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Which Beyoncé song are you?

At USC’s Marshall School of Business, MBA students will have to pick one and explain why before they study her whiskey brand, hair-care line and entertainment company, not to mention her music. The assignment has a fitting name: the “BeyEssay.”

“The Business of Beyoncé,” a new course that puts a twist on the usual business school curriculum, “sold out” faster than a Renaissance World Tour presale after the class opened for registration this month ahead of its January kickoff. It follows Beyoncé’s career from childhood performances and Destiny’s Child to her solo stardom and business ventures, with the goal of preparing students for careers in entertainment, music management and branding.

Professor Shaun Harper, a Beyoncé superfan who designed the course, anticipates criticism that students should be learning practical skills rather than studying a pop star. But he sees it differently:

USC professor Shaun Harper will teach the “Business of Beyonce” MBA course.

(Grayson Adler / USC Marshall Communications
)

“My class is not going to be just a set of conversations about Beyoncé.”

Students will unpack how she transforms star power into a multimillion-dollar empire and how social media shapes her brand.

Besides, his class is a classic case-study deep dive. It’s also an answer to a long-running complaint that business schools’ case studies too often highlight white men and their ventures.

Celebrity-themed classes are hardly new. UC Berkeley offered one on Tupac Shakur’s poetry in 1997. The University of South Carolina announced a sociology course on Lady Gaga’s fame in 2010. Harvard has a class on Taylor Swift. Beyoncé’s sister, Solange Knowles, is slated to teach a course on music curation at USC’s Thornton School of Music next fall. At Marshall, former USC football coach Pete Carroll has taught “The Game Is Life” leadership course — its guests have included actors Rainn Wilson and Jason Sudeikis.

Now it’s Beyoncé’s turn and students are expected to work hard, or, as Beyoncé put it in “Schoolin’ Life”: “Just remember to stay relentless. … Don’t stop running until it’s finished.”

Inside the classroom

The 16-week spring semester class will meet Monday afternoons for nearly three hours.

Beyoncé and Destiny’s Child won’t have the syllabus to themselves.

Weekly topics will include child stars, girl groups and boy bands, Black artists, women in music, celebrity couples, privacy and scandal. Students will study the Pussycat Dolls, the Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, the Supremes and BTS. Readings also look at how the Motown record label shaped pioneering Black artists.

One assignment traces a child performer’s path to adult stardom, with Janet Jackson among the suggested subjects. A week on crossing genres includes readings on “Cowboy Carter” — which won Beyoncé her first album of the year Grammy in 2025 — and her acting in the 2006 film “Dreamgirls.”

Another puts students in the advisor’s seat, telling them to create a 700-to-1,000-word business guidance document for Beyoncé. The syllabus asks them to imagine it is “being delivered directly” to the star.

Fans and career plans

Kendall Ferguson, 30, a second-year MBA student and president of USC’s Graduate Marketing Assn., is among those who signed up. Raised in Ladera Heights, she worked in human resources in London before coming to USC. After graduating next year, she hopes to do brand management for a retail or beauty company.

She has gravitated toward courses in entertainment and marketing. “I’m definitely not the traditional stereotype of MBA,” Ferguson said.

She has been a Beyoncé fan since childhood. A friend’s mother performed with Destiny’s Child and taught Ferguson and her friends choreography to the group’s songs, Ferguson said.

Ferguson, who is Black, wanted to study a Black businesswoman with a Black professor who could identify with her experiences.

She has also been a customer beyond music, using a Cécred braid spray. She said she did not initially know it was Beyoncé’s brand.

Cécred offers an example of Beyoncé’s approach to financing. Her mother, Tina Knowles, told Fortune that Beyoncé funded the company herself after prospective investors pushed for less spending on research and development and more on marketing.

Beyoncé’s business ventures stretch back more than two decades. In 2005, she and her mother launched House of Deréon, a now-defunct clothing line. Beyoncé founded Parkwood Entertainment, her management and production company, in 2010 and co-founded the Ivy Park athleisure line, which debuted in 2016. In 2024, she introduced the Cécred hair-care brand and SirDavis whiskey with Moet Hennessy. She later bought out Moet Hennessy’s stake.

She follows generations of artists-turned-entrepreneurs, including Sam Cooke, Dolly Parton and Madonna. Her husband, Jay-Z, expanded into entertainment beyond his own releases through Roc Nation, which executive-produces the Super Bowl halftime show. He will headline it at SoFi Stadium in February.

Maddie Gissler, a second-year MBA student from Naperville, Ill., also signed up. She aspires to work in entertainment marketing, branding or strategy when she graduates next year. She wants to learn how Beyoncé keeps audiences engaged as she moves into new businesses and reinvents her work.

Before business school, Gissler worked at EY, an accounting and consulting firm.

She has seen two Beyoncé concerts: the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in high school and Cowboy Carter in 2025. When Gissler took dance classes from age 4 to 18, her teachers often played Beyoncé. She remembers getting hooked on the album “B’Day.”

But she also likes other sides of the star. “One of the best things she did was when she kind of moved into acting,” Gissler said.

A professor and a fan

Harper was a fan long before Beyoncé became his teaching material.

As student body president at Albany State University, a historically Black college in Georgia, Harper helped book Destiny’s Child to perform at homecoming in 1997. He said he first saw Beyoncé perform solo at the 2003 Essence Awards.

Her best business decision? “Becoming a solo artist,” he said.

Harper expects students, many in their late 20s, to challenge his views. One likely debate: whether Beyoncé’s guarded public persona is smart brand management. He thinks it is.

“Beyoncé shows up when she needs to show up,” he said.

Her marketing decisions have received business-school scrutiny before. Her surprise 2013 album release, issued on iTunes without advance promotion, became a Harvard Business School case study the next year.

Harper’s admiration extends to her celebration of Black culture and traditions. In 2018, Beyoncé became the first Black woman to headline Coachella. Her set evoked a football halftime show and homecoming celebration at historically Black colleges and universities, with a marching band, drum line, steppers and majorette-style dancers performing in front of bleachers.

On TikTok, Harper has been watching performances and old interviews and learning new facts. He said one clip taught him that Beyoncé reviews concert footage frame by frame afterward, like a football coach.

“That woman’s work ethic is unmatched,” he said.

Through third parties, Harper is trying to get the message to Beyoncé that she’s invited be a guest lecturer in the class. A spokesperson for Beyoncé did not respond to a request from The Times for comment on the course.

In July 2014, Harper’s husband surprised him with pit tickets to the On the Run tour in Philadelphia. Beyoncé danced over and briefly grabbed his hand.

“I have never met Beyoncé. We’ve held hands, but we’ve never met,” Harper said.

He hopes one day for a proper introduction.

Elizabeth Holmes was once celebrated as the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, with an estimated fortune of $4.5 billion. Today, the disgraced Theranos founder is serving a federal prison sentence for defrauding investors and owes hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution.

Suffice it to say, she has a complicated relationship with money.

That tension runs through “You Can See Everything,” Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s hit documentary about Holmes and her longtime partner, Billy Evans, an heir to a wealthy San Diego hotel family.

In the nearly three-hour, wildly unpredictable film, a reenactment staged by Fielder depicts Evans pushing for a share of the documentary’s profits, sparking a dispute with the filmmakers over whether paying their subjects would compromise the project’s integrity. Holmes, meanwhile, maintains that money has never been her primary motivation. As Fielder probes the couple’s finances, he struggles to determine how much Holmes knows about Evans’ dealings — and where their financial interests begin and end.

Here’s what “You Can See Everything” reveals about Holmes and Evans’ finances, and what it leaves unanswered. Warning: Major spoilers ahead.

Did Holmes and Evans get paid to participate in the documentary?

No. But for a time, compensation was on the table.

The film was financed by A24, which gave Fielder and Oppenheim unusual freedom to pursue the project without any deadline or obligation to turn what they captured into a finished film. As Fielder recalled during a Q&A following the film’s secret premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in September, the studio told them that if nothing came of it, “you can just throw everything away.”

In one of the film’s pivotal sequences, Fielder stages a reenactment, based on his recollections, of a meeting with Evans, Holmes, Oppenheim and two A24 executives. Amanda Seyfried, who won an Emmy for portraying Holmes in Hulu’s “The Dropout,” plays her again, while Christopher Abbott takes on the role of Evans. After Holmes leaves to check on the couple’s children, Evans raises the question of compensation.

“I do know that there is potential for this movie to also make a lot of money,” Evans says. “And I feel strongly that if this movie were to make money, that we should be entitled to some of it.”

Fielder objects, arguing that payment could cast doubt on the couple’s motives and suggest they had influence over the finished film. Evans insists that compensation is nonnegotiable.

According to Fielder, A24 ultimately agreed to a profit-sharing arrangement, though the documentary doesn’t disclose its terms.

Holmes works on a laptop at the rented beachfront home in Del Mar, Calif., where she lived with her partner, Billy Evans, and their two children before entering prison, in a scene from “You Can See Everything.”

(A24)

But shortly before entering prison, Holmes tells Fielder on camera, “Obviously I’m not making any money or having any economic interest in this whatsoever.” Fielder is left wondering whether she’s genuinely unaware of the deal Evans negotiated or merely pretending not to know.

The real Evans later acknowledges withholding some details from Holmes, explaining that she had enough on her mind.

In the end, a title card reveals that Evans decided to forgo compensation.

Is it unusual for documentary subjects to get paid?

Generally, yes — at least in documentaries that follow traditional journalistic standards.

Paying subjects can create conflicts of interest, raising questions about their motives and credibility. Those concerns are particularly acute with someone like Holmes, who was convicted of defrauding investors through an elaborate web of deception.

“The optics are terrible,” Fielder warns Evans.

