concerns

New headlines this week are raising concerns for parents of high school football players.

According to a study published from researchers at Mass General Brigham, Boston University and the Concussion & CTE Foundation, one in four former NFL players who died between 2016 and 2021 might have had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). There were 338 brains donated to study, and 315 of them had evidence of CTE, a brain disorder that can happen because of repeated injuries to the head.

Allan Walsh, a sports agent and lawyer, said in a tweet: “This is a crisis.”

Parents have previously debated among themselves the risks and rewards in letting a son or daughter play a contact sport, but this new study regarding football head injuries is once again going to rattle, if not cause a retreat, from some allowing family members to participate in football.

“It causes concern,” said Mike Hamilton, a former high school football and basketball coach who has a son playing football at Chatsworth High. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘Do I want him to play?’ I’m apprehensive. He has a passion for the game. He’s conscience about his health. What gives me relief is knowing that practices are going well. There are protocols parents should abide by. We didn’t let our son play football until he got to high school because of the hits.”

Tim Moscicki, an athletic trainer at Loyola High for 38 years, said much has changed for the better in protecting football players from concussions and other head injuries. He said new policies, improved equipment, a focus on tackling fundamentals and new protocols are all having an impact.

Loyola athletic trainer Tim Moscicki doing baselining of students in 2014 to help diagnose concussions.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

He remembers the days when coaches would say, “He got his bell rung.” The player would sit out a few plays, then get put back in. Now that term is barred from everyone’s vocabulary. New rules requiring players to sit out a minimum of seven days following a concussion while needing clearance from a doctor to return and tackling restrictions put in during weekly practices show the CIF is taking CTE concerns in a serious matter for high school sports.

“To me. football has gotten a lot safer,” Moscicki said. “Right now, given what’s in place, it’s safe to play football. Kids are being held out now when they develop any kind of symptom. Back in 1990, if a kid had a concussion and they were free of symptoms for 24 hours, we’d give them their helmet back, ‘You can play.’

“My thing it’s still up to parents if they want their sons to play football. My youngest played football, oldest played lacrosse. There’s always a risk. There’s a risk riding a bike. There’s risk playing baseball. It’s a just a little higher in the full-contact sports. The standards have changed so much. There really wasn’t a return to play protocol in the ‘70s ‘80s and ‘90s.”

Moscicki was one of the first high school athletic trainers to do baselining of all students, giving them tests of their balance and brain functions so it can be used and compared with a similar exam if the student is suspected of having a concussion. Loyola also started a return-to-school program because students with concussions have headaches that also affects their school work.

Parents must understand “you cannot prevent a concussion,” Moscicki said.

“If you get hit hard enough, there’s nothing out there that would 100% prevent a concussion,” he said. “A concussion happens as a result of your brain hitting the inside of your skull.”

The good news is everyone seems to be endorsing funding research into head injuries, including the NFL. It’s still too early to conclude where the research is headed.

That’s where parental choice comes into play.

“Football is a sport,” Moscicki said. “You don’t have to play it. You don’t have to watch it.”

And yet, the Super Bowl is the most watched annual television broadcast in the United States, with lots of monetary rewards for those who participate.

There are many challenges ahead. Pierce College and Orange Coast College paused their junior college football programs this year for lack of players. Junior varsity programs at lots of high schools have been discontinued for lack of players. A CIF participation survey for 2025-26 found 11-man football is the most popular boys sport with 87,718 participants, a drop of 4% from last school year.

“Anything that’s a contact sport runs a risk,” Hamilton said. “You want to protect your son.”

Gladys Knight has announced she’s gearing up to embrace the next phase of her life and career at 82.

The announcement comes after recent performances raised alarm with fans and staff worried about the storied singer’s health.

“After much soul searching I’ve decided that I will be easing into fewer performances while focusing on transitioning into the next stage of my career and life moving forward,” Knight said via Instagram on Thursday.

Knight said she’ll be spending more time on projects with her husband and manager; William McDowell, 68; and visiting with her grandchildren.

“I’d like to take a moment, in advance, to thank all my fans over this last three quarters of a century for making a little girl’s dream come true and supporting her every step of the way,” she continued. “I am immensely grateful to all of you and send my eternal love back to you. … I hope to see your smiling faces out and about and on the road.”

Her publicity team declined further comment Friday.

During her Aug. 18 show in Detroit, Knight took several breaks. And back in July at the Hollywood Bowl, the Grammy-winner seemed to lose her place while belting, “Midnight Train to Georgia,” one of her signature songs.

Backup singers appeared to come to the rescue more than once, guiding the singer back toward the stage as she wandered off and filling in when the lyrics to her classic soul hits seemed to escape her.

In an interview with the Shade Room last year, Knight’s son, Shanga Hankerson, claimed McDowell pushed the singer into performing and manipulates her.

