central

The waxy scent that drifts up the escalators at the Los Angeles Central Library is immediately familiar to anyone who remembers the Mold-A-Rama.

The novelty vending machines mold souvenir sculptures — a train car, a gorilla, a bust of Abraham Lincoln — in under a minute, filling a two-sided mold with hot plastic, then hollowing it out with compressed air.

Christina Rice, the senior librarian who oversees the Los Angeles Public Library’s photo collection, made it her personal quest to find and install one in the Central Library after a patron asked for pictures of machines at sites across the city, which disappeared in 2006 after their operator exited the market and sold them to private collectors.

The Mold-a-Central fills a two-sided mold with hot plastic, which is then filled with compressed air, to make a sphinx souvenir.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

At first, Rice wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but when it clicked, “it was such a strong visceral response,” she said. “I loved these machines when we would go to the zoo. It was a must-have every time.”

In fact, the last mold she purchased was a black panther from the Los Angeles Zoo, shortly after she graduated high school. Other L.A. souvenirs included a replica bandshell from the Hollywood Bowl and a tiny pagoda from the Chinese Theatre.

Rice saw an opportunity in the retro tech to get new people into the library or encourage existing patrons to explore other departments or collections.

It was a hunch that took her six years to see to fruition, but the library’s very own “Mold-a-Central” now sits in the alcove of the lower fourth floor. Visitors can trade $5 for a small black sphinx, a replica of sculptor Lee Lawrie’s Belgian black marble and bronze sphinxes that flank the north staircase on the library’s second floor. Pittsburgh sculptor Brian McGuire custom designed the mold and is also working on a replica of the 1926 Central Library building.

It’s been a hit. Visitors who’ve been drawn by nostalgia or curiosity to see it — and smell it — for themselves have molded over 3,000 sphinxes so far. During the library’s Centennial Festival in July, the machine had a consistent wait, churning out 255 figures in a single day. J.H. “Tike” Miller, the Illinois inventor of the Mold-A-Rama, was inspired by a broken figurine in his nativity scene. Department stores only sold them in sets, so he and his wife Shirley began making individual figures for sale in the late 1930s.

The Mold-a-Central makes sphinx souvenirs modeled after the black marble and bronze sphinxes that flank the north staircase on the library’s second floor.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

Olivia Gill, left, Ryan Gill and Thomas Gill use the Mold-A-Central. The souvenirs cost $5.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

In the 1950s, Miller began making figurines — often of dinosaurs and space aliens — using plastic injection molding. When his company went bankrupt in 1959, Miller licensed the technology to Aramark, then known as Automatic Retailers of America Inc. It spun off a separate division for the venture and worked with Miller to produce the first Mold-A-Rama machines.

The concept debuted at the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, with figures including the Space Needle and Alweg Monorail, then rolled out in several test markets, including Southern California. The Los Angeles Times described Mold-A-Ramas as “a diabolical cross between a jukebox and a pinball machine” that cost $3,600 apiece, or about $39,500 today.

After a bigger splash at the New York World’s Fair in 1964, Mold-A-Ramas proliferated across the U.S., popping up in zoos, museums and anywhere tourists might exchange a coin for a toy.

Though Mold-A-Rama President Ben A. O’Dorisio predicted a future in which they’d eventually sell household goods and even apparel, high maintenance costs led Aramark to dissolve its Mold-A-Rama division and sell its machines just a few years later.

Today, most operational machines are concentrated in the Midwest and the South, split between two companies that have amicably divided their territories: Illinois-based Mold-A-Rama Inc. and Unique Souvenirs Inc. in Florida, which operates machines branded Mold-a-Matic.

Unique Souvenirs owner Tim Striggow bought the family business from his grandfather, Eldin Irwin, who purchased several machines from Aramark and other operators starting in the late ‘60s and traveled with them to fairs and carnivals. It was Striggow’s uncle who operated — and removed — L.A.’s machines.

The Mold-a-Central has been popular, with more than 3,000 sphinxes made.

(Eric Thayer/Los Angeles Times)

Striggow sold Jack White two machines for his Third Man Records stores in Nashville and Detroit, and supplied the library with its machine. It cost $32,000 and is expected to pay itself through souvenir revenues within a couple years. As Mold-A-Rama and Mold-a-Matic are both trademarks, the library’s machine is called Mold-a-Central for the Central Library and features new graphics by Studios Number One, Shepard and Amanda Fairey’s design studio.

Though new to the library, the Mold-a-Central is still a vintage machine, and Rice knew that before she could persuade the library to invest in one she’d have to find someone who could service it. She asked Gary Hall, general manager of Angels Flight, L.A.’s 124-year-old funicular, who suggested one of its mechanics, Hirschel Riley.

“Hirschel agreed immediately, and I think it’s safe to say he has fallen in love with our Mold-a-Central machine,” Rice said. “When we first got the machine and opened it up, my head nearly exploded and I wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew, but for Hirschel, it’s been a piece of cake compared to [Angels Flight].”

Though the library offers 3D printing — a far more modern sculpting method — at its Octavia Lab, Rice finds even teenagers are interested in slide projectors and older technology during her photo collection tours, proving there’s still space for the analog in today’s digital world. She hopes Mold-a-Central will inspire a “whole slew” of similar vintage machines to return to L.A.