Evans counters that documentary subjects have been paid before, citing reports of a lucrative Netflix deal involving Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Oppenheim dismisses the comparison, saying their series isn’t a conventional documentary.

The distinction isn’t always clear-cut. In 2019, competing documentaries about the disastrous Fyre Festival took different approaches to paying its disgraced organizer, Billy McFarland. The filmmakers behind Hulu’s “Fyre Fraud” acknowledged paying him for footage and other rights. But Chris Smith, director of Netflix’s “Fyre,” refused McFarland’s demand for payment, arguing that it would be unethical for him to profit after defrauding so many people.

Fielder says he considered abandoning the project rather than accepting Evans’ demands. Instead, he decided the negotiations might reveal something about how Holmes and Evans operate.

As Fielder later confides to Seyfried, “Either this is fully sincere and she actually has no clue about the deal Billy made, or she honestly might be the most manipulative person that’s ever lived.”

How much money does Holmes owe?

A lot.

In 2023, a federal judge ordered Holmes and former Theranos President Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani to pay more than $452 million in restitution to investors and companies defrauded by Theranos. The two are jointly responsible for the judgment, meaning the same losses cannot be collected twice. A federal appeals court upheld the order in 2025.

Holmes speaks at the Fortune Global Forum in 2015, when her blood-testing startup Theranos was valued at billions of dollars and she was celebrated as one of Silicon Valley’s most successful entrepreneurs.

(Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)

Holmes has maintained that she has little money left. In a court appearance shown in the documentary, she insists, “I don’t have any money,” explaining she is deeply in debt from legal fees associated with her criminal case.

During Fielder’s prison visit, as reenacted in the film, she tells him, “I don’t have the option to care about money. I owe hundreds of millions of dollars of restitution. Every dollar I make, they take from me.”

Would any profits from the documentary have gone toward Holmes’ restitution?

Not necessarily.

Although Holmes and Evans have two children together and refer to each other as husband and wife, Holmes told People in 2025 that they were not legally married. Evans isn’t personally responsible for her restitution debt simply because they’re a couple.

The government can seek payment from assets belonging to Holmes, but the documentary doesn’t disclose who would have received money under the proposed profit-sharing deal or whether Holmes would have had any financial interest in it. So it’s unclear whether any proceeds could have gone toward her restitution.

The proposed profit-sharing arrangement could have been lucrative. “You Can See Everything” grossed $15.6 million in its opening weekend and more than $20 million in its first five days. Those figures represent ticket sales, not profits, but illustrate the potential value of such an arrangement. And with the film still expanding into more theaters and generating strong buzz, its box-office haul is poised to grow further.

How are Holmes and Evans supporting themselves?

The documentary doesn’t fully answer that question either.

Before Holmes entered prison, the couple lived with their two children — son William, now 5, and daughter Invicta, 3 — in a luxurious rented home near the beach in Del Mar, north of San Diego. Evans comes from a wealthy family whose hotel business includes the Bahia Resort Hotel, the Catamaran Resort Hotel and Spa and the Lodge at Torrey Pines. But in an Oct. 1 statement, Evans Hotels said he is neither an employee nor a shareholder in the company.

In the film, Fielder asks Evans whether Holmes might have been attracted to his family’s money. Evans grows visibly uncomfortable and shuts down the conversation when Fielder presses him about the extent of the family’s wealth.

Evans also has a biotech start-up, Haemanthus, which is developing laser-based technology to analyze biological samples, an undertaking with echoes of Holmes’ failed blood-testing company. According to Wired, the company has reported raising as much as $20 million in funding but has yet to release a product.

How much Evans personally earns from the venture — or whether his family helps support the couple — remains unclear.

In a later scene, Seyfried asks Evans who’s bringing in money while Holmes is in prison. He says she earns 30 cents an hour at the federal prison in Texas where she’s serving her sentence.

And what about his own income?

“I’ve got my own business,” he replies.

HELEN Flanagan has revealed her secret to making her bum look bigger as she opened up about her body insecurities after childbirth.

The Coronation Street actress, 35, is a mum-of-three to Matilda, 10, and Delilah, seven, and five-year-old son Charlie.

Taking to Instagram, Helen looked as stunning as ever in a sparkling green gown as she enjoyed a night out.

The TV star revealed: “My friend took this pic of me and I love this dress it’s insane.

“Since I had Charlie my stomach always sticks out a bit if I wear anything tight fitting as he was my third.

“It used to annoy me but I don’t care now it’s quite beautiful how our bodies change as women from carrying babies.”

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Helen then posted a throwback clip from when Charlie was a baby.

The video showed her standing in front of a mirror in her underwear, as she pinched and pulled at her slender frame.

She captioned the clip: “I found this video the other day on my phone when Charlie was a baby.

“It’s quite sad as I was hard on myself. x”

The TV star also cheekily posted another shot of herself looking sultry on a staircase and captioned the image: “Also, yes I wear shapewear in tight dresses to give me a bigger bum.”

Helen previously told The Sun how she “felt lost” until she became a mum.

She parted ways from her long-term fiancé in 2022 after 13 years together and she has been open about how it isn’t always plain sailing.

She was also forced out of her £1million family home by Scott as they never married and the house near Bolton was solely in his name.

Back in January, a friend of Helen’s said: “Scott pays for the house and all the bills and he’s decided a six-bedroom place is way too big for Helen on her own with the kids.

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s new White House chief of staff, Stephen Miller, is behind many of the administration’s signature domestic policy initiatives, especially its sweeping crackdown on immigration.

An outspoken defender of Trump’s most far-reaching goals to remake government going back to his 2016 run for president, Miller is known for his harsh language and unrelenting bombast, attracting outsize attention from supporters and critics alike. His record is likely to be scrutinized by Democrats in his powerful new role as he leads Trump’s White House through a lame-duck period after the Republican Party lost both houses of Congress in overwhelming fashion.

Here are some memorable things Miller has said through the years:

On immigration

During a surge in illegal border crossings during the Biden administration, Miller described migrants as invaders, even though many were escaping poverty and violence in their home countries.

“We are being conquered,” he told Fox News in December 2023. “We have millions of people coming in from different cultures and different ways of living and different belief systems.”

Miller also warned that “a generation from now,” people “will not know the country that they are living in. These consequences are permanent. Unless there’s massive large-scale deportations by the millions, it will be irrevocable.”

On federal agents’ killing of Alex Pretti

After federal agents shot and killed Alex Pretti during protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in January, Miller posted on social media that the 37-year-old Minneapolis resident was a “domestic terrorist” and an “assassin” who had “tried to murder federal agents.”

Later, Miller said in a statement that the federal officers in Minneapolis “may not have been following” protocol.

On Venezuela and Greenland

In January, after a U.S. military invasion captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Miller used a lengthy post on X to decry “reverse colonization” in which he suggested that Western nations were sacrificing too much for the developing world and that such a practice “has been a long self-punishment of the places and peoples that built the modern world.”

In another post, he defended the right of the U.S. to take over Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, writing: “American sweat, ingenuity and toil created the oil industry in Venezuela. Its tyrannical expropriation was the largest recorded theft of American wealth and property. These pillaged assets were then used to fund terrorism and flood our streets with killers, mercenaries and drugs.”

He defended Trump’s assertion that the U.S. was now running Venezuela, by telling CNN’s Jake Tapper: “You can talk all you want about international niceties and everything else. But we live in a world, in the real world, Jake, that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power. These are the iron laws of the world.”

In the same interview, Miller also argued that the U.S. could seize Greenland by military force from NATO ally Denmark. “Obviously, Greenland should be part of the United States,” he said.

“Nobody’s going to fight the United States militarily over the future of Greenland,” Miller said.

On deportations

In May of 2025, Miller suggested that the Trump administration was looking for ways to expand its power to deport migrants who are in the United States illegally. To achieve that, he said, officials were “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus — the constitutional right for people to legally challenge their detention by the government.

“The Constitution is clear — and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land — that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,” Miller said. “So, I would say that’s an option we’re actively looking at. Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.”

In the nearly 18 months since, the idea has not been publicly pursued by the Trump administration.

On family separation

During Trump’s first term, Miller championed a strict immigration deterrence policy that previous administrations had been hesitant to adopt: family separation. It called for routinely having federal agents separate children from their parents if families were apprehended illegally crossing the border.

Miller defended the policy to the New York Times in 2018, saying it “was a simple decision by the administration to have a zero-tolerance policy for illegal entry, period.”

“The message is that no one is exempt from immigration law,” he added.

The tactic sparked widespread outcry, and the Trump administration did not revive it in its second term. Still, Miller has helped promote mass deportation of people already living illegally in the U.S. that has divided families according to legal status.

On the Statue of Liberty

During Trump’s first term in 2017, Miller appeared in the White House briefing room to detail for reporters plans to cut back on the number of green cards issued, while prioritizing English speakers and skilled workers.

Asked if doing so might violate the spirit of the poem on the Statue of Liberty, that reads in part, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” Miller responded, “I don’t want to get off into a whole thing about history here.” He then did just that.

“The poem that you’re referring to, that was added later, is not actually a part of the original Statue of Liberty,” Miller said.

On birthright citizenship

When the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Trump’s attempt to throw out birthright citizenship — which grants citizenship to any child born on U.S. soil — Miller said immigrants and their children pose an existential threat to the nation.

“This is absolutely a deep knife wound in the heart of the American republic,” he told Fox News in June. “If your ruling requires you to suicide your civilization, your reading of the Constitution is wrong.”

On vaccines

Miller is one of many members of the administration who has expressed skepticism about childhood vaccines. In August, he praised the president for signing an executive order aimed at curtailing the vaccine schedule for children.

“Millions and millions of parents feel they’ve been pressured when their children are just weeks out of the hospital to take five shots, six shots, seven shots all at once,” said Miller, a father of four, including an infant born in June. “Nobody has studied it. Nobody’s looked at it. Nobody’s thought about it.”

