EMINEM’S daughter Alaina Scott has been spotted bumping along in her first sighting since announcing her pregnancy- making the rap legend a grandfather for the second time.
Alainawas adopted by Eminem and his ex-wife Kim Mathers as a baby after the death of her mom Dawn, Kim’s twin sister.
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Eminem’s daughter Alaina Scott is seen for the first time since announcing her pregnancy, leaving a Pure Barre classCredit: Matt Symons for The U.S. SunAlaina Scott appeared filled with joy and she made her way to her car after working outCredit: Matt Symons for The U.S. SunEminem’s daughter Alaina Scott’s future home is being built in New Baltimore, MichiganCredit: Matt Symons for The U.S. Sun
The rapper’s eldest daughter married her longtime boyfriend, Matt Moeller, in a Great Gatsby-themed ceremony in 2023, and they will soon welcome their first child.
Eminem walked her down the aisle and they have always had a close relationship.
Alaina made her pregnancy announcement on Instagram, and has since been seen out and about close to her home in Michigan.
Focusing on her health amid her new chapter, she was photographed leaving a Pure Barre class in Shelby Township, looking as though she’s on cloud nine.
Alaina was makeup free for the workout dressed in a gray T-shirt and pink leopard print yoga pants with black sandals.
She had her hair tied back and was seen beaming as she looked at her cell phone while clutching a bottle of water.
NEW CHAPTER
The U.S. Sun can also reveal the first photographs of her new house build for her growing family in New Baltimore.
Snaps show construction appears to be nearly complete as workers add windows and doors to the home.
Records obtained by The U.S. Sun show Alaina, an esthetician, and husband Matt, a drummer, took out a loan for $350,000 in February 2025 to pay for the land.
Alaina posted photographs from a gender reveal party this week, revealing she is having a girl.
“You’re everything I’ve ever dreamed of, sweet child of mine,” she wrote alongside videos of a pink confetti canon.
“I can already see her little hand in his, the way he’ll look at her, the way she’ll have him wrapped around her tiny finger. Watching him become a girl dad is going to be the greatest love story yet, and he doesn’t even know it.”
Looking glowing in a mid-length black dress, she previously posted some cute photos holding a tiny white babygrow with ‘Baby Moeller, coming 2026’ written on it.
She penned: “THE BEST OF YOU + ME.”
“For months, I’ve carried a tiny heartbeat inside me, one that has already changed mine in every possible way.
“There’s something indescribable about knowing there’s a little life growing, dreaming, and becoming, all while you go about your day, whispering prayers and hopes only they can hear.”
Alaina continued: “I’ve never felt more grateful for this gift and to grow our family, something we’ve wanted for so long.
“Thank you God for this blessing. Baby M, we can’t wait to meet you, little one.”
BLENDED FAMILY
The heartwarming photos captured the moment Alaina surprised her husband — leading a blindfolded Matt into a room at the couple’s new home-in-progress, decorated with a giant gold “Baby M” balloon.
She then presented him with a shoebox containing a positive pregnancy test and a pair of tiny sneakers.
The baby girl will be Eminem and Kim’s second grandchild after the birth of their daughter Hailie Jade’s son, Elliot, in March this year with her husband, Evan McClintock.
Kim, 50, was also seen in new photographs this month looking healthy and happy after her previous health struggles.
The mother-of-four and rapper married in 1999 but divorced in 2001.
They later reconciled and tied the knot a second time in 2006 before finally parting ways and are now on good terms.
Alaina’s mother, Dawn, who was Kim’s sister, died of a drug overdose in 2016 after years of addiction problems.
Kim is also mom to Stevie Laine, 23, who identifies as non-binary, and was also raised by Eminem, 52, while she also has a son, Parker, who is believed to be in his teens.
Both Stevie and Parker are from different relationships.
TMZ revealed this week that Eminem, real name Marshall Mathers, has now found love with a new woman – his longtime stylist, Katrina Malota.
Katrina is a stylist and makeup artist based in Michigan who has been in his circle for many years.
Mounds of dirt can be seen outside Alaina Scott’s home which is being built for her familyCredit: Matt Symons for The U.S. SunThe 32-year-old revealed her growing baby bump as she headed to a workout class this monthCredit: Matt Symons for The U.S. SunEminem’s daughter couldn’t stop smiling as she left a class wearing pink leopard print pantsCredit: Matt Symons for The U.S. Sun
On October 7, 2025, Moulton Wealth Management, Inc disclosed a new position in VanEck Semiconductor ETF(SMH 2.68%), acquiring 8,932 shares valued at approximately $2.92 million.
What happened
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing dated October 7, 2025, Moulton Wealth Management, Inc disclosed a new position in VanEck Semiconductor ETF, adding 8,932 shares. The estimated transaction value was approximately $2.92 million. The fund reported 45 total positions and $137.49 million in reportable U.S. equity assets.
As of October 7, 2025, shares were priced at $337.05, up 35.79% over the past year.
Company overview
Metric
Value
Dividend Yield
0.32%
Price (as of market close October 7, 2025)
$337.05
1-Year Price Change
35.79%
Company snapshot
The investment strategy seeks to replicate the performance of the fund’s benchmark index by investing at least 80% of assets in U.S. exchange-listed semiconductor companies.
The portfolio is concentrated in common stocks and depositary receipts of semiconductor companies, including both domestic and foreign issuers.
Fund structure is non-diversified with a passively managed approach.
VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) provides targeted exposure to the semiconductor sector by tracking a benchmark index of leading U.S.-listed semiconductor companies. The fund’s substantial asset base and focused portfolio offer investors a liquid and efficient vehicle for accessing this critical technology industry.
Foolish take
I’m a longtime bull on the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) for one very simple reason: Semiconductors are a critical component within the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem, and AI is the most important technological innovation of this decade.