They are out there. Quentin Tarantino told Variety he had a production designer track one down for an opening shot of “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” at the Chinese Theatre before he rewrote the script. After changing course, he stored it in his garage.

A 47-year-old woman has been arrested after four men were stabbed in Covent Garden in central London, the Metropolitan Police said.

The men, aged 34, 39, 42 and 52, were taken to hospital after emergency services were called to reports of a stabbing in Endell Street at about 12:30 BST.

In a statement, London Ambulance Service said: “We treated four patients at the scene and took them all to a major trauma centre as a priority by road.”

The woman has been arrested on suspicion of possession of an offensive weapon and assault.

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Major central banks are confronting an increasingly difficult inflation landscape as multiple price pressures converge, raising questions over whether policymakers can continue treating inflation shocks as temporary.

The U.S. Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England all meet this week against a backdrop of elevated inflation driven by rising energy costs, geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, fiscal stimulus, labor market tightness and climate related risks.

While central banks have traditionally argued that isolated price shocks eventually fade without requiring aggressive monetary tightening, economists warn that today’s inflation environment is no longer defined by a single disruption but by several overlapping forces reinforcing one another.

Inflation remains well above target

The Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) Price Index, is expected to remain significantly above the central bank’s 2 percent target.

Economists expect headline PCE inflation to stand at 3.7 percent and core inflation, which excludes food and energy, at 3.3 percent.

Inflation has remained above the Fed’s target for more than five consecutive years, complicating expectations that price growth will naturally return to normal levels.

Energy prices return as a major concern

Renewed military tensions in the Middle East have pushed crude oil prices sharply higher, adding fresh uncertainty to the global inflation outlook.

Brent crude briefly climbed above $100 per barrel before easing, while volatility in oil markets has increased as conflict around the Gulf and Red Sea threatens global energy supplies.

Higher crude prices have translated into rising fuel costs, with average U.S. gasoline prices now more than 30 percent above levels recorded a year earlier.

For central banks, energy inflation remains particularly difficult because monetary policy cannot directly resolve geopolitical conflicts or supply disruptions.

Food inflation adds further pressure

Food prices are emerging as another source of concern.

Annual U.S. food inflation already stands near 3 percent, while forecasts suggest stronger El Niño weather conditions could reduce agricultural production and lift global food prices over the coming months.

Some projections indicate food inflation could approach 5 percent next year, adding further upward pressure to overall consumer prices worldwide.

Unlike financial market volatility, rising food and fuel costs directly affect households and often shape public perceptions of inflation more than broader economic indicators.

Core inflation refuses to ease

Although policymakers often focus on core inflation because it removes volatile food and energy prices, underlying price pressures remain stubbornly elevated.

Persistent wage growth, continued strength in consumer spending and resilient labor markets have prevented meaningful progress toward the Fed’s inflation target.

Economists also warn that prolonged increases in food and energy prices eventually feed into broader consumer prices, making it increasingly difficult to separate temporary inflation from structural trends.

Tariffs and artificial intelligence create new price risks

Additional inflationary risks are emerging from trade policy and technological investment.

President Donald Trump’s renewed tariffs on imported goods could increase costs across multiple industries, while continued demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure has intensified shortages in advanced semiconductor markets.

Higher chip prices are expected to affect consumer electronics and industrial production, creating another potential source of inflation in manufactured goods.

Meanwhile, expansionary fiscal policies and strong financial conditions continue to support consumer demand, limiting the slowdown in prices that central banks have been seeking.

Strong labor markets complicate policy

Employment conditions remain exceptionally resilient across advanced economies.

In the United States, unemployment has remained near historically low levels, while wage growth above 3 percent continues to support household spending.

Although robust labor markets are generally viewed as positive for economic growth, they also contribute to persistent service sector inflation by increasing business labor costs.

This has made it harder for central banks to achieve price stability without risking slower economic growth.

Analysis: Inflation risks are becoming structural

The challenge facing central banks is no longer whether one inflation shock will fade but whether multiple overlapping shocks are creating a new inflation environment.

Energy markets remain vulnerable to geopolitical conflict. Climate related disruptions continue to threaten food production. Trade barriers are increasing production costs, while the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence is reshaping industrial demand and supply chains. At the same time, strong labor markets and expansionary fiscal policies continue to support consumer spending.

Individually, policymakers can argue that each of these factors is temporary or outside the influence of interest rates. Collectively, however, they reinforce one another and increase the likelihood that inflation remains above target for longer than anticipated.

For the Federal Reserve and other major central banks, the risk is no longer simply misjudging one temporary shock. The greater challenge is determining whether today’s inflation reflects a lasting structural shift in the global economy. If these pressures persist simultaneously, policymakers may be forced to maintain higher interest rates for longer, even at the cost of slower growth, making the path back to price stability significantly more difficult than markets currently expect.

With information from Reuters.

IF you need a central London stay but want all the perks of an apartment, then there’s Citadines Islington.

Here is everything you need to know about staying at the aparthotel.

Where is Citadines Islington London?

The hotel is just a short walk from Angel Underground Station in London, which is just one stop from London St Pancras.

Built inside the former Royal Mail postal sorting centre, it dates back to 1907.

What is the hotel like?

The modern hotel is in the heart of Islington Square, and hidden down a quiet side road.