His comments contradict what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said, which is that research shows getting several vaccines simultaneously “does not cause any chronic health problems.”

On the Democratic Party

In August 2025, Miller appeared on Fox News to respond to criticism from Democrats over Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Washington and other U.S. cities — brushing aside concerns that the presence of troops was frightening residents, while having only a questionable impact on crime.

Miller used the occasion to take aim at Democrats more broadly.

“The Democrat Party does not fight for, care about or represent American citizens,” he said. “It is an entity devoted exclusively to the defense of hardened criminals, gang bangers and illegal alien killers and terrorists.”

Miller added: “The Democrat Party is not a political party. It is a domestic extremist organization.”

Weissert and Balingit write for the Associated Press.

El Cerrito High School in the Bay Area has canceled the remainder of its football season following a month-long police investigation into allegations of hazing and sexual assault involving at least 22 athletes over the last three seasons.

The probe stems from “a mandated reporter” on Oct. 2 telling police that members of the football team were engaging in bullying and hazing, the El Cerrito Police Department said in a statement. A mandated reporter in California is someone who has responsibility for children through their employment or volunteer status and is legally required to report suspected child abuse.

The alleged victims were other members of the football team. Detectives interviewed them along with school staff and witnesses. The West Contra Costa Unified School District, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, said the alleged incidents were said to have occurred between September 2024 and October 2026.

The police said they are investigating allegations of battery, sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment, dissuading a victim, conspiracy and stalking.

Detectives have obtained video evidence that corroborated the allegations, although police officials said they would not release details because of “the sensitive nature of an ongoing investigation that involves juvenile victims, witnesses and suspects.”

El Cerrito head coach Tim Johnson was placed on leave, and the team’s regular-season finale Friday against El Sobrante De Anza High was canceled. El Cerrito has a 6-3 record but will not participate in the upcoming playoffs to defend their title won last year.

The school district said it is conducting its own investigation under Title IX.

“No child should ever experience what our students have described,” District Supt. Cheryl Cotton said. “While we have worked to focus on accountability for the actions of individual players up until this point, new information has led to new decisions.

“We must now make the very tough call to immediately suspend the El Cerrito High football program in order to prevent any further harm and restore a safe learning environment for our students.”

Cotton said the district is “providing resources for all impacted and involved students” through classroom instruction on anti-hazing and bystander education.

The El Cerrito football program is two years removed from a controversy that allegedly coincided with the beginning of the hazing. Six games were forfeited by the Gauchos in 2024 and their coach at the time, Jacob Rincon, was suspended for breaking rules prohibiting undue influence and athletically motivated transfers. Several players were deemed ineligible, and the program was placed on probation for two years.

Some parents and advocates of the program were outraged by the school’s action, calling on Rincon to be reinstated and then-principal Malcolm Norrington to be fired. More than 100 students engaged in a walkout, waving homemade posters and chanting “Free Coach Jake,” and “No More Norrington,” according to digital news site Richmond Confidential.

Parents gathered more than 2,000 signatures in a petition to fire Norrington, who left the district in 2025. Rincon was dismissed and replaced last season by Johnson, who led the team to a 13-2 record and the school’s first State Division 4-A championship.

According to the police, however, the hazing and sexual assaults continued in 2025 and into 2026.

Similar allegations have marred prominent high school football programs in Southern California in recent years.

A lawsuit in 2024 details a sexual assault against a sophomore football player at Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita that triggered a police investigation and left the boy with post-traumatic stress disorder, severe depression and anxiety. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigated after the boy went to a hospital emergency room and alleged he had been sexually assaulted.

Santa Margarita principal Cheri Wood admitted in emails obtained by the Orange County Register that “at least 8” other players were allegedly assaulted by their teammates in a similar manner. The lawsuit was dismissed after a confidential out-of-court settlement was reached. The coach at the time was replaced by former NFL quarterback Carson Palmer, and Santa Margarita won a state title in 2025 and currently sits atop The Times’ high school football rankings.

A Rancho Cucamonga Los Osos High football player placed in a chokehold and whipped with a belt by two older players in a locker room in 2023 was initially described by Chaffey Joint Union High School District officials as “horseplay.” However, a video of the victim begging and screaming was circulated widely online and the district reversed its position, reclassified the event as prohibited hazing and issued undisclosed student disciplinary measures.

A 2021 lawsuit shined a light on players at Santa Ana Mater Dei High — one of the most celebrated football programs in the nation — being severely beaten by other players in a brutal hazing ritual called “bodies.” The family of a victim who suffered a traumatic brain injury and a broken nose filed a lawsuit against Mater Dei and the Diocese of Orange, alleging the Mater Dei administration covered up the incident.

“You drop your kids off at school and give them a kiss goodbye … and you feel like you’re putting them somewhere they can be safe,” the victim’s mother told The Times. “I felt like Mater Dei had the highest protection, I felt my kid would be safe there. Then for them to turn a blind eye and be so unsupervised. … It’s like, you failed my child.”

Technology companies Google, Meta and Tik Tok sued the state of California on Wednesday to block a new law that restricts companies from targeting children younger than 16 with “addictive” social media content that can keep them scrolling for hours.

Assembly Bill 1709, introduced by Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), bars social media sites from providing features such as autoplay and recommended content displays to teenagers and young children.

The social media companies, which filed separate lawsuits in federal court, cited their 1st Amendment right to free speech and the Communications Decency Act, which protects online platforms from being sued over content posted by third parties. Meta Platforms, as well as Google and YouTube, filed lawsuits in the Northern District of California. TikTok filed in the Central District.

California’s attempt to “appoint the State as the editor, curator and controller of online speech” and “override Meta’s editorial judgment about how to curate and display these billions of posts of third-party speech,” violates the U.S. Constitution, attorneys for Meta wrote in its lawsuit. The technology company owns Instagram, Facebook and Threads.

A representative for Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said his office was reviewing the litigation.

The legal action follows successful lawsuits brought against the tech giants by California and others that have resulted in massive civil settlements. At the same time, the tech industry continues to file legal challenges to block state efforts to rein in social media companies.

Lowenthal said earlier this year he was inspired to seek more safeguards for social media users, citing the anxiety and depression among children who grew up with access to cellphones, tablets and computer screens.

The addictive nature of autoplay and other features is “harmful, full stop, and that they’re not appropriate for the developing brain,” Lowenthal said.

Tech industry groups opposed Lowentha’s bill, arguing it would hamper users’ ability to connect with family and friends.

Meta and others sued last year over Senate Bill 976, a similar bill known as “Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act” that bars addictive feeds and certain features to minors without parental consent. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals likely will hear arguments in the case next spring, Courthouse News Services reported last month.

Both Senate Bill 976 and Assembly Bill 1709 go into effect on Jan. 1.

TikTok, in its lawsuit filed Wednesday, argues that AB 1709 essentially overrides SB 976, preventing a social media site from providing “addictive features,” even if parents consent to a minor’s use of the features. The company also argued it has restrictions in place to protect teens.

“The consequence is that a parent who has reviewed TikTok’s platform, linked her account to her fifteen-year-old’s account through Family Pairing, set a 30-minute daily screen-limit, enabled Restricted Mode, and concluded that a personalized For You feed introducing her daughter to new musicians and science educators is appropriate for her family has no ability under California law to make that choice,” Tik Tok’s attorneys wrote. “Nor does the fifteen-year-old daughter have any say in her online expression.”

California is home to some of the biggest social media companies, who increasingly are facing lawsuits over their products. California was among dozens of states that sued Meta in 2023, alleging it designed harmful and addictive features to hook children while misleading the public about the dangers. Some of the harms included depression, anxiety, addiction and body image issues as young people compare themselves to others on social media.

Meta agreed to pay up to $17 billion and make changes to its Facebook and Instagram platforms, including hiding likes and reactions and blocking teens from using extreme makeup filters. The company also said it would enact a default two-hour daily time limit that teens can turn off only with parental permission, mute notifications during school hours and implement a night access mode that blocks its apps from midnight to 6 a.m.

In another landmark case, a Los Angeles jury in March found that Instagram and YouTube were responsible for the suffering of a Chico, Calif., woman who charged the platforms were addictive by design. The 20-year-old, who was awarded $6 million damages, said she became hooked on YouTube and Instagram in grade school.

Richard Barrera will be the next state superintendent of public instruction, with opponent Sonja Shaw conceding the race on Wednesday.

Barrera, the school board president of San Diego Unified, was ahead by double digits in ongoing tallies and already had declared victory. He was the heavy favorite as the Democrat in the race, even though the office is listed as nonpartisan.

Barrera, 59, described his campaign message as “a positive vision for our public schools. We’ve got so many examples of great work happening in our public schools that deserve to be elevated.”

He also campaigned on increasing school funding and “a message that our public schools need to be healthy, safe communities for all of our students. I think that was a clear contrast to a message that our public schools are failing.”

Barrera benefited from more than $9 million in independent campaign spending in support of his election by the California Teachers Assn., or CTA, which he said was instrumental in helping him get his message out.

In a social media post conceding the race Wednesday night, Shaw said she ran “because I believe California’s children deserve better.”

“The problem is that for decades, the same people have had their hands on our education system, while our children have continued to fall behind,” she said in the post. “I believed we had an opportunity to change that. I still believe in the movement we created. They want us to give up, we are not going to!”

The superintendent’s office has an uncertain future. In June, the Legislature signed off on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to reshape the position, transferring oversight of schools and management of the state Education Department to an appointee of the governor. By nearly all accounts, the state superintendent’s power has been dramatically reduced. Many of the new duties of the elected office have yet to be worked out.