Therefore, this fund’s core holdings read like a who’s who of top-performing stocks. There’s Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices, Broadcom, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Intel, and many more.
Obviously, many of these stocks have soared to new heights as the AI revolution has picked up steam. Nvidia is now the world’s largest company by market cap; Broadcom is now the 7th-largest American company with a market cap north of $1.6 trillion.
What’s more, organizations are still spending tens of billions on new AI infrastructure investments — much of it coming in the form of purchases of semiconductors.
For example, according to estimates compiled by Yahoo Finance, Nvidia’s annual sales should rise to over $200 billion this year, up from $26 billion in 2022.
All that said, semiconductors have historically been a cyclical industry, and have endured many boom-bust cycles. So investors should remain cautious about how much exposure they may have to the semiconductor industry, given its volatile history.
However, for most growth-oriented investors, semiconductors are now a must-own sector. So for those investors, the Van Eck Semiconductor ETF is one fund to consider for the long term.
Glossary
ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund): An investment fund traded on stock exchanges, holding assets like stocks or bonds.
13F assets under management: The value of U.S. equity securities reported by institutional managers in quarterly SEC filings.
New position: The initial purchase of a security or asset not previously held in a portfolio.
Benchmark index: A standard index used to measure the performance of an investment fund or portfolio.
Depositary receipts: Negotiable certificates representing shares in a foreign company, traded on local stock exchanges.
Non-diversified fund: A fund that invests a large portion of assets in a small number of issuers or sectors.
Passively managed: An investment approach that aims to replicate the performance of a benchmark index, not outperform it.
Expense ratio: The annual fee expressed as a percentage of assets, covering a fund’s operating costs.
Asset base: The total value of assets held by a fund or investment vehicle.
Reportable position: A holding that must be disclosed in regulatory filings due to its size or regulatory requirements.
Jake Lerch has positions in Nvidia and VanEck ETF Trust – VanEck Semiconductor ETF. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, Nvidia, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and recommends the following options: short November 2025 $21 puts on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Rylan Harris, Director of Strategy and Business Development for Northrop Grumman’s Armament Systems business unit, provided an update on the company’s work related to PGS during a press briefing today. TWZ, as well as other outlets, were in attendance. Currently, the new grenade launcher from Northrop Grumman and Colt is an 11-and-a-half-pound semi-automatic design that feeds from five-round box magazines and looks like an oversized rifle.
Development of the preceding XM25 had begun in the mid-2000s as a partnership between German gunmaker Heckler & Koch (HK) and Alliant Techsystems (ATK). In 2015, ATK merged with Orbital Sciences Corporation to form Orbital ATK, which continued to be involved with the Punisher. Northrop Grumman acquired Orbital ATK in 2018, the same year the XM25 program came to an end. The Army citing weight and physical bulk, as well as cost, as factors in that decision. The current PGS program traces back to at least 2020.
The XM25 “Punisher” grenade launcher. US Army
“From the PGS side of things, I’d say the very initial baseline is from the Orbital ATK XM25 design,” Northrop Grumman’s Harris said today. “Similar caliber, I’d say similar programmable airburst round, which helps give that maturity.”
Programmable 25mm airbursting rounds were at the core of the XM25 effort, which was also known over the years as the Individual Semi-Automatic Airburst System (ISAAS) and the Counter-Defilade Target Engagement (CDTE) System. The weapon had a computerized fire control system that used a laser range finder to determine the distance to the target and then set the round to detonate at the optimal point in its flight. The Army’s main goal was to give soldiers a new way to get at enemy personnel behind hard cover at an appreciable range.
The PGS requirements the Army has publicly released to date still include a call for ‘counter-defilade’ rounds, but also ammunition types that can be used to engage lightly armored vehicles and small drones. There are also demands for the weapon to be able to help blow open doors and be usable in close combat scenarios. The launcher also has to have an effective range of at least 1,640 feet (500 meters). Overall, the Army expects the PGS to offer a significant leap in capability over its existing 40x46mm M203 and M320 grenade launchers.
The XM25 “system did not have a counter-UAS [uncrewed aerial systems] capability, nor was there a door breaching capability developed at that point in time,” Northrop Grumman’s Harris noted today. “So, we’ve kind of completely revolutionized the fire control, as well as part of the ammunition suite, to provide a lighter weight [and] more reliable weapon system.”
So far, “Northrop Grumman has worked to develop four specific 25mm rounds to use with PGS, including our airbursting round, our county-UAS proximity round, a close quarter battle round, as well as a target practice round,” he also said.
Northrop Grumman and Colt have also previously shown prototypes and mockups of their launcher with the XM157 computerized sighting system from Vortex Optics and the SMASH-series computerized optic from Israeli firm Smartshooter. The company has told TWZ in the past that multiple options for optics are being explored. The launcher has a multi-button control system in front of the trigger, as well, but how exactly it works is unclear. The Army is already fielding the XM157 as the standard optic for its new 6.8x51mm XM7 rifles and XM250 light machine guns. The SMASH family is seeing expanding use within the U.S. military and elsewhere globally.
A mockup of the Northrop Grumman-Colt precision grenade launcher with a SMASH-series optic on display. Mockups of ammunition types that have been developed for the weapon are also seen at bottom right. Howard Altman
Northrop Grumman and Colt are not the only ones that are already positioning themselves to enter the Army’s PGS competition when it kicks off. In May, Barrett Firearms and MARS, Inc. announced that their Squad Support Rifle System (SSRS), a 30mm semi-automatic grenade launcher design, had been selected as the winner of the Army’s xTechSoldier Lethality design challenge, an effort adjacent to the PGS program.
The prototype of the Barrett-MARS SSRS that was entered into the xTechSoldier Lethality challenge. Barrett Firearms
There were two finalists in the xTechSoldier Lethality challenge, with the other being a different semi-automatic 30mm design from the American division of the Belgian gunmaker Fabrique Nationale (FN) called the PGS-001. Last week, FN America announced that it had secured a contract from the Army for continued development of what it now calls the MTL-30 as part of a risk reduction effort directly feeding into the PGS program.