The main lobby is popular with co-workers, and where you will find lounge areas, tables and a 24-hour cofffee machine.

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What are the rooms like?

Being an aparthotel, this means all of the rooms come with a kitchenette, so is perfect for longer stays.

My Studio Deluxe had wonderfully high ceilings so felt extremely spacious.

Inside the kitchenette is everything you’d need from a hob, mini fridge and microwave to crockery and cutlery.

My plush kingsize bed was extremely comfortable, and the floor to ceiling curtains blacked out any light for a great night sleep.

A coffee machine, complimentary tea and biscuits were all included, along with a seating area and huge flatscreen TV.

It was an extremely beautiful and cosy room – especially after some time spent in the walk in shower, followed by a fluffy dressing gown and slippers evening.

Rooms start from £198.90. See here.

What is there to eat and drink?

There’s no restaurant, although guests can enjoy a limited breakfast of fruit, pastries, cereals and some hot options.

But if you want lunch or dinner, there is loads to choose from in the area.

Right outside in Islington Square is everything from brunch at Megan’s to dinner at Rosa’s Thai.

Just round the corner is the main high street as well, with cuisines ranging from Chinese and Japanese to Italian and Mexican restaurants.

Wat else is there to do there?

The hotel also has an on-site gym, as well as laundry services on offer.

Otherwise outside the hotel is a huge Odeon cinema and attractions like indoor golf.

If is family friendly?

The hotel has family rooms that sleep up to four people, and each room can accommodate one extra bed or crib.

Additional beds cost extra but cribs are free.

Is it accessible?

There are accessibility rooms as well as wheelchair access and adapted bathrooms.

Lifts also go to all of the floors as well.

In its Annual Economic Report, published on Sunday, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), known as the central bank for central banks, warned that the enormous spending on AI is accumulating financial vulnerabilities that could amplify any future shock and spread from markets into the wider economy.

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Presenting the findings, BIS general manager Pablo Hernández de Cos said the message was one of “urgency”, with policymakers urged to act before any reversal makes the eventual adjustment more painful.

At the core of the warning is the scale of the spending, despite massive investment having supported global growth over the past year.

The five largest “hyperscalers”, the technology giants racing to build AI infrastructure, are on track to commit more than $1 trillion (€878bn) to AI-related investment across 2025 and 2026, a pace that is outstripping their earnings and free cash flow and pushing some to borrow heavily to keep up.

The BIS suggests this race is fuelled by a belief that only a handful of dominant players will ultimately prevail, encouraging firms to pour money into projects whose returns remain deeply uncertain.

Echoes of past manias

The report sets today’s AI boom against a long historical lineage, from the canal mania of the 1830s and Britain’s railway mania of the 1840s to the electrification of the 1920s and the dotcom bubble.

Each began with a genuine technological breakthrough that attracted more capital than commercial returns could justify, the BIS notes, with each episode ending “with an eventual reversal in investment, inducing economy-wide recessions”.

Compounding the danger are stretched share prices and opaque financing.

The BIS highlights the spread of “circular financing”, in which chipmakers and cloud giants take equity stakes in AI labs that then commit to buying their chips and computing power, effectively recycling money back to the original investors as revenue.

Much of the funding now flows through hedge funds and private credit vehicles that face lighter scrutiny than banks.

According to Zhang Tao, the BIS chief representative for Asia and the Pacific, that reliance on non-bank channels means an AI downturn could unwind into a sharper, faster crash than a traditional banking crisis.

The hidden costs of data centres

Beyond financial markets, critics argue the true cost of the AI build-out is being obscured in plain sight.

A central concern, examined by the Wall Street Journal, is how the technology giants account for their data centres.

By assuming the expensive equipment inside them will stay useful for longer, firms can spread its cost over more years, lowering the depreciation charged against profits in any given period and making earnings look healthier than the underlying cash burn implies.

However, the specialist chips at the heart of these facilities may become obsolete far faster than those extended schedules assume, leaving a gap between reported profits and economic reality, as well as a balance sheet more exposed than it appears should demand disappoint or a sizable need to replace hardware arise.

The physical scale is staggering.

Columbia University economist Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh estimates the build-out could cost in the region of $8 trillion (€7tn) over the next six years, financed in part through the kind of off-balance-sheet arrangements the BIS flagged.

The costs are also no longer confined to corporate accounts.

Some economists now warn of a so-called “third wave” of inflation, after the pandemic and tariffs, driven this time by the AI build-out. As chip manufacturers prioritise high-margin parts for AI servers, the resulting squeeze on memory and storage has rippled out to consumer electronics.

For example, Apple raised prices on its MacBooks, iPads and other devices last week, citing an “extraordinary surge in demand for memory and storage” and saying it had “never seen a component price increase this much, this quickly”.

The company’s shares fell around 6%, their worst day in over a year, as Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony have also made similar moves.

Beyond hidden costs and inflationary pressures, where the strain may spread furthest is raw power.

Goldman Sachs expects data centres to account for nearly half of the growth in US electricity demand by 2030, with consumer power prices forecast to rise around 6% a year through 2026 and 2027.

The BIS itself notes that the build-out’s hunger for electricity is already pressuring prices and input costs, with potential spillovers to inflation, though it stresses, as do many economists, that AI could yet prove disinflationary if its promised productivity gains eventually arrive.