Barrera hopes to move quickly as an education advocate, laying out specific budget proposals and policy priorities in setting an agenda for Gov.-elect Xavier Becerra to respond to.

Although Barrera prevailed by a comfortable margin, Shaw outperformed other statewide Republican candidates in Tuesday’s blue wave election for Democrats.

Overall, Barrera and Shaw fit squarely within their ideological camps.

A centerpiece of Shaw’s campaign was her opposition to allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls’ and women’s sports — a position that had strong support in recent polling.

Barrera supports California law on this matter, which allows transgender participation. He has noted that the number of transgender athletes is exceedingly small.

Shaw, 44, broadly characterized the public education system as failing because of liberal Democratic policies, although she praised the quality of the public schools where she lives, Chino, which is in San Bernardino County.

On the November ballot, Barrera supported tax measures that benefit education. He also has consistently opposed Trump administration policies. He has sought to offer support for families affected by immigration enforcement as a senior official in the state’s second-largest school system.

Shaw’s views correspond closely with those of the Trump administration’s Education Department, although during the campaign, she repeatedly separated her policy positions from those of Trump, asserting, for example, in a campaign forum, that she “never even met with the dude.”

As a school board president, Shaw led efforts to ban unsanctioned flags on campuses and in classrooms. Some conservative activists have promulgated such bans with the aim of targeting gay pride flags. Shaw’s board majority also approved mandatory parent notification of their child’s gender-identity expression at school and a policy that allowed parents to challenge school library books with content they deemed sexually explicit. The parent notification policy is tied up in litigation, and advocates have filed a challenge to the library book policy with the state Education Department.

CTA’s campaigning for Barrera was embedded in the union’s hard push for Proposition 3, an initiative that would establish as permanent the current higher tax rates on state residents with the highest taxable income — about the top 2%.

Shaw opposed Proposition 3, which was well ahead Thursday morning.

Leading up to this race, CTA had backed the last eight winners for the state schools office, going back 32 years.

With a crowded field of Democrats in the June primary, Shaw had an opening as a Republican and finished first with 22.6% of the vote, compared with Barrera’s 20.3%.

Analysts, however, expected Barrera to consolidate the votes of Democrats and predicted that the support of CTA, and other unions to a lesser extent, would make a difference for him.

Leaving the office is two-term incumbent Tony Thurmond, who was barred by term limits from serving again and ran unsuccessfully for governor.

Jamie Foxx, 58, and girlfriend Alyce Huckstepp, 31, have welcomed their first child.

People reports that Foxx is now a dad of three. The Times reached out to the actor’s representatives for details including the birth date and gender of the child but did not hear back.

Foxx and Huckstepp — reportedly a onetime fitness instructor who keeps a relatively low public profile — first sparked relationship rumors in August 2022 when she was spotted supporting him at the world premiere of his Netflix film “Day Shift,” though they did not hit the red carpet together.

A year later, they were spotted leaving a group date at Nobu Malibu. Their relationship reportedly occurred after Foxx suffered a brain bleed that led to a stroke while filming the action-comedy “Back in Action” alongside Cameron Diaz, a health detail he would later reveal in his 2024 comedy special “Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was …”

In the aftermath of Foxx’s health complication, Huckstepp was “there for him,” a supportive presence in the actor’s life, People reported in 2024.

The two split briefly in January 2025, but they were photographed three months later, coincidentally leaving the same Nobu restaurant. The couple remained together and were seen by People spending time at Kiki on the River in Miami last Halloween.

News of the pregnancy was first reported by TMZ back in May, with the outlet sharing that the Australian model was already “several months along.”

Foxx is already a seasoned father with two adult daughters, ages 32 and 18. He welcomed oldest daughter Corinne in 1994 with ex Connie Kline, then Anelise Bishop in 2008 with ex Kristin Grannis.

Foxx has never been married, sharing in his 2021 memoir, “Act Like You Got Some Sense: And Other Things My Daughters Taught Me,” that he’s never been convinced that marriage is a good idea for him.

“It never seemed like marriage was necessary to raise my children in a safe and loving atmosphere,” Foxx wrote.

Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.

Paris Jackson, daughter of late pop icon Michael Jackson, seeks more than half a million dollars in a preliminary transfer from her father’s estate to a trust for his three children. Jackson alleged in a recent court filing that the funds are overdue and under the “iron grip” of the estate’s executor.

The actor-singer on Thursday accused the executors of her father’s estate of failing to fulfill the singer’s wishes for Prince, Paris and Bigi to begin receiving income from their family trust.

“Michael Jackson’s family trust remains unfunded,” she said in the petition, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and reviewed by The Times.

According to Paris, executors said in 2011 they would file a petition to begin funding the trust. Allegedly, no such petition has been filed: “Fifteen years later, Michael’s beneficiaries are still waiting.”

Attorneys for the estate’s executors did not immediately respond on Tuesday to The Times’ request for comment.

Jackson said her father, who died in June 2009, wanted his children to begin receiving money from the estate on each of their 21st birthdays and that each child would also receive “outright principal distributions” from the trust when they each turned 30. Prince and Paris (born to the singer and former wife Debbie Rowe) are 29 and 28, respectively. Bigi is 24 and was born via surrogate.

“They instead receive lesser amounts dictated by the remaining Executor, who uses this power to deter them from checking his abuses,” Paris’ petition alleges.

The executors for Michael Jackson’s estate began generating liquidity in 2011, including the sale of the singer’s Neverland Ranch in 2020 and the $750-million deal with Sony for intellectual property assets. “Executors have claimed the overall value of the Estate is now between $2 billion and $3 billion,” Paris said in her filing.

“Executor continues to keep each beneficiary beholden to him with an iron grip over when and if monies are distributed to them,” the petition added.

The “sirens” and “evermore” singer also accused the executors of meeting her previous legal challenges with “scorched earth litigation, public attacks, and a multimillion reduction” in money to herself and her siblings.

Paris also noted in her petition that the estate was subject to litigation by the Internal Revenue Service and said that litigation “also appears to be at or nearing its end,” potentially freeing up funds to be transferred to the family trust. The estate said in a statement that it cannot “fully” fund the trust until “several legal matters are resolved” including that case with the IRS, People reported.

“The Estate was able to secure a ruling to significantly reduce that amount, but the matter has not been settled and could still change,” the estate added in its statement to People. It also denied allegations of holding back or reducing payments to the three children.

Jackson asks the court to order the executor of her father’s estate to make a preliminary transfer of $600 million, or another amount it deemed fit, to the Michael Jackson Family Trust. The next hearing for this case is scheduled for Wednesday.

WASHINGTON  — In its latest chapter on religion in schools, the Supreme Court debated Tuesday whether Colorado may fund private preschools for 4-year-olds but exclude Catholic schools that refuse to serve same-sex parents and their children.

The court’s six conservatives, all of whom were raised Catholic, leaned in favor of ruling the state was discriminating based on religion.

The state offered funding to all preschools but said they must abide by an “equal opportunity” rule that forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett said state officials “chose to impose a condition” they knew those Catholic schools “will be unable to agree to.”

In contrast, the court’s three liberals said the Catholic schools were not seeking equal treatment but a new right to discriminate.

“You are asking for a special rule for religious schools,” said Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the state opened the funding program to all schools, including church-related schools. “The Catholic schools are not being excluded. They’re choosing not to participate because they won’t get an exemption,” she said.

In the last decade, the court’s conservative majority has strengthened the 1st Amendment’s protection for the “free exercise of religion.”

States and local governments need not offer public funds to private groups and entities, the justices said. But if they do so, they may not single out religious schools or people and deny them public funding that is open to all.

They struck down laws in Minnesota and Maine that denied scholarships or school funds to students who enrolled in a religious school. And they ruled the city of Philadelphia could not bar Catholic social services from providing foster care because they did not work with same-sex couples.

Despite that history, Colorado adopted a strong “equal opportunity” law in 2022 to go with its new state funding for preschools.

The state voters had approved a ballot measure in 2020 to provide public funding for a year of preschool prior to kindergarten. Both public and private schools were encouraged to participate.

The state pays for 15 hours per week and provides parents about $6,000 in tuition.

Lawmakers said eligible schools must provide children “an equal opportunity to enroll regardless of race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, lack of housing, income level or disability.”

The Archdiocese of Denver oversees 34 Catholic preschools. Parents were told they must support and affirm the teachings of the church, including on matters of gender and marriage.

In light of the new funding law, the church asked for an accommodation that would allow “faith based providers to participate in the program without compromising their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The state refused. It said “no provider may discriminate against children or families in violation of the state statute.”

St. Mary Catholic Parish in Littleton, Colo., and two of its parents sued, alleging a violation of the 1st Amendment.

Their attorneys — the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — argued that no LGBTQ+ family has been harmed or claimed discrimination under the preschool funding law, while “thousands of Catholic families have zero Catholic preschools available to them.”

They lost before a federal judge and the 10th Circuit Court. Those judges said the state did not target the Catholic schools or treat them differently from others because of their religious beliefs.

The Supreme Court agreed in April to hear the case of St. Mary Catholic Parish vs. Roy.

During Tuesday’s argument, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh voiced dismay over how this case arose.

“This seems like a would-be solution in search of a problem. Why are we here?” he asked a state attorney.

He and Barrett said same-sex couples did not seek to have their children enrolled in Catholic preschools. Meanwhile, other parents were denied state funds because of the marriage and family policies of the Catholic parishes.

The court is likely to hand down a decision in several months.

POPSTAR Katie Melua has revealed she has given birth to her second child.

The Nine Million Bicycles singer, 41, told fans she was set to become a mum again in the summer, and now her little one has arrived.

The star shared a sweet snap of herself holding her newborn and confirmed it was a baby boy named Max.