The MTL-30 launcher. FN America
The American subsidiary of German firm Rheinmetall has also been developing the Highly Advanced Multi-Mission Rifle (HAMMR) based on its 40x46mm Squad Support Weapon 40 (SSW40). Other companies may still be angling to meet the Army’s PGS needs, as well.
Rheinmetall’s SSW40, on which the HAMMR design is based. Rheinmetall
“We’re definitely keeping a strong bead on the competitive landscape there,” Northrop Grumman’s Harris said. “From our analysis, we feel that our offering, and 25 millimeter [ammunition], provides the least amount of strain on the soldier regarding weight, as well as kick to the weapon system, while providing the maximum amount of range to be able to take out threats well beyond what the warfighter can see.”
In response to a direct question from TWZ‘s Howard Altman about whether Northrop Grumman had received a similar contract to FN America’s under the aforementioned risk reduction effort, Harris said “we do have a track with the Army” that is separate, and declined to elaborate.
Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll, in the green jacket, is shown, from left to right, mockups of the Northrop Grumman-Colt precision grenade launcher, the FN America PGS-001, and the Barrett/MARS SSRS. US Army
“We are working with the Marine Corps, as well,” he added. “So it’s not just a single service that’s interested in the PGS offering.”
The Army has yet to share a firm timeline for when it is expecting the PGS competition to officially begin, when it hopes to pick a winner, and when those launchers might actually reach operational units.
In the meantime, Northrop Grumman and Colt are continuing to work on their 25mm launcher, leveraging experience and lessons from the XM25.
Scotland fans with even average memories take nothing for granted on the road, their mind’s eye still capable of conjuring up disturbing images of losing qualifying matches to Georgia in Tbilisi in 2007 and Kazakhstan in Astana a dozen years later.
Zalaegerszeg in western Hungary doesn’t get to join the hall of infamy, not after Scotland won a fairly joyless, but wholly professional, behind closed doors contest against Belarus. Get in and get out with three points was the mission and the mission was accomplished. Quality was optional on this occasion.
There wasn’t much of it, but for now it doesn’t matter. There was an encouraging performance from Ben Gannon-Doak, operating on the left wing with Andy Robertson as his minder. There was a solid outing from Che Adams who scored the first and was involved in the second. There was another clean sheet and the feeling of a job done adequately.
The drama on the night didn’t come in Hungary, it came in Greece where Denmark hauled themselves off the floor after dropping a home point against Scotland.
In taking the previously thrusting Greeks to the cleaners – 3-0 going on two or three more – they shook up the group. After being thoroughly outclassed by Denmark, a team that Scotland kept goalless a few days ago, Steve Clarke has a right to think that Greece are maybe not as good as they were made to look at Hampden in March.
WASHINGTON — Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse made their voices heard Tuesday on Capitol Hill, pressuring lawmakers to force the release of the sex trafficking investigation into the late financier and pushing back President Trump’s effort to dismiss the issue as a “hoax.”
In a news conference on the Capitol lawn that drew hundreds of supporters and chants of “release the files,” the women shared — some publicly for the first time — how they were lured into Epstein’s abuse by his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. They demanded that the Trump administration provide transparency and accountability for what they endured as teenagers.
It was a striking stand as the push for disclosure of the so-called Epstein files reached a pivotal moment in Washington. Lawmakers are battling over how Congress should delve into the Epstein saga while the Republican president, after initially signaling support for transparency on the campaign trail, has been dismissing the matter as a “Democrat hoax.”
“No matter what you do it’s going to keep going,” Trump said Wednesday. He added, “Really, I think it’s enough.”
But the survivors on Capitol Hill, as well as at least one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, disagreed. Some of the women pleaded for Trump to support their cause.
“It feels like you just want to explode inside because nobody, again, is understanding that this is a real situation. These women are real. We’re here in person,” said Haley Robson, one of the survivors who said she is a registered Republican.
Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges that said he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls. The case was brought more than a decade after he secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of nearly identical allegations. Epstein was accused of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them.
Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime confidant and former girlfriend, was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in prison for luring teenage girls for him to abuse. Four women testified at her trial that they were abused by Epstein as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at his homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico. The allegations have also spawned dozens of lawsuits.
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is usually closely aligned with Trump, described her support for a bill that would force the Justice Department to release the information it has compiled on Epstein as a moral fight against sexual predation.
“This isn’t one political party or the other. It’s a culmination of everyone work together to silence these women and protect Jeffrey Epstein and his cabal,” Greene said at the news conference.
She is one of four Republicans — three of them women — who have defied House GOP leadership and the White House in an effort to force a vote on their bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to quash the effort by putting forward his own resolution and arguing that a concurrent investigation by the House Oversight Committee is the best way for Congress to deliver transparency.
“I think the Oversight probe is going to be wide and expansive, and they’re going to follow the truth wherever it leads,” Johnson, R-La., said.
He added that the White House was complying with the committee to release information and that he had spoken with Trump about it Tuesday night. “He says, ‘Get it out there, put it all out there,’” Johnson told reporters.
The Oversight Committee on Tuesday night released what it said was the first tranche of documents and files it has received from the Justice Department on the Epstein case. The folders — posted on Google Drive — contained hundreds of image files of years-old court filings related to Epstein, but contained practically nothing new.
Meanwhile, the White House was warning House members that support for the bill to require the DOJ to release the files would be seen as a hostile act. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who is pressing for the bill, said that the White House was sending that message because “They’ve dug in.”
“They decided they don’t want it released,” he said. “It’s a political threat.”