An Israeli attack on a vehicle in the central Gaza Strip has killed three Palestinians and injured several more.

Palestine’s Ministry of the Interior and National Security condemned the attack, which took place in Maghazi refugee camp in Deir el-Balah on Friday, saying that the victims were all police officers.

“Their vehicle was treacherously bombed by the Israeli occupation forces,” said a ministry statement published on Telegram.

It named the three deceased as Captain Mansour Sami Shahtout, Captain Mohammed Khaled Nofal, and First Sergeant Mahdi Nader Jabr.

Palestine’s Wafa news agency said an Israeli combat drone targeted a vehicle near the entrance of the Maghazi refugee camp, while Anadolu news agency reported that the Israeli drone fired at least two missiles at the vehicle, causing it to catch fire, which resulted in the deaths and injuries.

Witness video accounts showed a civilian vehicle burning after it was struck on Salah al-Din Street at the entrance of Maghazi camp.

The bodies were reportedly taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah.

“The Ministry of Interior condemns the heinous crime committed by the occupation in targeting civil police personnel, an act that demonstrates a persistent intent to spread chaos across the Gaza Strip,” the ministry added in its statement.

It reiterated its “call on the international community and the guarantor states of the ceasefire agreement to exert pressure on the occupying forces to cease their repeated targeting of the police force, its personnel and its resources.”

The US-brokered “ceasefire” agreement has been in effect in Gaza since October 10, 2025, though violations have continued to be reported across the enclave, with Israel continuing its attacks.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, Israeli violations of the “ceasefire” agreement have killed 1,031 Palestinians and injured 3,309 others as of Thursday. In total, since Israel’s genocidal war began in October 2023, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza.

Gaza ‘ceasefire’ developments

As attacks on the ground continue, Hamas said that consultations are ongoing with other Palestinian factions and regional mediators to reach understandings that would ensure the full implementation of the Gaza “ceasefire” agreement.

“These discussions concern the full implementation of the ceasefire agreement, including what remains of the first phase and mechanisms for implementing the second phase,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem told Anadolu on Friday.

He added that a delegation from Hamas and other Palestinian factions is expected to visit Cairo in the coming days to deliver its response to newly proposed approaches.

Qassem said Palestinian factions had previously reached understandings that were welcomed by mediators, before Board of Peace envoy Nikolay Mladenov presented what he described as “different approaches” that are currently under final review by Hamas and the factions.

“We hope the efforts of the mediators and Mr. Mladenov will lead to compelling the occupation to implement what was agreed upon, particularly the humanitarian provisions of the first phase, and then move to the second phase with all its complexities,” Qassem said.

Regarding the situation on the ground, Qassem accused Israel of committing major and continuous violations of the ceasefire agreement, including restrictions on humanitarian aid and continued killings.

He told Anadolu more than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire entered into force, adding that Israel had expanded the “yellow line” into new areas of Gaza, accompanied by displacement and home demolitions.

“These violations require, first, a clear stance from the mediators to pressure the occupation, and second, serious work to bring the national committee into Gaza so a genuine relief and reconstruction process can begin,” he said.

“We do not want the starvation policy imposed on our people to be repeated while the world remains a spectator. Nor should the killing and destruction continue while the world watches,” he added.

WASHINGTON — As the U.S. prepares for an extravagant celebration of its founding principles, fewer Americans see their country as exceptional, a new poll finds.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research highlights many Americans’ feeling of unease over the future of its representative government — particularly among young people. It presents a jarring contrast as communities around the country commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary.

Only about one-quarter of Americans say the U.S. stands above all other countries in the world, the new poll found, while 44% say it’s one of the greatest countries in the world, along with some others. About 3 in 10 say there are better countries than the U.S., an increase from 19% in an AP-NORC poll conducted in June 2016.

Americans remain divided about whether diversity is an essential feature of the U.S.’s identity, and agreement about other aspects of the country’s underlying character appears to be eroding, the survey found. Americans are less likely to see a democratically elected government as “extremely” or “very” important to the United States’ identity as a nation than they were just a few years ago. About two-thirds of U.S. adults now say a democratically elected government is highly important to the U.S.’s identity as a nation, down from 80% in 2021.

“It’s not that the democracy part is not working,” said Derricka Wall, 24, of Chickasaw, Alabama. “It’s the people that are actually being put in office that is the problem.”

Wall believes politicians have damaged America’s governing system, which was designed to ensure representation and guard against government misuse.

America, she said, “is not what it used to be. I feel like our founding fathers would be kind of disappointed with how it is now.”

Rising belief that democracy is not essential to American identity

Young adults are much less likely than older Americans to believe the U.S. is special, compared with other nations, the poll found.

About 4 in 10, 44%, of U.S. adults under 30 say there are other countries better than the U.S., compared with 22% of U.S. adults ages 60 and older.

Fewer, too, see democracy as a key element of the U.S.’s identity. Only about half of Americans under 30 believe this, compared with 81% of those 60 and older.

Wall said the people who established the government with co-equal branches thought they were erecting safeguards to keep any one person or group from attaining too much power. But she believes they didn’t foresee how easily those guardrails would crumble if the people in the system stopped enforcing them.

“I feel like they would actually roll out of their graves,” she said. “I feel they would be very disappointed in us.”