She penned: “New arrival… Max is here! So lucky to be mum to two beautiful boys. Sandro’s been the best big brother so far. Long may it last.”

Fans of the singer were quick to rush to congratulate her, with one saying: “Ah that’s gorgeous news! Congratulations!”

While another added: “Such lovely news congratulations on the birth of Max.”

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A third said: “What lovely, lovely news.”

Katie is already a mum to son Sandro, three, who was born in December 2022.

It is not known who Sandro’s dad is – or her current partner’s identity – as the singer is known to keep quiet about much of her private life.

In 2012, Katie confirmed that she was engaged to World Superbike racer James Toseland.

They married in September that year at Kew Gardens in London, but got divorced eight years later.

Since then, she has refrained from sharing her new relationship online or publicly.

Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed at least eight people, including a child, according to hospitals, despite a year-old ceasefire.

In Gaza City to the north, hospital officials said a missile attack hit a group of civilians next to Cairo School in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood, killing three people, including a four-year-old boy.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, the Hamas-run ministry of interior said a drone attack targeted a group of police officers in the Al-Mawasi area, killing five, as they were carrying out their routine duties.

The Israeli military said it had carried out two attacks on what it described as military operatives but has not yet provided evidence or further information.

Outside Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, video showed a crowd of men gathered to pray next to two body bags and the tiny body of the child, which was wrapped in a white towel.

“My son and his child were martyred. They were sitting in their tent, bothering no one, and nothing else was happening in the area when suddenly, a missile struck them, and they were martyred,” Ali Oweis told AFP news agency. “There is no ceasefire; the war is ongoing — don’t you see?”

At Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, women despaired as body bags lay on the floor, video showed. The interior ministry named the five police officers killed, who were between the ages of 23 and 53, and called the attack a “horrific massacre”.

A ceasefire came into force in Gaza in October last year, but Israeli air strikes have continued almost every day.

Since then, 1,580 people have been killed, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN. Israel says it is targeting Hamas, but often civilians are also killed.

Meanwhile, a peace plan for Gaza, brokered by the Trump administration, has stalled.

The ceasefire saw thousands of Palestinians held by Israel released in return for all of the 48 remaining hostages held in Gaza, and an agreement to end the war – which was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.

Since the war began, 74,594 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Additional reporting by Jacob Phillips

It takes frighteningly little to destroy a happy family. So much love, so much joy, so much shared history can be erased by one terrible act or the discovery of something rotten that had been festering undetected. Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer explores the unimaginable in “Gentle Monster,” in which a celebrated concert pianist learns that her husband and the father of her son might be involved in child pornography. Instantly, her life shatters, the pieces so scattered she may never be able to pick them all up.

Léa Seydoux plays Lucy, a musician who brings an element of social commentary to her avant-garde live performances, delivering ethereal covers of emphatic love songs written by men — such as Bryan Adams’ “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You” — to interrogate that gender’s general discomfort with emotions. It’s an important early clue into Kreutzer’s larger aims, but first the writer-director establishes Lucy’s endearing rapport with her sensitive husband Philip (Laurence Rupp) and their pre-tween son Johnny (Malo Blanchet). Having recently moved to the German countryside after living in Munich, they’re adjusting to a quieter existence with fewer neighbors but less-reliable cell service. Lucy and Philip’s sex life remains robust and Johnny enjoys the extra outdoor space. Nothing’s ever perfect, but all seems well enough.

Yet when the police arrive unannounced one morning, Philip isn’t surprised. Led by Elsa (Jella Haase), the authorities inform him they need to confiscate his computers and hard drives. He offers no resistance, quickly getting on the phone to his lawyer. Lucy comes downstairs, baffled by what’s going on as he’s taken away. When she later visits the police station to get more information, she’s directed to the second floor. That’s when Lucy realizes the horrible truth: That’s the floor assigned to the crime unit specializing in stopping sexualized violence against children. Philip, the love of her life, has been accused of storing and sharing child pornography.

As Philip awaits trial at home, Lucy processes the shock, too smart to believe this is all some awful misunderstanding. Hurriedly packing a bag, she drives off with Johnny, the two of them moving in with her regal, chilly mother Eloise (Catherine Deneuve), although Lucy does not tell her why she’s left Philip. (The judgy Eloise, herself a musician, smugly assumes that her daughter figured out that having a family is death for an artist.) Philip repeatedly calls Lucy, hoping to explain himself, but she now cannot trust anything he says. Seydoux keeps her character’s storm of emotions intriguingly opaque. Shame, disgust, anger, sadness and confusion equally course through Lucy, who starts wondering about the extent of Philip’s criminality. Did he ever abuse their son?

Kreutzer, whose 2022 drama “Corsage” starred Vicky Krieps as a rebellious 19th century empress, explores Lucy’s odyssey as she grapples with the dawning fact that she long shared a bed with a pedophile. But “Gentle Monster” eventually introduces a parallel storyline involving Elsa, the investigator. When she’s not cracking down on child pornographers — grim work that she nonetheless takes great pride in — she’s minding her aging father, Hermann (Sylvester Groth), who is experiencing severe cognitive decline. His live-in nurse Natalia (Patrycja Ziółkowska) tells Elsa that he tried to sexually assault her, which upsets Elsa but also puts her in a bind: Natalia is the only care worker Hermann has actually gotten along with. Elsa abhors his behavior but she desperately wants Natalia to stay, frantically assuring her that she’ll get him to stop.

Although both plotlines concern predatory men, “Gentle Monster” expands its thematic scope to more broadly discuss the emotional labor that women are forced to perform. Philip’s rich parents insist their son couldn’t have done anything wrong, while Elsa’s absent brother leaves her to figure out what to do about their ailing father. In their own ways, Lucy and Elsa shoulder a significant burden that has been imposed on them by someone they love, their devotion now being exploited. And in both cases, there is a societal expectation that it’s their duty to be a solo support system — Lucy as a mother and wife, Elsa as a daughter. As accomplished as these two women are, ultimately they’re reduced to being nurturers and caregivers.

Unfortunately, much like Lucy’s stilted deconstruction of male love songs, “Gentle Monster” ends up a little too intellectual for its own good, its ideas more interesting to mull over than to feel deeply. In addition, there’s a nagging narrative tidiness to Lucy’s and Elsa’s stories so conveniently echoing each other. And as formidable as Seydoux can be, the character isn’t so much heartbreakingly conflicted as she is oddly muddled and underdeveloped. Kreutzer does not fully succeed in elucidating how women are imperiled by sexual predators — even when they are not the ones directly affected — but her uneven film ripples with pain. Lucy’s behavior may be frustratingly inconsistent, but many viewers will recognize the immeasurable suffering that drives it.

BACK in 1988, this actor found fame as a child in one of the most terrifying horror films of the decade.

Fast forward 38 years, the movie star, who is now 45, looks completely unrecognisable – but can you guess who it is?

The star in question is Alex Vincent, who played Andy from Child’s Play, which was the first ever Chucky film.

Now all grown up, he looks a far cry from his horror movie days as a kid, as he promoted a recent fan event on Instagram.

The actor was just six years old when he starred in the terrifying movie about a doll that comes to life and goes on a killing spree.

Alex went on to star in all three of the Child’s Play films which ran until 1991.

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The film star then appeared in the 2013 film, Curse of Chucky, and six years later he starred in the TV show reboot.

These days Alex can often be found doing horror movie conventions, where he gets to meet fans of the famous franchise.

The original Child’s Play movie was released in 1988 and it went on to become a series with six sequels.

The plot centres around Chucky, a serial killer called the Lakeshore Strangler, who performs a voodoo ritual to transfer his soul into a toy doll.

Alex’s character Andy is relentlessly terrorised by Chucky throughout the Child’s Play franchise, with the doll framing him for his murders.

Speaking about being the main star in such a terrifying film at a very young age, the actor told Indiemacuser.com: “The content didn’t matter much to me, in terms of scaring me.

“I was a bright kid… And nothing about being on that set was scary.”

The former child star added: “It was an incredibly fun and exciting experience for me at six-years-old.

“I got to leave school for a couple months and go work with a super cool electrical puppet in Chicago and LA.”

However, despite being known for one of the most famous scary films ever made, Alex made a surprising revelation.

“I’m not the biggest horror fan!” the star admitted.

However, Alex added: “But I know a lot of horror icons personally, so I am familiar with their films.”

Nithya Raman slowly recited the start of her handwritten message to Angelenos.

Llegué de la India con mi madre a los seis años. Sé lo que cuesta empezar de nuevo.

I came from India with my mother when I was 6. I know what it takes to start over.

The mayoral hopeful was in the green room of Univision’s Westchester studios on Thursday, waiting for an interview with anchor Guad Venegas. He would ask each question in both English and Spanish, and Raman could respond in English.

But she hoped to do better than that.

Since the start of her campaign, Raman has sprinkled Spanglish into her speeches and sometimes offered whole sentences in softly accented, lightly stilted Spanish. It’s part of an effort to win over Latinos, nearly half the city’s population and a crucial swing vote , with less than a week to go before election day.

“Can you say the whole thing for me?” Raman asked Lauren Perez-Rangel, her Latino outreach senior director, who read the full message in effortless Spanish. Raman repeated it word for word, accent for accent, with no flubs or pauses.

“You got it!” Perez-Rangel told her boss.

“I hope,” Raman replied.

It was showtime.

Raman, who serves on the L.A. City Council, grinned when someone said “me vale madre” — I don’t give a damn — on the walk to the studio. She cracked in English, “I doubt that’s true!” when I told an Univision producer in Spanish that no one likes my work.

A cameraman proclaimed “¡Muy bien!” when Raman rattled off an “uno, dos, tres” mic check. Venegas responded in English, “It’s always like that” to Raman’s comment in Spanish that her pronunciation is better than her comprehension.