But with Trump sending a strong message and Republican leadership moving forward with an alternative resolution, Massie was left looking for support from at least two more Republicans willing to cross political lines. It would take six GOP members, as well as all House Democrats, to force a vote on their bill. And even if that passes the House, it would still need to pass the Senate and be signed by Trump.
Still, the survivors saw this moment as their best chance in years to gain some justice for what had been done by Epstein, who died in as New York jail cell in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges.
“Justice and accountability are not favors from the powerful. They are obligations decades overdue” Jess Michaels, a survivor who said she was first abused by Epstein in 1991, told the rally on the Capitol lawn. “This moment began with Epstein’s crimes. But it’s going to be remembered for survivors demanding justice, demanding truth, demanding accountability.”
Lindsay and Daniel Sheron dreamed of buying a home of their own. But in Los Angeles, where housing is expensive and in short supply — the median home price is roughly $1 million, according to Zillow — purchasing a home can be difficult for first-time homebuyers with limited equity.
So after many years of renting various homes, including a Craftsman house in Portland and, most recently, a small bungalow in Eagle Rock, the Sherons, who are both 36, reached a tipping point while searching for a house in northeast Los Angeles. They quickly realized that they couldn’t afford to live in their neighborhood.
“We weathered the pandemic in a 900-square-foot bungalow in Eagle Rock,” Lindsay, who is an architect, recalls of the house, which their landlords had listed for $900,000 before they decided to rent it out. “I thought, ‘If that’s what $900,000 gets you in Los Angeles, why don’t we look at land and see about designing and building our own house?” she adds. “Maybe we can gain more value that way.” (The bungalow sold for $1.3 million after they moved out.)
Daniel and Lindsay Sheron in the living room of their home. “We would have never been able to afford an 1,800-square-foot house,” says Lindsay.
Using Zillow, the couple scouted several hillside lots and eventually purchased a 4,300-square-foot hillside property in 2021 for $212,000. Located at the top of a small ridge at the end of a cul-de-sac in Mount Washington, the north-facing lot was on a buildable slope with lovely views of the San Gabriel Mountains. More importantly, the vacant lot had access to utilities such as electricity, gas and water, including a sewer manhole at the bottom of the property. There are many lots for sale, Lindsay notes, but many of them don’t have access or utilities.
With their entire savings invested in the land, the Sherons took a cost-saving, hands-on approach to the next step: construction. In addition to Lindsay’s design services as an architect, they decided to serve as general contractors and subcontract the major trades, including the concrete foundation, tile, framing, exterior siding and hardwood floors.
Although the architect was thrilled at the prospect of designing her own home, she had never built one before — or bought one, for that matter — which perhaps is why she could ponder the formidable tasks of securing a construction loan, deciphering Urban Forestry and municipal building codes in a neighborhood with strict development regulations, permitting the house (which took seven months with the help of an expediter) and deciphering new development fees linked to affordable housing. “Every step of approval is not straightforward,” Lindsay says. “We were on our own for all of the inspections.”
“I wanted the house to be warm,” Lindsay Sheron says of the Western hemlock paneling and House of Leon dining room table that serves as the hub of the house.
“It only worked because Lindsay knew how to do it,” says Daniel, who is a musician and, by his admission, had never used a nail gun before tackling their 1800-square-foot home project. “Because she has a background in construction administration on huge commercial projects, she had the answers when a concrete contractor had questions about what PSI [pounds per square inch] concrete to pour.”
From the outset, nature was a priority for the architect, who, like Norman Jaffe and Joseph Esherick and William Turnbull, Jr. of Sea Ranch fame, was concerned with the relationship between architecture and landscape.
Mindful of her neighbors, Lindsay devised a plan for a modern three-bedroom house that did not overwhelm the cul-de-sac: a two-story house that steps down the hill and is complemented by a pitched roof that soars parallel to the natural slope of the hillside.
Lindsay Sheron was initially nervous about designing a single-wall kitchen, but so far “there have been no issues,” she says.
“I designed the house to descend into the hill rather than being perched on top of the street,” she says. “That would have felt invasive. I wanted to bring nature in and blend into the hill as much as possible, even in an urban setting.”
The effect, Daniel says, is a sense of wonder: “It feels like you’re living inside the hill.”
Working together, the couple completed a significant portion of the work themselves, including the interior trim, and Lindsay even built a bench that doubles as the HVAC register. They also undertook extensive waterproofing on the exterior of the house and around all of the doors and windows, dug a trench for their water line and spent most weekends filling in the gaps where labor was lacking. When Tropical Storm Hilary marched through Southern California in August 2023, they crawled on top the house and frantically covered the framing with 100-foot-long tarps.
“That was stressful,” Lindsay says with a sigh. “If we had a crew, we could have asked them to help.”
Daniel Sheron waterproofs the exterior of the house above the living room.
(Lindsay Sheron)
Daniel Sheron and a friend install interior Hemlock paneling, above. Lindsay Sheron waterproofs windows in 2023, below. (Photos from Lindsay Sheron)
There were other unexpected fees. When all was said and done, the couple paid the city more than $80,000, with some fees meant to stymie new home development , even as there were discounts for accessory dwelling units, or ADUs. If they had added an ADU, the calculation for one fee would have been $1.08 per square foot rather than $8.30 per square foot, they later learned. “If I had known the difference would have been $2,000 versus $23,000, I might had added an ADU,” Lindsay says now of the attached studio they installed at the front of the house alongside the carport.
Similarly, when they went to obtain their Certificate of Occupancy last December, they learned they owed a parks and recreation mitigation fee — a payment that would go toward “improving park and recreational facilities for new residents,” according to the city website. “We were tapped out at that point,” Daniel says. “We had to pay $8,000 or they wouldn’t issue us the certificate.” They put it on a credit card.