The belief that politics isn’t working for everyday people extends beyond the youngest generations. Kent Stage, 62 and a retired senior enlisted man in the Army, is a registered Republican in Indiana. He does not think the current political system addresses the country’s problems. He’d like to see term limits on politicians and more working-class people serving.

“I’ll trust the ambulance-chasing lawyer and a shady used car salesman before I trust the politician,” he said.

Stage, who is also a former Marine, believes public servants make self-serving choices for their families “while mine and yours still got to hit the old grindstone.”

Many feel it’s harder to get ahead in the U.S.

The survey also finds widespread cynicism about America as the land of opportunity. About half of U.S. adults, 51%, say the American Dream — the idea that if you work hard, you’ll get ahead — once held true but does not anymore. About one-third say it “still holds true” while 15% say it never held true.

Jack Hermanson, a 27-year-old software developer in Denver, said his belief in the American Dream changed when he saw his engineer husband struggle to find a job. “That really shattered my impression that if you work hard, you get what you deserve,” Hermanson said.

Only 22% of Americans under 30 say the American Dream still holds true, compared with 46% of Americans ages 60 and older.

Angela Toombs, 31, works at a senior living facility in Atlanta where her clients talk about how easy it was to buy a house while working their first regular jobs in their 20s and are incredulous about the obstacles facing Toombs’ generation. Toombs recently gave up her own apartment to rent a room in order to save money.

Skepticism about the American Dream is more widespread among Democrats and independents, compared with Republicans. Most Republicans, 57%, say the American Dream still holds true, compared with about one-quarter of independents and 17% of Democrats.

Republicans are also much likelier than Democrats to see the U.S. as exceptional. About half of Republicans say the U.S. stands above all other countries in the world, compared with only 7% of Democrats.

Quintin Sharpe, 28, lives in a resort town on Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. A financial planner who is Republican, he said the American Dream remains accessible and he is proud of the country. “It’s been a great experiment.”

“The opportunity is there for those who want to work for it,” he said. Sharpe believes the country is “a meritocracy, and the best ideas, the best work ethic, those with the best succeed regardless of race, skin color, any of those factors.”

He and his wife will celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary watching the fireworks over the lake.

Divides on whether diversity is essential to U.S.

Just over half of U.S. adults — 56% — say a shared American culture and set of values are “extremely” or “very” important to the country’s identity, down from 65% in 2017. Younger Americans are less likely than older ones to say a singular set of values is important to U.S. identity.

But Americans remain sharply divided on the centrality of welcoming diverse perspectives: About half of adults, 51%, say the ability of people to come from other places in the world to escape violence or find economic opportunities is “extremely” or “very” important to American identity, while 55% say this about the mixing of cultures and values from around the world.

Only about 4 in 10 Republicans see the mixing of cultures and values from around the world as central to the country’s identity, compared with 76% of Democrats.

Rose Nunez, 70, of San Antonio, was a small business owner but now is a caregiver for family members. Nunez, who tends to vote for Democrats, said there is an unease and tension that are just beneath the surface, especially focused on Hispanics. She said some people have started carrying their papers showing their immigration status in case they are challenged.

“It is hard to celebrate when the feelings towards immigrants and communities of color are so strong,” she said of the upcoming America 250 celebrations.

She said even citizens are questioned now. If it gets to a point where being naturalized is challenged, “guess what, my mom would be leaving. She’s been living in this country since she was maybe four years old. She’s 93.”

Fields, Sanders and Riccardi write for the Associated Press. The AP-NORC poll of 2,596 adults was conducted April 16-20 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points.

June 7 (UPI) — The Israel Defense Forces confirmed it struck military targets in western and central Iran on Monday in retaliation for a wave of airstrikes launched against the Jewish state by Tehran hours earlier.

“A short while ago, the Israeli Air Force struck military targets belonging to the Iranian terror regime in western and central Iran. Details to follow,” the IDF said in a post on Telegram as a fragile cease-fire in the Iran War continued to unravel.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, meanwhile, confirmed the attack, according to the semi-official Mehr News Agency.

“The Zionist enemy has attacked targets on our country’s soil using air-launched ballistic missiles,” the IRGC said.

Official Iranian media also said residents in neighboring Iraq heard explosions in parts in the capital Baghdad while unidentified objects were seen over the Iraqi city and in Beirut.

The strikes against Iran came just hours after the Islamic regime lobbed missiles into northern Israel for the first time since the beginning of the cease-fire, which came into effect on April 8.

Tehran said those strikes were in response to Israeli bombings targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The Iranian missiles, which the IDF said had been intercepted, were the first direct attack on Israel since the cease-fire.

The attacks follow an announcement on Sunday that Israel had launched strikes at alleged Hezbollah targets in Beirut — attacks which it has continued throughout the cease-fire — and some of which have been in suburban neighborhoods.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who reportedly has been briefed on Iran’s actions, told Iran “that’s enough, get back to the table” for peace negotiations, Fox News reported.

“The Israeli army must stop its attacks on southern Lebanon and the suburbs, and if it expands its attacks to that region or responds to Iran’s action, it will face more devastating and regrettable blows,” General Ali Abdollahi, head of Iran’s Khatam al-Anbiya command, said in a statement.