During the interview, Raman raised her eyebrows when Venegas talked about streets filled with “basura,” the word for “trash” that became an insulting pun on Bass’ name hurled by then-candidate Spencer Pratt during the primary. Raman answered questions in English even when Venegas only asked them in Spanish, fully understanding what he said. And she kept saying “sí” to acknowledge Venegas’ points, as a native speaker would.

She never got a chance to read her Spanish-language statement, but that was OK. I saw enough to know that while she isn’t going to write the next “Don Quixote,” she isn’t limited to ordering at Casa Vega.

Supporters have praised her efforts en español. Critics dismiss them as pandering. I see something more interesting at work.

Raman spoke Tamil and Malayalam in India before moving to the U.S. as a child. If she wins, she would be the first immigrant mayor since Canadian-born Frank Shaw in the 1930s. She’d also be the first mayor whose native tongue wasn’t English since Bernard Cohn, who grew up speaking German in Prussia and served as mayor for two weeks in 1878.

Having a non-native English speaker in charge of a world capital such as L.A. — and one who wants to express herself in the city’s second tongue — wouldn’t just be symbolic. A person who’s earnest about learning a language is forever trying to decipher something new, failing far more often than succeeding in the early going — yet always working to master the task.

Isn’t that what we want from any politician, especially in a city where 56% of residents live in a household that speaks a language other than English?

Los Angeles mayoral candidate and city councilmember Nithya Raman prepares to speak at a “Latinos Con Raman” rally at La Cita Bar in downtown Los Angeles on Sept. 18.

(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)

Familiarity with Spanish has become a prerequisite for L.A. mayors. Antonio Villaraigosa famously took classes to improve his assimilated Spanish. Eric Garcetti described his fluency as “good community meeting Spanish” and often delivered remarks in Spanish. Bass, who was married to a Chicano and treats her ex-husband’s children as her own, isn’t fluent but has a robust Spanish-language outreach for her campaign, complete with ads, mailers and websites.

For Raman, though, learning Spanish isn’t just a way to reach out to constituents. It’s a reminder of “what it means to grapple with a bureaucracy that wasn’t intended for you.”

We spoke outside Univision’s studios after her interview. I asked to speak about her experience with Spanish as a way to show a private side of her to Angelenos. (I had asked Bass to sit down with me and talk about food. The interview was initially scheduled, then campaign spokesperson Alex Stack said it was canceled so Bass could attend a news conference assailing Raman for saying that former LAPD Police Chief Daryl Gates was a “gold standard” in protecting immigrants. Bass’ campaign didn’t reschedule the interview and didn’t provide comment on her Spanish skills in time for publication.)

In 2022, Raman co-authored a motion that introduced live Spanish translation services at city council committee meetings. She wants the city to research whether it can provide the information that’s being lost as the Trump administration increasingly deletes Spanish-language versions of federal websites.

“You have to show them that you’re trying,” Raman told me. “And even if you go out there, and you speak broken Spanish, and you mess it up, and you don’t conjugate it properly, and you get all the endings wrong — ‘a’ versus ‘o’ — the fact that you show up and you say it, and you try it in Spanish, means something to the people that I’ve been talking to.”

Her Spanish journey began with four years of classes at a suburban Boston high school. She chose Spanish instead of French because she felt it “would be more useful for me in the world.”

Raman forgot most of it while attending Harvard and MIT but started practicing with her brother, a Spanish major at UCLA, when she moved to L.A. 13 years ago. She read bilingual books for beginners and streamed shows such asNetflix’s dark comedy “La Casa de las Flores” (“The House of Flowers”) and podcasts such as “Chill Spanish.”

Those lessons have happened “pretty regularly” since she joined the city council in 2020, Raman said, although she scaled back once the mayoral campaign intensified.

I wondered what languages are spoken in her household. Her husband, whose Tamil-speaking parents are immigrants from India, only speaks English. Her twin 10-year-olds “can kind of follow along” when she speaks to her parents in Tamil, but she is no longer fluent in Malayalam.

“I have friends like who speak a different language, and they’re, like, religious about speaking it to their children,” Raman said. While she would love for her children to learn other languages, “life is too stressful trying to make every moment of your time with your family into almost a chore.”

I asked about the pandering charge. Throwing out Spanish phrases in an effort to appeal to Latinos is a political cliché as weak salsa as eating tacos in East L.A. or cruising in a lowrider.

Raman shook her head.

“To try and communicate to people in the language that they speak doesn’t feel like pandering. It feels like what the city should do,” she said. “Why shouldn’t elected representatives here also speak Spanish, or do their best to communicate to people in their language?

“If there was a lot of Tamil speakers here,” Raman continued, “I would appreciate that for me and for my family and for my grandparents.”

Mayor Karen Bass speaks during the “Latinos Con Bass” campaign at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2026 in Los Angeles.

(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)

Then I tested her Spanish.

Had she heard of one of my favorite words: convenenciero? Someone who goes with what will help them and doesn’t stand for anything but themselves. Haters have never outright called Raman a convenenciera, I said, but that’s what they’re insinuating in almost every other sentence.

In fairness, most politicians have a bit of convenenciero in them.

“People say, ‘She doesn’t stand for anything,’ but people also criticize me for being ideological, so which is it?” Raman calmly responded. “I try and learn. And I don’t come and say, ‘I know what you want.’ I say, ‘I’m trying to learn what you want, and I want to make the city work for you. How can I make it work?’”

So you’re not a convenenciera?

“I don’t feel that,” Raman said, repeating the phrase two more times.

I told her I’d ask three questions in Spanish. First: how was she doing?

“Bien. Un poco nervioso.”

“Poca nerviosa,” I corrected. A bit nervous. She thanked me for correcting her and said, “Sí, sí, nerviosa.”

What was she doing to try and relax during this campaign?

“Yo quiero estar con mi familia. Mis hijos …” I want to be with my family. My children …

She thought about the right phrase.

“… son mi vida.” Are my life.

What’s a word she loves in Spanish?

Perez-Rangel suggested chisme — gossip.

“I do like chisme!” Raman said with a laugh. But that wasn’t it.

“I like the word tomar [to take] and how many different meanings it has,” she said in English, then rattled off definitions and tenses in Spanish. Tomar bebidas. Tomar su tiempo.

“Tomar City Hall?” I asked.

She laughed again and said something that needs no translation: “Yes.”

Susan Saint James, the TV star who shared the screen with Rock Hudson as his on-screen wife in “McMillan & Wife” and co-led the heartfelt, blended family comedy “Kate & Allie” with Jane Curtin, has died.

The Los Angeles native died Monday after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, according to People, which first reported the actor’s death. She was 80.

Saint James’ family remembered the actor for her warm personality and kindness, writing in a statement shared with the magazine, “Every person she met became the most important person in the room at that moment, from a fellow board member to the clerk at the shoe store, who usually walked away knowing her entire life story.”

Her acting career spanned almost six decades — she broke out as Peggy Maxwell in NBC series “The Name of the Game” — from the mid-1960s to the 2020s across TV and film, but audiences know the actor best for starring as Hudson’s detective wife in “McMillan & Wife.” The NBC series, which aired from 1971 to 1977, centered on San Francisco police commissioner Stuart “Mac” McMillan and wife Sally McMillan as they solve a variety of crimes. Saint James earned four Emmy nominations for her work.

She pivoted to film and TV movies after the series ended, garnering roles in “Love at First Bite,” “The Kid from Nowhere,” and “Don’t Cry, It’s Only Thunder.”

After nearly a decade away from the TV series scene, Saint James returned in CBS’ unconventional sitcom, “Kate & Allie.” She starred as Kate McArdle, one of the series’ titular divorcées who decide to raise their children under the same roof. Saint James’ Kate was the modern and no-nonsense counterpart to Curtin’s old-fashioned, sweet Allie. The series aired from 1984 to 1989 and earned Saint James two additional Emmy nominations.

When the stars and creative team of “Kate & Allie” reunited amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, Saint James reflected on how the show was representative of a same-sex household and how mothers raising their own children related to the show’s material. She and her co-stars also said they knew at the time that the series was something special.

“It wasn’t like we went back and said, ‘You don’t know what you got ‘till it’s gone.’ It was just fun,” she said.

Saint James mostly stayed away from Hollywood in the decades following “Kate & Allie,” save for brief appearances in series including “Law & Order: SVU,” “Suits” and “Upload.” She notably found herself in the spotlight again in the early 2000s, but for family tragedy.

Her son Edward “Teddy” Ebersol died at age 14 in a 2004 Colorado plane crash that also claimed the lives of two other people. Teddy Ebersol, whom Saint James shared with husband and former NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol, was aboard a chartered Canadair CL-601 Challenger jet with his father and older brother, Charles, on Nov. 28, 2004, when it crashed during takeoff in light snow and freezing temperatures from the airport near Montrose, Colo. The pilot and a flight attendant were also killed in the crash. Dick and Charlie sustained injuries in the crash, and a copilot was critically injured.

“Here’s the bad part … I’ve never touched his clothes, I’ve never been able to move his things,” Saint James told Oprah in a 2006 interview. She continued to speak publicly about her grief in the following years.

“The thing that could move me on was that I could embrace Teddy finally in a way that was, ‘he’s my kid,’” she said during a 2009 panel on grief. “They can take his body, but I own that boy and I love that boy.”

Beyond her screen work and family tragedy, Saint James was also known for her longtime advocacy in the sports world. Saint James supported the mission of the Special Olympics since an early iteration of the games in California in 1972. The first Special Olympics was held in Chicago in 1968.

In a statement published Tuesday, Special Olympics said Saint James “believed deeply in the power of inclusion” and she served as a board member and a campaign co-chair for Special Olympics Connecticut. Her advocacy included founding the annual Susan Saint James poker tournament fundraiser. The organization’s Susan Saint James Leadership Award honors individuals who “embody her remarkable spirit of leadership, generosity, and dedication to our mission,” the post said.