Three years and more than a few hassles later, the couple has a finished home that is a testament to their perseverance. Walk past the carport, which was influenced by Buff, Straub & Hensman’s historic Poppy Peak neighborhood in Pasadena, and a path gently curves around the side of the house to the front door, which opens to a central stairway with breathtaking views that connects the upper and lower levels. Two bedrooms are located on the top floor, while the stairway descends to the living room, dining area and kitchen, all of which are designed to be loftlike, creating an open floor plan bathed with natural light.
The primary bedroom on the ground floor.
“We say this is a house with no hallways,” Lindsay says of her efficient space planning. “You circulate in a connected space. The stairs are connected to the space; the hallway to the bedrooms is connected.”
The larger living areas are neutral, with warm oak floors and exposed Douglas fir beams that are accented with bold moments. The kitchen is a standout, featuring bright green custom kitchen cabinets painted “Raw Tomatillo” by Farrow & Ball, which add vitality to the single-wall layout. A custom metal hood by Practice Fabrication, powder-coated the color of a Pixie tangerine, adds a sense of fun.
“I wanted our house to feel really warm and bring nature inside,” says Lindsay, referring to the Western hemlock tongue and groove planks that she and Daniel installed on the walls and ceilings. “Wood does the heavy lifting in accomplishing that.”
Lindsay Sheron wanted the main rooms to be warm and neutral with bold moments of color throughout the house, including the bathrooms and kitchen.
The exterior of the house, which is clad in shou sugi bancharred wood siding from Nakamoto Forestry, was a priority for the architect but a mystery for the subcontractors. “Everyone presumed we were going to add stucco,” she says, “because that’s what everyone else does.”
She created a small mock-up to illustrate the rainscreen infrastructure system, which offers both fireproofing and insulation benefits. “It’s like putting a down jacket on your house,” Lindsay explains. “It’s a sustainable way to build out your exterior, providing more thermal insulation and allowing your siding to dry. It’s not attached to sheeting so it can breathe thanks to an air gap behind it.”
Toward the end of construction, when they could no longer afford their rent, the couple stayed in a friend’s spare room for four months. Then last April, once floors and drywall were installed, they moved into the house and showered at the gym. “We were squatting in our own house,” adds Daniel, who says he listened to island exotica music while working on carpentry projects late at night to help combat the stress. “I’d fill the house with the dulcet tones of Les Baxter,” he says, smiling.
Lindsay Sheron designed the house to step down the hill.
(Dylan Corr)
The home’s exterior before siding in the early months of 2024.
(Lindsay Sheron)
Looking back, the couple says the most challenging part of the process was that everything started and stopped with them. “We did not have a third person where we could say, ‘Hey, can you go do this?’” Lindsay says. “So many times I wished we could make a to-do list and give it to someone.”
“There was no one to fill in besides us,” adds Daniel, who is now working as a project manager for a residential contractor in the Pacific Palisades. “When the city wouldn’t approve the permit for their driveway, he drove to Norwalk and consulted property records on microfilm to try to determine the history of the shared driveway.
“We could have written a show about the experience,” Lindsay says, to which her husband responded, “It would be a comedy of errors.”
It also taught them a new level of collaboration.
Lindsay Sheron designed a stylish bench for the entryway that hides the HVAC system.
“We had never collaborated on anything to that extent,” says Lindsay. “I’m an architect. He’s a musician. We’re very different, but I relied on him a lot. He was freelance and could be at the house a lot more while I worked full time, so he would call me with questions or he would send me a picture and I would sketch on top of the photo.”
“I gained a deeper appreciation for Lindsay’s iterative approach,” Daniel says.
Longtime friend Nicolas Sohl, who attended Middlebury College with Daniel, remembers walking the boundary lines with the couple after they first purchased the land.
“Their love for each other is evident in the attention to detail in the home they chose to build together,” he says. “They saw it as an opportunity not only to advance their careers but create lasting friendships in their neighborhood.”
Inspired by rustic homes that connect to the landscape, such as Sea Ranch along the coast of Sonoma County, Lindsay Sheron used shou sugi ban charred wood siding from Nakamoto Forestry.
Though their goal was to build the home for under $1 million, in the end, they borrowed a little over that amount. Even so, they estimate they built their house for approximately 45% less than what a similar home would cost. They have seen three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bathroom homes on comparable lots in their neighborhood sell for around $2 million.
On New Year’s Eve, the couple put aside their power tools and opened their home to 30 of their friends. Celebratory champagne flowed freely and thanks to the home’s open floor plan, dancing spilled into the kitchen.
Such joyful moments are especially meaningful after three years spent working as general contractors.
“Our friends say we seem way more at ease now,” Lindsay says.
Since finishing their home, the Sherons have opened their door to celebrate with friends.
Local authorities have reportedly green-lighted a mega £587 million project to build five new hotels, and expand an existing one, in a Canary Island hotspot – despite rising anti-tourist sentiment
A huge investment project has reportedly been green-lighted in the hotspot(Image: Getty Images)
Following more than a decade of ‘stagnation’, one tourist resort in the Canary Islands is about to be totally transformed.
Famed for its golden sandy beaches, modern shopping malls and stylish restaurants – the sun-soaked region of Meloneras in south Gran Canaria has been attracting holidaymakers for decades. It’s ideally located less than an hour away from the island’s capital, Las Palmas, making it a great base to explore Gran Canaria’s rich history, including the UNESCO-accredited Vegueta neighbourhood.
Following 14 years of ‘bureaucratic delays and planning gridlock’, developments on the island have struggled to get off the ground. However, the San Bartolomé de Tirajana (Maspalomas) local council has reportedly green-lighted a huge project to expand one existing hotel and build five new ones.
Five new hotels are slated to open up on the island(Image: Lopesan Hotels)
According to Canarian Weekly, the developments – which are being spearheaded by the Lopesan Group, are expected to exceed a staggering €700 million (approx. £587 million). The site states the investment will add 1,800 hotel rooms, 3,600 new beds and will cover a total area of 271,500 square metres.