Trump has reportedly also told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold back after the Iranian strikes, which Netanyahu agreed to on the condition that Hezbollah — which is funded by the Iranian regime — not launch strikes into northern Israel from Lebanon.

The United States and Iran have been negotiating an end the war for more than a month, as a cease-fire has mostly held but the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked, preventing the shipment of oil and other products from the Middle East.

Emergency Lawyers said dozens were also wounded in the strike that came less than 24 hours after similar drone attacks.

A drone strike on a market in central Sudan has killed at least 11 people and injured dozens more, according to a local rights group, as escalating aerial attacks further increase the death toll of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The attack on Saturday targeted the main market in Abu Zaeima, a paramilitary-controlled town in North Kordofan state, according to Emergency Lawyers, which has documented abuses since fighting erupted in April 2023 between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The group said the casualty figures could rise, but did not specify who carried out the attack. Neither side has claimed responsibility.

Emergency Lawyers said the strike came less than 24 hours after similar drone attacks struck nearby villages and a civilian vehicle.

Condemning the attack, it said the repeated targeting of civilians, villages and public transport reflected a blatant disregard for human life and the basic principles of international humanitarian law.

The group added that the continued loss of civilian life should not be treated as routine and called for an end to such attacks, as well as accountability for those responsible.

Two witnesses told the AFP news agency that another drone hit a fuel station later on Saturday in el-Obeid, the capital of North Kordofan, which the RSF has partially encircled for months.

A medical source at a hospital there said four wounded civilians had been brought to the facility.

Drone warfare

Nearly 70 people were killed in two separate drone strikes in the West and North Kordofan states over the past week, according to Emergency Lawyers and a local leader.

Drone warfare has become increasingly more common in Sudan’s conflict.

The United Nations said in May that at least 880 civilians were killed in drone strikes nationwide between January and April.

Fighting has intensified in Kordofan and Blue Nile State near the Ethiopian border since the RSF captured el-Fasher last October, the military’s last major stronghold in western Darfur.

Since then, more than 300,000 people have fled front-line areas, including el-Fasher and parts of Kordofan and Blue Nile, according to the UN.

Kordofan, rich in oil and arable land, is strategically significant, linking RSF strongholds in the neighbouring Darfur region to the country’s army-controlled east. The region remains largely contested between the army and the RSF.

Now entering its fourth year, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 13 million others, creating what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.

BAKERSFIELD — The southern Central Valley is home to one of California’s few remaining congressional battlegrounds, where Democrats are itching to oust longtime Republican incumbent Rep. David Valadao.

Last year’s voter-approved Proposition 50 redrew the lines of this Latino-majority district slightly in Democrats’ favor. Two top Democratic candidates are battling over who is the best choice to face Valadao (R-Hanford) in November.

Valadao is particularly vulnerable after he voted last year to cut Medicaid spending, a critical resource for many in this poor, rural area. Two-thirds of residents in the district are enrolled in the federally funded low-income health insurance program, and more than 60,000 are expected to lose coverage when work requirements and other federal rules take effect next year.

Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference at the Capitol Hill Club on March 17.

(Tom Williams/Getty Images)

National Democratic infighting has overshadowed a classic moderate vs. progressive primary race since House Democrats’ campaign arm threw its support behind one candidate, Assemblymember Jasmeet Bains (D-Delano), over Randy Villegas, a school board trustee backed by progressives including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

The race was already tense when the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added Bains, a family doctor and two-term assemblywoman, to its “Red to Blue” program, which provides staff and fundraising support to Democrats running against vulnerable Republican incumbents. Local party leaders said they had received assurances from national Democrats that they would stay out of the race, which further angered Villegas and his supporters.

“This is another example as to why people’s faith in the Democratic Party and party leadership is at an all-time low,” Villegas said in an interview with The Times. “In many ways, it’s a badge of honor to not be the insider candidate and to say that I’m actually going to fight for community members here and not D.C. elites.”

DCCC chair, Rep. Suzan DelBene of Washington, cited Bains’ background as a family doctor and her track record in the Legislature fighting to expand access to healthcare.

Randy Villegas, running for California’s 22nd Congressional District, said his campaign manager wants him to take frequent selfies for their social media while walking neighborhoods in Bakersfield.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

“We only weigh in on primaries when we feel that one candidate stands out as the strongest possible nominee to ensure that we win in the general election,” DelBene said in a recent interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “This is a district that has been devastated by cuts to healthcare, a large Medicaid population, so she’s an incredible candidate and definitely can speak to the issues needed on health care.”

For Democrats, the outcome of the primary could have national significance. With President Trump’s popularity at a low point nationwide — and especially in California — the party hopes to win enough seats in the 2026 election to oust the Republicans from power in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Valadao, who was first elected to Congress in 2012, has been a perpetual target for Democrats, who have held a sizable registration advantage in his district. A moderate Republican, Valadao had emphasized his support for immigration reform, a departure from his party. Still, Democrats ousted Valadao in the blue wave of 2018, only for him to win back the seat in 2020 and remain in office ever since.

Both Villegas and Bains promote themselves as the Democrats’ best option to topple Valadao once again.

Villegas, the son of Mexican immigrants, is endorsed by the House Hispanic and progressive caucuses and has painted Bains as a corporate-backed candidate who would bend to special interests.