“Thank you, Susan, for being an extraordinary champion of our athletes,” Special Olympics added in its statement. “Your legacy will live on through the lives you touched and the inclusive future you helped build.”

The actor, born Aug. 14, 1946 and raised in Rockford, Ill., received her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2008 and partially attributed her success in the industry to her connection with Special Olympics. Former California first lady Maria Shriver, daughter of Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver, attended the ceremony.

During that ceremony, Saint James said she managed to achieve her dream of becoming a Hollywood movie star “through the good works of a lot of wonderful people that created a loving and home-like environment for me all those years.”

“But the thing that really contributed to my success and happiness with my career was coupling it up with the work that I did with the Special Olympics,” she said, adding, “you can guess that being associated with them turned out to be getting to know some pretty amazing people since I’m now really cozy with the first lady of the state of California.”

Saint James was married three times, first to scriptwriter Richard Neubert from 1967 to 1968, according to People. She remarried in 1971 to makeup artist-turned manager Thomas Lucas. They share two children — daughter Sunshine and son Harmony — and divorced in 1977.

Saint James remarried to then-NBC executive Dick Ebersol after they met in 1981 when she hosted “Saturday Night Live.” They welcomed children Charles, William and Edward (Teddy.)

McALLEN, Texas — The Ford Expedition rumbled to a stop and Cindy Banda’s bedazzled flip-flops landed on the asphalt of the Houston cancer center’s vast parking lot. She threaded through the rows of cars, a tally of patients who gather here to sit with chemotherapy needles or lie on radiation machines.

The elevator dinged open. A year ago in this building, surgeons removed Banda’s right breast, and she still didn’t know whether treatment had expunged the cancer from her body. Doctors had told her it would be tough to beat.

“I’m more of a positive person myself,” Banda said, now sitting with a white wristband in a dim waiting room. But the bills are harder to dismiss, and the single mother with six children in her care repeated something like a mantra. “Keep the house. Keep the cars. And just keep the kids stable.”

That’s true for many Americans, as rising healthcare costs leave more families with a sinking feeling after seeing the bill for surgery or medication. Heading into the Nov. 3 midterm elections, about half of registered voters said healthcare costs are a major problem for them and their families, up from a little more than one-third four years ago, according to a Fox News poll from September.

With party control of Congress at stake, registered voters are nearly twice as likely to say they trust Democrats over Republicans to handle healthcare, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from the same month. Those frustrations, combined with broader concerns over rising prices, have sapped support for President Trump and his Republican Party.

Banda knows how that feels. She backed Trump in each of his three campaigns, motivated by her opposition to abortion. But when cancer came, the ensuing scramble to make ends meet was painful enough to rearrange her priorities, and she started to think about voting Democratic for the first time.

The 46-year-old was ushered into a sterile room for her appointment, her phone lighted up with a text. “Please contact TD Auto Finance.”

“This one’s $1,300,” she said of the car payment bill. “I have to go back to work.”

She had been on sick leave for a year from her job selling internet service, and she needed the income to support her three children and three more she had taken in after her sister’s death.

The doctor said her reconstruction surgery could be scheduled early next year. “I was hoping for maybe December,” Banda said, “only because I’ve met my deductibles.” Come January, she would have to pay down the $7,500 again. Earlier may be possible, the doctor replied, if the skin around her surgical scar loosens.

The evening had cooled slightly by the time she walked back through the rows of parked cars, their ebb and flow marking the tide of sickness, survival and death in a small corner of a colossal healthcare industry that saves lives while taking in over $5 trillion every year.

Banda paid $8 for parking as she left.

Confronting death and debt

Two weeks later, Banda was back at work, making door-to-door rounds to sell Spectrum’s Wi-Fi in McAllen, her city along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley. Banda, holding blue fliers, walked along a row of storefronts, some that closed since she last was in the area.

She hadn’t had a sale and commission since October of last year, after the biopsy and diagnosis.

The doctor who gave her the news had hugged Banda, and she sobbed even though, she says, she never really sobs in front of other people. During chemo, her children took turns buzzing off her wispy hair. When her 9-year-old daughter’s hand quivered, a teenage cousin helped guide the clipper over her mother’s scalp.

Banda’s first impulse was to maintain normality, stability, for the children.

But that requires roughly $7,000 a month for utilities, mortgage, car payments and groceries, along with the two water leaks. Then, even with insurance through her job, the surgeries, chemo and radiation added up to over $25,000 that she’s been paying off, making Banda one of tens of millions of other people in the United States in medical debt.

Banda tries not to dwell on death and debt.

“It’ll consume you,” she says. She smothers those thoughts beneath her bubbly demeanor and avoids being alone. But that truce, between her insistence on positivity and the fears that it covers, is brittle.

Certain thoughts still arrive uninvited. Banda’s late sister, Melissa, didn’t have life insurance. Banda makes sure it’s a payment she never misses.

“Sometimes I think, and I shouldn’t think like this, but I’m worth more gone than here,” she said one day. “Obviously, the goal is not that, the goal is to beat it,” she continued, “to keep the house and keep the cars.”

So far she has, with the help of others.

On top of child support, the father of Banda’s 9-year-old often pays $400 a week for a nanny to help with the kids. Banda’s own father sent her $700 before for her recent Houston appointment, one of his many cash infusions. Her high school classmates, whom she hadn’t been in close touch with in decades, fundraised by selling grilled chicken, rice and beans from a roadside tent. Two GoFundMe fundraisers collected nearly $30,000, and Banda rented her late sister’s house while putting her own in forbearance.

But months of insecurity takes its own, sleepless toll. She needed to sell some internet services to catch up.

After sticking the Spectrum Wi-Fi fliers onto empty storefronts, she drove to pick up her kids from school. The following day she had a morning meeting at a barbershop for what would be her first sale back at work.

Turning on Trump

A lifelong Christian, Banda had voted her antiabortion stance in past elections. When her sister was kidnapped and murdered by her ex-husband in 2020, Banda retreated from religion. The cancer brought her back to church with an apology to God, but it also made her rethink her politics.

She voted for Trump in 2016, and his first four years seemed steady, she said, so she voted for him again in 2020. President Biden’s tenure, including a global pandemic and related inflation, felt like bedlam, so she voted for Trump to return to the White House in 2024.

But two years later and fighting an expensive disease, she had found no respite from high prices.

So when James Talarico, a Presbyterian seminary student running for U.S. Senate as a Democrat, visited one of Banda’s fundraisers — speaking about his diabetes and his work in the Texas Statehouse to lower the price of insulin — it moved her. “Imagine if he can do that for the cancer,” she said.

Talarico and his Republican opponent, state Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, have different approaches to healthcare. Talarico wants all Americans to be able to join Medicare; Paxton proposed a $25,000 tax deduction for out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Talarico also supports a law guaranteeing abortion access nationwide, which Banda has voted against for years. But after she slid into debt to stay alive, after her grocery bills mounted and the high school had to comp the kids’ soccer gear she couldn’t afford, Banda’s antiabortion concerns have been superseded by worry about costs.

“Because it’s what I’m living,” she said. “I’m living it.”

Banda cast an early ballot for Talarico. “Never voted Democrat before today!!” she wrote in a text with blue heart emoji.

Awaiting news

Banda had just started a new cancer-targeting medication that cost $16,000 a month, reduced to $500 by insurance. By the afternoon, she was nauseated and fatigued, unable to eat. The malaise would keep her home the next day. She would miss the meeting with the barbershop to close her first deal since getting sick, though she felt confident it was in the bag.

But Banda pushed through the discomfort one evening to join her family as they replaced the flowers at her sister’s tomb.

She drove past the headstones and oak trees in the evening’s slanting light, and the family gathered around Melissa Banda’s tomb in an open-air mausoleum. There was no speech. Their eulogy was her father, Fidel Banda, methodically clipping and arranging the flowers for his daughter.

Banda walked along the wall of tombs. She will find out on election day whether the cancer is in remission or whether it’s spread to her organs.

“This one’s for me,” she said, pointing to a blank tomb next to her sister’s.

“Mom!” said her daughter with the huffiness of a 9-year-old. “Why would you say that?”

Banda smiled and added, “in a hundred years.”

Bedayn writes for the Associated Press.

SCARLETTE Douglas has revealed she’s expecting her first child with her fitness instructor fiancé Kyle Murray.

The A Place In The Sun host, 39, took to Instagram on Sunday afternoon to share the sweet news – alongside a picture of her blossoming bump.

The TV personality – who froze her eggs back in 2024 – shared a snap of herself and Kyle in front of a balloon arch and teddy bear display which read: ‘We can Bearly wait’.

In the snap, Scarlette donned a crop top to show off her bump, which Kyle cradled from behind.

Scarlette wrote underneath the post: “The exciting news is finally here!

“We’re over the moon to announce… We’re having a baby!!!!!!”

HEY BABY!

Gaz Beadle’s ex Emma shows off her growing baby bump after announcing pregnancy

FLOG IT

Helen Flanagan stuns in corset dress as she flogs her old clothes on Vinted

The star’s celeb pals flocked to the comments to share their congratulations – with Frankie Essex writing: “Yayyyyyyuuu love it!! Congratulations ❤️❤️❤️❤️”.

Scarlette did not share in the post how far along in the pregnancy she is, or whether the couple know the gender of their little one.

The TV star met her boyfriend in May last year, with Scarlette attending one of his fitness classes.

In March this year, Kyle popped the question and the pair are now engaged.

The expectant parents attended The Baby Show – a parenting exhibition – in London on Friday.