“The hotel expansion includes a 533-room congress hotel with 1,200 beds, which is already under construction,” Canarian Weekly added. “A second hotel on a 56,100 m² plot, will offer 1,123 beds, while a third property on 25,500 m² of land will feature 691 beds.”
The fourth development site is believed to be made up of several villas and bungalows, while the fifth hotel, which will rise up to seven storeys, will be located across from the acclaimed Baobab Hotel. The project will also seek to improve infrastructure in the area, by creating wider streets, new roundabouts, and even a service road that runs parallel to the seafront, local media writes.
It has not yet been confirmed how long the hotels will take to build, or when they will be open for use. The Lopesan Hotel Group already manages 11 luxury hotels in Gran Canaria, two in Fuerteventura, as well as sites in Thailand, Germany, and Austria.
While the news may go down well with sun-worshipping Brits wanting to live it up in luxury for a week in the summer holidays – Lopesan’s mega plans might spark backlash from fed-up locals. Many residents are becoming increasingly critical of over-tourism on the island – arguing it has worsened the country’s housing crisis and is resulting in irreversible environmental damage.
Last year, a slew of anti-tourist protests erupted across the archipelago – as frustrated locals, armed with banners, demanded holidaymakers ‘go home’. Tensions have continued to rise in recent months, with demonstrations taking place across the Canary Islands just two weeks ago.
The Mirror has contacted Lopesan Hotel Group for comment.
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Before the sun rose Tuesday, Benito Flores fortified the front door of his one-bedroom duplex on a narrow street in El Sereno.
Flores, a 70-year-old retired welder, had illegally seized a home five years ago after its owner, the California Department of Transportation, had left it vacant. He’d been allowed to stay for a few months, then was directed to this nearby home owned by the agency, but now it was time to go.
Later in the morning, deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department were scheduled to lock him out.
Flores clearly had other plans. Over months, he’d sawed wooden two-by-fours to use as a brace between the front door and an interior wall to make it harder to breach. He bolted shut the metal screen door. Once Flores was satisfied he’d secured the entrance Tuesday, he retreated to a wooden structure he built 28 feet high in an ash tree in the backyard.
If the police wanted him to leave, they’d have to come get him in his tree house.
“I plan to resist as long as I can,” Flores said.
The homemade structure, 6 feet tall and 3 feet wide, represents the last stand for Flores and a larger protest that captured national attention in March 2020. Flores and a dozen others occupied empty homes owned by Caltrans, acquired by the hundreds a half-century ago for a freeway expansion that never happened. They said they wanted to call attention to the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles.
The issue, Flores said, remains no less urgent today. Political leaders, he argued, have failed to provide housing for all who need it.
“They don’t care about the people,” Flores said. “Who is supposed to give permanent housing to elders, disabled and families with children? It is the city and the state. And they are evicting me.”
For the public agencies involved, the resistance represents an intransigence that belies the assistance and leniency they’ve offered to Flores and fellow protesters who call their group “Reclaiming Our Homes.” The state allowed group members, or Reclaimers, to remain legally and paying rents far below market rates for two years. Since then, the agencies have continued to offer referrals for permanent housing and financial settlements of up to $20,000 if group members left voluntarily.
Evictions, they’ve said, were a last resort and required by law.
“We don’t have any authority to operate outside of that,” said Tina Booth, director of asset management for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, which is operating the housing program on Caltrans’ behalf.
Four Reclaimers, including Flores, remain in the homes.
Two have accepted settlements and are expected to leave within weeks. The final Reclaimer also has a court-ordered eviction against him, but plans to leave without incident.
Flores said evicting him makes no sense because the property is intended to be used as affordable housing that he qualifies for. Flores, who suffers from diabetes, collects about $1,200 a month in Social Security and supplemental payments. If he’s removed, Flores said, he has no other option except to sleep in his van — where he lived for 14 years before the home seizure.
“We are going to live on the streets for the rest of our lives,” Flores said of he and others evicted in the protest group in an open letter he sent to Sheriff Robert Luna last week.
Flores received advance notice of the lockout. His supporters began arriving at 6 a.m. Tuesday to fill the normally sleepy block. Flores already was up in the tree.
Within 90 minutes, more than two dozen people had arrived. They stationed lookouts on the corners. Some went inside Flores’ house through a side door to provide another layer of defense.
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1.Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies speak over a fence to Benito Flores on Shelley Street in El Sereno, CA on Tuesday, June 3, 2025.2.Benito Flores speaks with the media on Tuesday, June 3, 2025 saying that the sheriff’s department that will serve him with eviction lack compassion and that him living on the street will mean facing death.
Gina Viola, an activist and former mayoral candidate, rallied the crowd on the sidewalk. It was “despicable,” she said, to leave homes empty when so many were in need. She said those in power needed to act, just as Flores and the Reclaimers have, to provide permanent housing immediately.
“This is part of a reckoning that is long overdue,” Viola said.
She pointed to the tree house, praising Flores.
“He’s a 70-year-old elder who has climbed … into the sky to make this point to the world: ‘This is my home and I won’t leave it.’”
The structure has been visible from the street for weeks. Flores had attached a sign to the front with a message calling for a citywide rent strike.
The tree house is elaborate. Flores used galvanized steel braces to attach a series of ladders to the ash tree’s trunk. Where the trunk narrowed higher in the tree, Flores bolted spikes into the bark to make the final few steps into the structure.
Inside the tree house and hanging on nearby branches were blankets, warm clothing, food, water and his medication. To keep things clean, there’s a wooden broom he can sweep out leaves and other detritus. Flores expected to charge his phone via an extension cord connected to electricity in the garage. He bolted a chair to the bottom of the tree house and has a safety belt to catch him should he fall.
Deputies had not yet arrived by 9 a.m. Flores descended, wearing a harness, to speak with members of the news media from his driveway. He spoke from behind a locked fence.