Jasmeet Bains, running for California’s 22nd Congressional District, speaks with Mary Jimenez during a campaign canvassing walk in Bakersfield.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

“We can’t just offer that we’re not Trump. The Democratic Party actually needs to stand for something,” he said. “To me that means fighting for universal healthcare, universal childhood education, banning members of Congress from trading stocks, getting rid of corporate PAC money. Those things may make Democratic leadership uncomfortable, and I’m OK with that.”

Bains is campaigning on her experience as a physician in a region known for its poor environmental and health outcomes. After medical school, she returned to Kern County, where she completed her residency and continued working at clinics that primarily serve low-income patients in the region.

She decided to run for the seat after Valadao voted in favor of H.R. 1, the Republican spending bill Trump signed into law last year that cut nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid funding to pay for tax cuts, which Bains described as a “betrayal.”

“In the Valley, your word is your bond,” she said in a phone interview as she drove the 250-mile journey from her district to the state Capitol in Sacramento. “In the beginning he kept telling everyone that he wasn’t going to vote for it, and I took him for his word.”

Jasmeet Bains brings 8-month-old, Chiquita, as she campaign walks a neighborhood in Bakersfield.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

Bains is the daughter of Indian immigrants and was the first South Asian woman elected to the California Legislature. She continues to work weekend shifts at a clinic in Delano.

“I thought the healthcare disparities of people losing their private insurance and having to transfer to Medicaid” was bad, Bains said. “With the trillion dollars cut from Medicaid federally, I’m now in a position where I’m transferring my patients from Medicaid to nothing. The problem in the Valley for healthcare has gotten worse and worse and worse.”

It’s the reason labor unions including SEIU Local 521, which represents workers in public, nonprofit and healthcare sectors in Kern and other counties around the state, are backing Bains.

“Within my own union, the members that I represent in Kern County, in certain ZIP Codes they have a 15-year less life expectancy than my union members living in Monterey County, which is a very similar community” with rural agricultural interests, said Riko Mendez, the union’s chief elected officer.

He said Bains understands the region’s unique health challenges and has used her perch in the Legislature to address them, including pushing for funding to research and treat valley fever, an infection caused by fungal spores in the region’s soils.

“We think her experience, her profile, her message is one that we agree with, and that has the best chance of winning in the runoff against Valadao,” he said.

Bains’ time commitments in Sacramento and working at the clinic leave her little time for a traditional campaign knocking doors and showing up to community events. Some voters backing Villegas have noticed.

Randy Villegas takes a phone call in the shade while walking neighborhoods in Bakersfield.

(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)

“For us, showing up is one of the most important things, and he’s the only candidate who has been doing that consistently,” 18-year-old Vanessa Orozco Romero said after a recent candidate forum in Bakersfield. Though nearly a dozen candidates for various offices were invited, Villegas and two other Democrats running for legislative seats were the only ones to attend.

Orozco Romero called the DCCC’s decision to back Bains “stupid and morally not OK,” especially since neither of the candidates earned enough delegate support to win the state party endorsement earlier this year.

Bains and Villegas have similar backgrounds as children of immigrants who grew up in the southern Central Valley. Though they both went on to earn high-level degrees, each is adamant about staying in Kern County to improve life for its residents.

The district is anchored in the eastern side of Bakersfield, home to California’s once-thriving oil fields, and stretches northward toward Fresno to include swaths of agricultural lands and small farming towns.

While there are more than twice as many registered Democrats in the district as Republicans, Democratic candidates often underperform in the Central Valley and independent voters play a crucial role picking winning candidates. Even under the new Proposition 50 lines that favor Democrats, President Trump would have beat former Vice President Kamala Harris by nearly 2 points.

Though nearly two-thirds of voters in the district are Latino, turnout is usually low among Spanish-speaking voters who are often discouraged by negative attack ads, Democratic activists said.

Save for the 2018 midterms during Trump’s first term, Valadao, a dairy farmer, has frustrated Democrats by continually winning over enough independents to hold onto the seat. Though the three candidates are competing in an open primary, Valadao is expected to advance to the general election as a longtime incumbent and the only Republican on the ballot.

“As he does in every primary election, Congressman Valadao is working hard to earn the vote of all Democrats, Independents, and Republicans,” Robert Jones, a consultant for Valadao’s campaign, wrote in an email. “We trust that the voters of the Central Valley will send the two best candidates to the general election in November.”

CLOVIS, Calif. — In the waning days before California’s primary election, the two top Republicans running for California governor delivered closing arguments in front of a friendly Central Valley audience Friday evening.

Though Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News host Steve Hilton have attacked each other throughout the campaign, they abstained from feuding and instead focused on common enemies — Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers who control the Legislature.

Hilton criticized Newsom’s new $20-million program to provide free diapers for families of newborn babies, referring to the outgoing governor as “the great loaded diaper of California himself.”

Earlier this year, Hilton and Bianco topped the governor’s race polls as a packed field of Democrats split many of the state’s liberal voters. Under California’s “jungle primary” system, where the top two candidates advance from the primary to the general election regardless of political affiliation, that led to fleeting hope among Republicans that the two candidates could shut Democratic candidates out of the November election.

“That idea was always a fantasy,” Hilton wrote in an op-ed published in the New York Post earlier this week in which he urged Bianco to drop out of the race “for the sake of the state we both love.”

