanberg.

More than 6,000 bodies were exhumed from at least 100 mass graves at the ground in the early 1980s, according to Cambodian government documents filed with UNESCO.

Every year, hundreds hold remembrance prayers in front of the site’s memorial displaying victims’ skulls, and watch students stage dramatic re-enactments of the Khmer Rouge’s bloody crimes.

Another prison site, known as M-13 and located in a rural area in central Kampong Chhnang province, was one of the most important prisons of the early Khmer Rouge, where its cadres “invented and tested various methods of interrogation, torture and killing” but is today only a patch of derelict land.

A special tribunal sponsored by the UN, costing $337m and working over 16 years, only convicted three key Khmer Rouge figures, including S-21 chief torturer Kaing Guek Eav, before ceasing operations in 2022.

Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge regime, died in 1998 before he could be brought to trial.

July 3 (UPI) — The U.S. economy added seasonally adjusted 147,000 jobs in June despite lower predictions, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Thursday.

The BLS’ monthly jobs report showed a slight uptick over May’s 139,000 increase. The estimate for the July report was 110,000 nonfarm jobs added.

The unemployment rate dipped to 4.1%, which is lower than the expected increase of 4.3%. The rate that includes discouraged workers and part-time workers slid to 7.7%. There are 7 million unemployed people in the United States. The jobless rate dropped due to fewer workers looking for jobs. The unemployment rate has stayed between 4% and 4.2% since May 2024.

According to the BLS, there were job gains in health care (39,000) and state government, while the federal government keeps losing jobs. The government lost 7,000 jobs in June, and employment is down by 69,000 since its January peak. (Those on paid leave or getting ongoing severance are counted as employed.)

People who work part-time for economic reasons was at 4.5 million, which changed little in June. These are people who want full-time work. Those not in the labor force but who want jobs stayed at 6 million.

The number of discouraged workers, those who believed no jobs were available for them, increased in June to 637,000, an increase of 256,000.

Other major industries, like mining, retail and transportation, showed little change over last month.

In response to the news, the stock market rose Thursday.

“The solid June jobs report confirms that the labor market remains resolute and slams the door shut on a July rate cut,” Jeff Schulze, head of economic and market strategy at ClearBridge Investments, told CNBC. “Today’s good news should be treated as such by the markets, with equities rising despite the accompanying pickup in interest rates.”

The U.S. Federal Reserve is likely to leave interest rates as they are.

June 25 (UPI) — The United States on Tuesday sanctioned, charged and added to the FBI’s most wanted list a Venezuelan fugitive accused of being a leader of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang, one of several criminal organizations that the Trump administration has targeted in its crackdown on immigration.

The alleged gang leader, 37-year-old Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano, is accused of being involved in the TdA’s drug trafficking and financial operations.

According to a five-count superseding indictment announced Tuesday by the Justice Department, Mosquera Serrano, who also goes by the name “El Viejo,” and 24-year-old Jose Enrique Martinez Flores, aka “Chuqui,” are charged with conspiring to provide and providing support to a designated foreign terrorist organization as well as distributing cocaine in Colombia intended for the United States.

The indictment calls Mosquera Serrano a senior TdA leader who oversees its criminal operations in Colombia, Central America and the United States, while Martinez Flores is an alleged high-ranking TdA leader in Bogota.

The Justice Department accuses the pair of being involved in the delivery of some 5 kilos or more of cocaine for international distribution for the benefit of the TdA.

According to the FBI, Mosquera Serrano is the 536th addition to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and the first alleged TdA member to be included.

“Giovanni Vicente Mosquera Serrano’s leadership fuels an organization that thrives on brutal murders, forced prostitution, kidnappings and the destruction of lives across continents,” Douglas Williams, special agent in charge of FBI Houston, said Tuesday in a statement.

The State Department has been offering a reward of up to $3 million for information leading to his arrest or conviction since June 2024.

“The United States is committed to keeping the American people safe by using all available means to eliminate TdA’s threats of violent crime throughout our hemisphere,” the State Department said in a statement.

The U.S. government under President Donald Trump has been cracking down on immigration, focusing on alleged bad actors and international criminal organizations.

On Feb. 20, Trump designated TdA and seven other criminal organizations as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists, exposing them and their members and proxy entities to punitive measures, including sanctions.

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office has issued fresh travel guidance following hostilities between Israel and Iran, and it says visiting certain nations could invalidate your travel insurance

Two more countries have been added to the list of place Brits should avoid, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCDO) says.

Brits are warned not to travel to Jordan and Israel amid the latter’s conflict with Iran, which saw Iran fight back on the weekend. Brits already in these countries should follow local authorities’ advice, the FCDO stressed.

With reference to Jordan, it added: “Ongoing hostilities in the region and between Israel and Iran could escalate quickly and pose security risks for the wider region. There are reports of military debris falling in various locations.

“Travel disruption, including flight cancellations and airspace closures may occur. Demonstrations and protest activity may take place. Jordanian airspace is open but airports and airspace may close at short notice.”

READ MORE: Iran-Israel LIVE: Donald Trump blasts Iran as ‘foolish not to sign deal’

Donald Trump said he believes Iran would be “foolish” not to sign the deal he will be offering them in an attempt to ease tensions. If it is rejected, it is feared Iran could begin producing nuclear weapons.

Due to this, the FCDO says Brits should not travel to Israel too. Airspace there has been closed since the violence ramped up on Friday morning. The FCDO continued: “Following Israeli strikes against targets in Iran, Iran has launched multiple rounds of missile and drone attacks against Israel. On 13 June, a nationwide state of emergency was declared in Israel. Israeli airspace remains closed and Ben Gurion Airport is currently closed. No travel can be guaranteed safe.”

Ignoring any advice from the FCDO may invalidate your travel insurance, the agency added. Those planning trips to Jordan or Israel should monitor local and international media for the latest information, and be vigilant and follow the instructions of local authorities.

The FCDO’s new advice comes amid the fast-moving situation which poses significant risks as it could deteriorate further, quickly and without warning. Mr Trump acknowledged this late on Monday UK time (6.30pm in Washington).

READ MORE: Impact of Israel and Iran’s war on interest rates for UK borrowers revealed

The US President posted on Truth Social: “Iran should have signed the “deal” I told them to sign. What a shame, and waste of human life. Simply stated, IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran.”

The Israeli Air Force yesterday sent fighter jets over central Iran on the fourth day of its military operation to strip away Iran’s capacity to produce nuclear weapons. Among the targets hit by Israel was a building used by Iran’s state TV – and the attack was caught live on air.

Israeli officials put the death toll from Iran’s overnight strikes at eight people after the Islamic Republic punctured Israel’s Iron Dome defence system, hitting targets in Tel Aviv and Haifa. In total, 24 Israeli civilians have died as a result of Iranian strikes. Meanwhile, in Iran, the country’s health ministry reported that the death toll has climbed to 224 people in the 72 hours since the war began.