Flores rejected the assertion that the Housing Authority has provided him with another place to live. He said the agency’s offers of assistance, such as Section 8 vouchers, aren’t guarantees. He cited the struggles that voucher holders face when finding landlords to accept the subsidies.
“They offered me potential permanent housing,” Flores said of the Housing Authority.
Jenny Scanlin, the agency’s chief strategic development officer, said that Flores was offered more than two dozen referrals to other homes, but that he rejected them. Some involved waiting lists and vouchers, but others had occupancy immediately available, she said.
“We absolutely believe he would have had an alternative place to live — permanent affordable housing” — had Flores accepted the assistance, Scanlin said.
Joseph De La O, 62, seized a Caltrans-owned home in 2020. He accepted a settlement from HACLA and has since returned to homelessness. He came to Flores’ home to help protest the eviction.”
As Flores held court in the driveway, he rolled up a pant leg to show a sore from his diabetes and said that on the streets he’d have nowhere to refrigerate his insulin.
While Flores spoke, supporters were on edge. Representatives of the property management company milled a block away holding drills.
Around 9:45, two sheriff’s cruisers parked a block away. Three deputies got out and met the property managers, then walked to Flores’ home.
Flores’ supporters met them at the driveway. The deputies said they wanted to talk to Flores and brushed past to the locked gate. Flores told them to ask themselves why they needed to evict a senior citizen. The deputies responded that they had offered assistance from adult protective services and were following orders from the court.
A deputy handed Flores a pamphlet describing housing resources the county offered, including information about calling 211. Flores held up the paper above his head to show everyone. The crowd started booing and yelling “Shame.”
An officer then tried to reason with Flores in Spanish. But it was clear things were going nowhere.
“Suerte,” the officer said to Flores. “Good luck.”
Then they left.
The Sheriff’s Department could not immediately be reached for comment, and a Caltrans spokesperson referred comment to the Housing Authority. Scanlin said she expected the lockout process would continue per the court’s order.
Flores and his supporters believe sheriff’s deputies could return at any time. Some are planning to camp out at his house overnight.
Sebastia, occupied West Bank – Israel calls it an archaeological project to highlight Jewish heritage and create a new Israeli national park. Palestinians see it as further evidence of Israel’s plans to annex an ancient town and erase Palestinian history in an area that tells the 5,000-year-old shared story of the peoples who have lived in this land.
Far-right, pro-settler Israeli government ministers were in Sebastia on May 12 as part of a delegation to mark the looming seizure of the town’s archaeological park, one of the largest and most important of 6,000 sites in the West Bank.
Ultranationalist Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu, himself a resident of an illegal West Bank settlement, hailed the beginning of Israeli excavation at the site and the coming creation of “Samaria National Park”, which will focus on the area’s Jewish history.
Palestinians say that will come along with an attempt to paint over their ties to the land. The Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities called the excavations “preparation for Sebastia’s annexation and isolation from its surroundings”.
Israeli politicians refer to Sebastia as Samaria, or Shomron in Hebrew, and say it was the capital of the Biblical Kingdom of Israel nearly three millennia ago.
But the archaeological site includes the ruins of a Byzantine basilica, a Roman forum and amphitheatre, and the Crusader-era Church of St John, which was rebuilt into a mosque – and is believed to be the site of the tomb of John the Baptist, known in the Quran as Prophet Yahya.
Sebastia’s archaeological park, once a tourism hotspot and still a pilgrimage site for Christians, is being considered for inclusion on UNESCO’s world heritage list, subject to an application being finalised by Palestinian officials.
Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu hailed the decision to start work on an Israeli national park in Sebastia [Courtesy of the Office of Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu]
‘River of blood’
Sebastia mayor Mohammed Azim and town residents have long been warning of Israel’s intention to “Judaise” Sebastia and turn it into an Israeli-only tourism site.
Alarm intensified after the municipality received a land seizure order to construct an installation for “military purposes” at the summit of an ancient hilltop in the area last July.
Speaking to Al Jazeera in his office overlooking the increasingly deserted old town, Azim said a “river of blood will flow into the village” if construction of the barracks begins.
“The military is aiming to make life unbearable for the residents here, so they eventually surrender to reality and leave – just like those who have been displaced in Jenin and Tulkarem,” Azim said, referring to the more than 40,000 Palestinians displaced by Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank this year.
“Now, soldiers enter the village daily – and with the clear intention of killing,” Azim added. “We will resist construction – peacefully, of course. The landowners will not give up their land.”
The mayor called for condemnation of intensifying military violence in the village and the targeting of children, notably the army’s fatal shooting of 14-year-old Ahmad Jazar in January.
For its part, the Israeli state argues that the village of Sebastia will not be affected by the archaeological work, as it lies outside the boundaries of the proposed national park.
But Sebastia Archaeological Museum curator and lifelong resident, Walaa Ghazzal, says the plans are an escalation in Israel’s plans to eventually expel residents and business owners and prevent Palestinians from accessing the town, its ruins, and the sprawling hills and olive fields around it.
Ghazzal told Al Jazeera that “residents are afraid of the future”, especially those near the ruins.
“The situation is very dangerous,” she said. “Soon, they will prevent us from going to the archaeological site.
“In my opinion, we have only months before we are told to leave our homes,” Ghazzal added. “We are seeing the future in Gaza and in the camps [in the West Bank]. They are trying to erase us.”
Stars of David graffitied on the ancient Hellenic wall in Sebastia [Al Jazeera]
‘Biblical heritage’
Israeli ministers and settler politicians are using rhetoric about protecting Jewish Biblical heritage to disguise their long-held desire to annex Sebastia, Azim said.
Eliyahu was joined in Sebastia by Minister of Environmental Protection Idit Silman and Yossi Dagan, chairman of the Shomron Regional Council, which controls 35 illegal West Bank settlements.