“Steve, it is time for you to drop out,” Bianco retorted in a video posted to social media soon after. “In no world, no world does Steve Hilton beat a Democrat in November.”

After winning an endorsement from President Trump in early April, Hilton has steadily outpaced Bianco in polls. A poll commissioned by the California Democratic Party released last week showed Hilton leading the field with support from 22% of likely voters, followed by Democrat and former Biden Cabinet member Xavier Becerra with 21%. Bianco was at 10%, down from 15% in a previous poll conducted two weeks prior.

Still, Bianco, the two-term sheriff of California’s fourth most populous county, is a favorite of many Republicans in the state and won more support from delegates during the party’s recent endorsing convention than Hilton, though neither reached the necessary 60% to win the party backing.

While the two candidates have needled each other with personal digs and insults throughout much of the campaign, they appeared to set that energy aside during the Clovis forum and even traded some compliments. Hilton praised “sheriffs like Chad who actually understand what public safety looks like” while Bianco acknowledged that his opponent “should be very proud” to have Trump’s endorsement.

State Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), who moderated the more than 90-minute event, praised their “extraordinary civility” before she pressured each to commit to backing whichever Republican makes it through the June 2 primary — or if they both advance, continue to focus on policy debates over attacks.

The forum was hosted by the Fresno County & City Republican Women Federated as part of a fundraiser and dinner honoring the upcoming 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding. About 450 attendees were served dishes inspired by presidential favorites including sirloin steak for Theodore Roosevelt, a chopped salad from Chasen’s, a favorite Los Angeles eatery for Ronald Reagan, and a chocolate pie with cherry vanilla ice cream for Trump.

The Central Valley stretches from Bakersfield to Redding and is home to some of the nation’s most lucrative farmland. It also includes the heart of California oil country in Kern County. Yet residents feel largely neglected by statewide politicians who are more drawn to the ample votes and wealthy donors in Southern California and the Bay Area.

“We are the breadbasket of the world but we’ve been overlooked for too long,” said Andrea Shabaglian, a vice president of the Fresno Republican women’s group. “When gubernatorial candidates come here to sit down and listen to our communities, they realize that a stronger Valley means a stronger California.”

Though he lost California handily to former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, Trump dominated in the state’s midsection. Even in Fresno County, where the Republican forum was held, Trump beat Harris by a four percentage point margin despite Democratic voters slightly outnumbering Republicans.

“We need a Republican in office because California is a mess. I mean, anybody with common sense can see that,” said LuAnne Pinedo-Madden, a retiree living in the Sierra foothill community of Coarsegold who listed transgender girls being allowed to compete in girls’ sports and government corruption as her top concerns.

Pinedo-Madden said she was “pretty sure” she had decided which of the Republican candidates to vote for but declined to say whom. “I feel that if we don’t get a Republican in office, we’re looking at moving” to Utah, Idaho or Nevada, she said. “We can’t take this anymore.”

Bianco and Hilton spoke about their plans to improve public safety, small businesses, homeowner’s insurance and water management, a crucial issue for the conservative-leaning owners of vast swaths of California’s agricultural heartland.

Signs along the major highways that straddle California’s Central Valley proclaim that “Food grows where water flows” and criticize Newsom for allowing water to flow into the ocean instead of capturing and storing more of it for farming.

Both of the GOP candidates described their visions for the state, which include building new dams and raising existing ones to store more water.

“We don’t have the water problem. We have a water management problem,” Bianco said before falsely arguing that “we get more water every single year than any other state in the country” and that California has “never, ever, ever been in a drought.”

“The water will be flowing to our farmers, the oil will be flowing to our refineries, the forests will be managed, the timber will be harvested” and used to build new single-family homes, Hilton said. “We’ve got the best weather, we’ve got the best people, we’ve got the best farmers, we’ve got everything we need to make this place amazing, except a good governor. Very soon we’ll have that as well.”

Though a Republican governor would likely face a hostile Legislature intent on blocking many priorities, Bianco and Hilton both promised sweeping cuts and cutbacks of state agencies. Both pledged on Friday to replace every member of the state’s parole review board, which drew criticism in February when it granted elderly parole to a man convicted of 16 counts of kidnapping and child molestation in 1999.

“California criminal justice is absolutely broken and it was forced upon us in the name of reform. What I’m going to do is make it a crime to hear the word reform again, because we lost track of what that word even means,” Bianco said.

He also pledged to eliminate laws and environmental regulators often blamed for slowing housing development: the California Environmental Quality Act, the California Coastal Commission and the state Air Resources Board.

Though his opponent has the coveted Trump endorsement, Bianco argued that it will hurt Hilton’s chances of winning the general election. The Republican president has never been popular in deep-blue California; just 25% of adults in the state approved of Trump’s performance according to a February survey by the Public Policy Institute of California.

“Steve should rightfully be proud of being endorsed by President Trump [but] we have to actually realize, is that a good thing in California? It’s a good thing in this room,” Bianco said as the crowd cheered at the mention of the president’s name. “We have to realize strategically that President Trump ran three elections in this state, and he lost 60-40 in all three of them.”

The Riverside sheriff argued he is “the only person that can actually sway Democrats to vote for a Republican across party lines on a public safety platform.”

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