Snaps show the duo testing out prams and cots as they got their practice in ahead of the baby’s arrival.

HOLLY Ramsay gave a peek at her blossoming baby bump as she struck a series of poses in the autumn sunshine.

Chef Gordon Ramsay’s middle daughter, 26, revealed she was expecting her first child, a baby girl, with husband Adam Peaty, 31, in June.

The influencer has previously showcased her maternity style in a series of stylish snaps as well as while on holiday in Miami.

Now Holly has posted side-profile in a tight-fitting black top to show off her bump in full glory.

Holly beamed as she stepped out in the autumn sunshine, pulling on a leather jacket, designer Louis Vuitton rucksack and sunglasses to complete her trendy look.

She placed her hands protectively on her belly as she raised her face to the sunshine.

OUT OF HIS DEPTH

Adam Peaty is ‘more isolated than ever’ with wife Holly in latest move

sad loss

Pregnant Holly Ramsay shares heartbreak after her beloved dog dies

The mum-to-be shared other snippets of her life including a carved pumpkin, her husband Adam cuddling his son George, five, from his relationship with ex-girlfriend Eirianedd Munro, and a coffee trip out.

In her caption she wrote: “I heart October”.

One fan was quick to react and put: “The cutest baby bump”.

A second added: “The bump is perf”.

A third put: “You look like you’re glowing! I hope you have an easy quick delivery. Being a mom is the greatest. Best of luck!”

Last month, Holly flashed her growing baby bump in a stylish co-ord with fans claiming she’s “glowing” during her first pregnancy.

Although her maternity experience has been in part overshadowed by her spouse’s family feud.

He has been estranged from his mum Caroline and the rest of his clan for the last 12 months, with all members of the Peaty family – other than his sister – not appearing at his wedding to Holly in December.

Recently, Adam opened up on his wider family feud and said “there has to be forgiveness”.

We also reported that he is “more isolated than ever” as the bad blood rumbles on

Meghan Markle is “distressed” following reports that her half-brother Thomas Markle Jr. found explicit material involving minors in their father’s possession.

On Thursday, British tabloid the Sun reported that Thomas Jr. claimed he’d found “hundreds, if not thousands” of child pornography images inside four large boxes at the Cebu, Philippines, home of his father, Thomas Markle Sr., and contacted authorities.

Meghan’s team issued a statement to The Times on Friday, writing that she was “deeply distressed” by the news.

“My thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed,” she said.

“In 2018, a letter was sent to the Metropolitan Police and Royalty and Specialist Protection. That letter was subsequently shared with me. It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated,” she continued, adding, “I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications’ distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children, was for one reason: to protect them.”

The Duchess of Sussex said that she trusted authorities were “doing the same for other families.”

“Although the breadth of what has now been uncovered is more sickening than one could ever imagine, my sincerest hope is that justice will be fully served and that the priority remains the safety and protection of innocent children.”

Meghan’s relationship with her 82-year-old father has been the subject of media scrutiny since 2018, when she and Prince Harry tied the knot. Thomas Markle Sr. did not attend the wedding.

The Met Police told People that they are looking to confirm the passing of a letter in 2018. The FBI did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment, but told People that the agency is aware of the allegations, will investigate any related allegations of federal violations of U.S. law, and “will provide support, as appropriate, to the Philippine authorities.”

Thomas Markle Sr. denied the accusations on Friday, calling them “bulls—” and “lies.” He told the Daily Mail that he was “shocked” and “hurt” by his son’s claims and that he “could never do” what he’s being accused of.

“It’s the worst thing anyone could accuse me of. … I have no idea why Tom is trying to destroy me with these lies.”

Thomas Markle Jr. did not immediately respond on Friday to The Times’ request for comment, and Thomas Markle Sr. could not be reached for comment.

The news comes shortly after Meghan and Prince Harry closed their California chapter and returned to England with their children, Archie, 7, and Lilibet, 5.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — President Trump said Thursday that Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee for Ohio governor, should keep running a controversial ad featuring the estranged mother of Democratic opponent Amy Acton, posting on social media that it was “hitting pay dirt.”

Trump also denounced Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who criticized the ad as “deeply, deeply troubling” earlier in the day. Acton previously served in DeWine’s administration as a health official. Her mother lost custody of Acton and her brother after her husband — the children’s stepfather — was indicted on a charge of raping Acton.

“He strongly suggested that Vivek should, ‘take down the Ad,’ ” Trump wrote. “He probably wants a Dumocrat to win, and certainly doesn’t want someone who will do a much better job than he is capable of doing. I suggested, on the other hand, that Vivek should keep it up, and let everyone listen to the mother of a defective, dishonest, and incapable Candidate, explain how the daughter is a DISASTER who, uncontrollably, lies, cheats, and steals!”

At a gathering with reporters at the Ohio Statehouse, DeWine recalled the painful experiences of rape victims he dealt with as a county prosecutor and state attorney general.

“It’s wrong to run this ad,” he said. “And, even at this late time — my wife, Fran, saw the ad just run this morning on TV — I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down.”

The term-limited DeWine’s remarks place him at odds with Ramaswamy, whom he has endorsed. The biotech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate plans to spend $4 million to broadcast it online and on television.

DeWine stops short of pulling his endorsement

But the governor stopped short of pulling his backing of the Republican for now. DeWine recalled a previous line of attack by the Acton campaign had mentioned Ramaswamy’s mother and said that also was wrong — “family members have always historically been off limits” — though he noted it was never used in a multimillion-dollar ad campaign.

That critique from the summer cited an investigative report into Geetha Ramaswamy’s role at a pharmaceutical company run by her son, whom Acton and Democrats described as “hiring his own mother to manipulate clinical trial data.”

The Ramaswamy campaign called those claims “slanderous” and said he’s being held to a different standard than Acton and other Democrats who have attacked Republicans’ families.

“Governor DeWine is correct that the first and only candidate to attack the mother of her opponent in this race was Amy Acton,” spokesperson Connie Luck said in a statement, adding, “We refuse to accept the media’s double standards.”

Ohio Republicans divided over the ad

By chiming in, DeWine has entered the fray of a growing rift among Ohio Republicans over the advertisement — as both the governor’s race and a race for U.S. Senate appear far tighter than expected in a state Trump won handily three times. The video features Acton’s birth mother, Donna Arthur, calling her “a liar” and insinuating she has mental health issues.

Acton, Ohio’s COVID-19-era health director, has made no secret of facing homelessness and abuse as a child. Arthur lost custody of her children after their stepfather, Arthur’s husband, was indicted on a charge of rape involving Acton. Acton’s campaign on Tuesday posted a video of her brother, who supported her backstory about living in a tent and being abused.

Republican Vice President JD Vance, an Ohio native son, expressed disgust during an Ohio campaign swing Wednesday with Republicans “whining” about the ad as low and in poor taste. But Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, DeWine’s former lieutenant governor — running in a tight retention race against Democrat Sherrod Brown — has said he would not have run the ad, as has Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who is running for state auditor.

Another influential Ohio Republican, former U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, posted a lengthy essay on X overnight, suggesting that “the floor may have just fallen out from under the Republican campaign for Ohio Governor” and urging every Republican to distance themselves from it.

Amid the turmoil, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Triantafilou posted what sounded like a warning, or a threat.

“The final days of a tough campaign are always the best time to find out who is really with you and who just posts and pretends,” he wrote. “Yes—we are keeping score.” The quote was followed by a winking-eye emoji.

Ad has faced bipartisan rebukes, support in conservative media

The ad is also dividing Republicans nationally.

Nikki Haley, who sparred with Ramaswamy during the 2024 Republican presidential primary over the personal nature of his attacks, called him “a bad guy” in a social media post Tuesday. “It’s a shame he continues to get away with it,” she wrote.

At the same time, Media Matters for America, a left-leaning media watchdog group, has reported that many within the national conservative media are promoting and praising the ad. Ramaswamy’s campaign manager, Jonathan Ewing, characterized it as “a campaign-ending moment for Amy Acton.”

Wayne Allyn Root, of Gateway Pundit, called it “absolutely hilarious” and Daily Wire host Michael Knowles described it as “brilliant.”

Police and court records show Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with the rape of Acton in July 1978, when she was 12, after her biological father lodged a formal complaint against him. The abuse allegedly happened from December 1976 to April 1978. Cledith Arthur failed to show for a court appearance and became a fugitive.

Donna Arthur remained married to him until his death in 2004.

Smyth writes for the Associated Press.

Class action could be first in Australia to blame social media for harming its users.

Meta and its social media platforms Facebook and Instagram are facing a class action lawsuit in Australia over allegations that addictive design features are harming children and teenagers.

The lawsuit, filed by MinterEllison in the Australian Federal Court, seeks to recover compensation for current and former users of Facebook and Instagram who claim they were exposed to harmful content or developed an addiction to social media as a result of using those platforms, the law firm said in a statement released on Thursday.

“This proceeding raises important questions about the design and operation of social media platforms and their impact on children and teenagers in Australia. Those questions will now be considered through the Federal Court process,” MinterEllison Partner William Nolan said in the statement.

The class action suit was filed on behalf of eight plaintiffs who allege they were harmed by Meta while they were below the age of 18.

In a suppression order on Monday, the court prohibited the reporting of any information that could reveal their identities and the statement of claim.

“We are aware of this claim and we will defend ourselves vigorously,” a Meta spokesperson said.

Litigation Lending Services said it was funding the class action for Australian families who “would have no practical means of pursuing these claims against a global technology giant”.

The lawsuit comes amid rising tensions between Australia and Big Tech after a world-first ban on social media for children below 16 in 2025, and newly proposed rules that could let users switch off algorithm-driven content on their feeds.

Meta agreed in August to pay $18bn to settle with nearly all US states to resolve claims that it designed social media to addict children.