Silman has hailed the scheme and told Israeli media, “historical justice is being done”, accusing Palestinians of attempting to “erase” Jewish heritage.
The Israeli government has long been clear that Sebastia, which most historians agree was the capital of the Kingdom of Israel for less than 200 years, will be taken over and transformed into the centrepiece of Israeli tourism in the West Bank.
In May 2023, the Israeli government approved a 30 million shekel (more than $8m) scheme to restore the park and establish a tourism centre, new access roads, and an expanded military presence. The four million shekel ($1.2m) regeneration of a disused Hijaz railway station about two miles from Sebastia, last operational in the final years of the Ottoman Empire, has also been announced.
“The archeological excavations are designed to expose the antiquities of the site and make the ancient city accessible throughout all its periods: from the beginning of the settlement in the 8th century BCE during the ancient Kingdom of Israel, through the Hellenistic city, the magnificent Roman city built by King Herod [called “Sebastos” after Emperor Augustus], to the Byzantine period when a church was built at the site,” said the office of Israeli Minister of Heritage Eliyahu.
Erasing Palestinian identity
Ghazzal said Sebastia’s ruins exhibit a “distinct local culture” in a geographic region which has “always been known as Palestine”. She said the remains emphasise the religious and cultural importance of the town to conquering empires, and its multifaith inhabitants’ peaceful coexistence for centuries.
In the Palestinian submission to UNESCO, it is noted that the present town of Sebastia still preserves “the ancient name [and] is located on the eastern part of the Roman city, indicating a strong element of cultural continuity”.
But for those focused on the planned Israeli national park, it’s only Jewish history that matters.
Responding to a query from Al Jazeera, Eliyahu’s office said that Sebastia was “first and foremost a Jewish heritage site, where archaeological remains from the Kingdom of Israel period were found”.
“It is important to emphasise that even if we were to dig at the site to the depth of the Earth’s core, not even a grain of historical evidence of ancient Palestinian settlement would be found at the site,” Eliyahu’s office added.
Yossi Dagan, who lives in neighbouring Shavei Shomron, has long advocated for the takeover of Sebastia and emphasises its prominence in Biblical history. He told Israeli media at the archaeological site: “When you dig here, you touch the Bible with your own hands.”
But Ghazzal said that the Israeli government’s treatment of the Biblical stories in the Old Testament as historical reality is designed to relegate the claims of Palestinians to have lived on the land for thousands of years, and ignores the Palestinian people’s ancient ties to their land.
“You can’t base your claim to the land on religion – civilisations are about the people who develop their identity, their works and monuments – even their language,” Ghazzal said.
“Israel wants to kill the stories from our past and replace them with poison; it is a crime against our history,” Ghazzal added. “When they demolish our monuments, remove families who keep the history alive, who will speak after that – and carry our story for the next generation?”
Palestinians visit the museum in Sebastia. It is already hard for them to visit the archaeological park because of settler attacks and the Israeli military presence [File: Raneen Sawafta/Reuters]
Ghost town
Ahmad Kayed, a 59-year-old Sebastia villager and leading activist, told Al Jazeera the ruins will not be “taken without a fight”, and demonstrations are being instigated.
He said Israel is “planning something big” in Sebastia and referenced new iron blockades being erected on roads encircling the town.
It is already extremely unsafe for Sebastia residents to visit the archaeological park because of settler attacks and near-daily military invasions, he said. But once a military barracks is established, it will be permanently off limits.
“They are working step by step to get their hands on Sebastia and keep us suffering all the time so people will leave,” Kayed said, referring to the at least 40 families that have left the town since October 7, 2023.
“We are in the second Nakba and Sebastia is under siege,” he added. “But Sebastia is strong, we know how to face them because we have done it before.”
He pointed out that residents rose up to thwart Israel’s plans to take Sebastia in the late 1970s, and they did so again to halt settlers pumping sewage onto agricultural land in 2013. Two years later, residents’ protests and sit-ins blocked the construction of a new access road for settlers, which Eliyahu’s office justified as necessary for the “hundreds of thousands of Israelis who will want to come, learn, and experience the Jewish heritage” of Sebastia.
But Kayed admits times have changed, and violence from the military today is unlike anything he has experienced in his decades of activism.
“When we decide what to do, we will be smart, and we will demonstrate in new ways, and everyone in Sebastia will follow us,” he added.
He was also gravely concerned that if excavations took place, Israelis would desecrate archaeological findings that contradicted their claim to the land, with so much still to be uncovered if Palestinian-led digs were not blocked.
The municipality still hopes UNESCO will provide the village protection and add the ruins to its World Heritage list. The mayor also hopes the archaeological park will join 56 other locations on UNESCO’s register of significant sites considered to be “in danger”.
Businesses near the archaeological site say they have lost more than three-quarters of their custom since October 7.
Samer Sha’er, owner of a coffee shop directly next to the park and Sebastia’s imposing Roman columns, said a military outpost would be devastating for businesses.
“There will be daily confrontations, constant military presence, and no sense of security,” he said. “No one will want to come and sit here while the army is stationed nearby – neither shop owners nor visitors will be able to stay.”
Once holy land coveted by prophets and conquering emperors, Sebastia has been reduced to a ghost town – haunted by the glory of its history, which has also made it a target for annexation by the ultranationalist Israeli government.
Kayed looked visibly moved as he described his youth playing on the hills of the archaeological park, and a lifetime spent trying to save his home.
He was evidently aggrieved that the town had not acted more quickly to unify against the creeping threat of the military barracks or eventual annexation. But it seems all those concerned, including the town’s mayor, are not sure what is coming next – or when.
“This land means everything to me,” Kayed added. “I have spent all my childhood, all my life going to the park.
“They will confiscate my land [to build the barracks]. I planted olive trees there with my mother, it is very painful to lose them, Kayed said. “The village will never give up on the ruins – this is our history, our life. We will fight until the end.”