Hankerson said that he drove to North Carolina to see his mom and was kept from being alone with her. He subsequently filed a complaint with the state Department of Health and Human Services.

“I noticed that William would always chime in, make sure that I didn’t get to speak with her by myself or by herself,” he said.

During a performance, Hankerson said he was concerned watching as his mom, who’s been performing for 75 years, fumbled through the set.

“The band played two or three extra bars, and she zoned out. The background singer started singing, and that brought her back. They’re having to rewind the teleprompters because my mom is forgetting to even look at them,” he said.

Marking his 100th day in the job, Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh told the Kansas City Fed’s symposium in Wyoming that the US economy has strengthened rather than weakened under recent shocks, that the labour market is consistent with full employment, and that inflation remains the central bank’s dominant concern.

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Warsh declined to say what he would do next month, but he removed most of the arguments against acting and bolstered the ones in favour of a rate hike.

“For my part, today I am impressed by the overall performance of the economy, which appears to have strengthened,” Warsh stated.

“One indicator of strength is how well an economy holds up to shocks. On that score, both Main Street and Wall Street have been remarkably resilient,” he added.

On inflation, Warsh noted that the PCE index stood at 3.7% over twelve months and 4.1% over six, and 54% of the basket’s components rose by more than 3% over the past year, against 32% in the two decades before the pandemic.

Summer readings that beat expectations “do not tell me that underlying trends have meaningfully improved,” Warsh stated.

The Federal Reserve Chair’s conclusion was blunt: “the Fed’s predominant focus right now should be on prices.”

The standard set was equally direct. “We must be confident that underlying inflation is moving to our objective, clearly and at sufficient speed. Otherwise, we have work to do,” Warsh declared.

That assessment matters because it eliminates the case for supporting growth with further stimulus and potentially opens the door for restrictive measures as markets moved in response.

At the time of writing, the 10-year Treasury yield has fallen 0.5% from its Friday high to 4.67% and the 30-year dropped around 0.9% to 5.16%, while the dollar index rose 0.4% from the intraday low to roughly 99.4 points.

Traders raised the implied probability of a 0.25% hike at the 15 and 16 September Fed meeting to 55%, from around 35% before Warsh’s speech.

Performance of the US economy

Warsh opened his speech with what he called a hinge point in history, arguing that artificial intelligence has advanced faster than even its advocates predicted.

Annualised AI token sales at the two leading labs alone exceed $100 billion, he said, up more than 500% in a year.

AI is “a new variable, potentially a new factor of production,” raising questions the Fed cannot answer yet such as whether it will lift productivity and when, whether it complements or replaces labour, and where the returns will ultimately land.

A new Federal Reserve task force on productivity and jobs is examining it, though he stressed its recommendations will have no bearing on current policy decisions.

Warsh then listed extensive evidence for his positive outlook on the US economy.

Business investment in equipment and intangibles growing at around 9%, its fastest since 2021, with more than half of this year’s capital expenditure growth attributable to the AI buildout.

S&P 500 profits went up more than 20% over the year, credit spreads are near historic lows and banks are easing lending standards. Housing and agriculture are strained, Warsh acknowledged, but on balance he “would be hard pressed to describe broad financial conditions as restrictive.”

Unemployment at 4.1% is low by historical standards, with jobless claims near their lowest in decades, leaving inflation as the outlier.

No forward guidance

The Federal Reserve Chair devoted a substantial section to defending his refusal to signal future moves, a stance that has drawn criticism since he took office in May.

Forward guidance was adopted during the 2008 crisis by colleagues including himself, he said, and was essential then, but “the practice has overstayed its welcome” and now “risks creating ambiguity in the name of clarity.”

Warsh warned of a hall-of-mirrors problem in which markets read the Fed while the Fed reads markets, leaving both blind to new developments.

“We should not indulge a regime in which market participants are looking primarily to the Fed for their next trade,” he said, adding that the costs of such errors fall not on “financial high-fliers” but on households facing high inflation or insecure jobs.

Warsh also rejected calls to publish an explicit reaction function, arguing economic knowledge does not permit a mechanical rule.

Instead he set out six principles: interrogate incoming data rather than trust stale figures, accept that judging supply against demand is imprecise; treat the 2% PCE target as firm and fixed; pursue both mandates without treating them as a trade-off; rely on short-term rates rather than unconventional tools; and remember that money itself matters.

“I stand here today committed to a discipline, not to a decision,” Warsh said in closing.

The decision comes on 16 September at the next Fed meeting.

St Jude Championship – round four leaderboard

-17 S Scheffler (US); -9 Kim (Kor); -8 A Noren (Swe), S Burns (US); -7 W Clark (US), Im (Kor)

Selected others: -6 L Aberg (Swe), T Fleetwood (Eng); -5 M Fitzpatrick (Eng); -4 V Hovland (Nor), J Spieth (US); -3 H Hall (Eng); E J Rose; +3 S Lowry; +8 R McIlroy (NI)

Full leaderboard

Rory McIlroy says “he felt lost” as he toiled to a 66th-place finish – 25 strokes behind champion Scottie Scheffler – at the St Jude Championship.

While world number one Scheffler was a cut above the rest at 17 under overall as he claimed his first victory since January, more concerning for McIlory was that his eight-over total left him ahead of just two players in the first of the three FedEx Cup play-off events.

The Northern Irishman, who won his second Masters title earlier this season had not played competitively since the Open Championship in July.

And it told at TPC Southwind, where he failed to record a single round under par across the four days and struggled to find the sort of rhythm that will be needed if he is to claim an unprecedented fourth FedEx Cup later this month.

“I’m so far away from where I need to be to even feel like I have a chance. I’ve just got to keep working and hope it turns around a little bit,” said McIlroy, who is 13th in the season-long standings.

“Obviously didn’t come in here with a ton of reps, (it) almost felt like the more the week went on the more I felt lost with my golf swing a little bit.

“I guess [it was] nice to shake the rust off a little bit but I’m going to have to work pretty hard between now and next Thursday to feel like I have any sort of golf game to compete next week.

“To me it’s more about the execution of what I’m doing right now, and the execution wasn’t there this week.”

McIlroy’s struggles were obvious particularly in from tee to green where he ranked 62nd out of 68 players for strokes gained.

However, he would at least have been able to take some comfort from a seven-hole stretch on the back nine where he knocked in four birdies, albeit he finished with successive bogeys to bookend a round which began with a six on the par-four opening hole.

Aug. 16 (UPI) — The commander of U.S. Central Command visited the USS Abraham Lincoln days after the aircraft carrier drew public attention over reports of poor conditions on board and attempted suicides of sailors.

Adm. Brad Cooper visited the ship as part of a 10-day tour of the Middle East, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. Cooper also met with senior civilian and military leadership in Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Lincoln, which is based in San Diego, has been at sea for a record of more than 260 days after being deployed to Venezuela and then the Middle East, where it is currently.

Families of sailors serving on the ship have told media outlets several crew members have tried to jump overboard or have been stopped from doing so in recent months. There have also been reports of a lack of fresh food on board and moldy showers, among other issues.

“Unfortunately, the media are trying to paint our warriors as victims,” Navy Secretary Hung Cao said in a statement on Friday. He later said that Lincoln would return home and be replaced with the USS George Washington.

Senate Democrats have been pressing the Trump administration about the conditions on the Lincoln as well as its planning for its conflict with Iran.

“I was just speaking to a spouse just about three days ago and this is the current problem right now,” U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said on ABC News’ This Week on Sunday. “It really goes to the deep, deep, deep problem here is that this administration did not plan for this war, did not plan how to get out of this war, did not really understand how this war was going to escalate.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said media reports have “completely misrepresented” the situation, while President Donald Trump told reporters that the deployment’s length is “not nearly long enough.”

Aug. 14 (UPI) — The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is returning home after a lengthy, record-breaking deployment which some crew members’ families said caused their loved ones to attempt suicide, Navy officials announced Friday.

The vessel will be replaced in the Middle East by another aircraft carrier, President Donald Trump later told reporters, while dismissing concerns over the mental well-being of its sailors and Marines during its 266-day deployment.

The USS Abraham Lincoln “crushed their deployment and will return home soon as part of a planned rotation,” acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao said in a social media statement. “Details will come but let me be clear: the safety and security of our Sailors and Marines always comes first.”

The Lincoln’s time at sea “was extended because the mission demanded it. Deployments are hard,” he added, while criticizing what he called a “dishonest” portrayal of the crew’s health situation by media allegedly attempting to “paint our warriors as victims.”

Families of sailors serving on the ship have told reporters several crew members have tried to jump overboard or have been stopped from doing so in recent months as the Lincoln’s deployment reached record-setting proportions.

This prompted Senate Armed Services Committee member Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., to voice “serious concerns” about the length of the warship’s deployment as well as additional reports of supply shortages and contaminated water.

Cao on Friday admitted that “a small number of mental health cases were treated with no loss of life” and that meal plans “were adjusted” when fresh resupply was unavailable “without a single meal being missed.

“There is no question our young men and women have been pushed to their limits-but they have never broken,” he said. “They are rightly tired — but have never been out of the fight.

“However, it is clear, knowing the whole story, our force and their families are not victims. They are the epitome of American strength and resilience.”

The Abraham Lincoln will be replaced in the Middle East by the USS George Washington, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Trump, meanwhile confirmed another carrier is on its way, telling reporters that the Lincoln “is moving right now or very shortly and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship.”

He responded, “no, they’re not,” when asked if sailors’ families are concerned, and questioned whether the 266-day deployment was too long, he answered, “No, no, no. Not nearly long enough.”

Members of the US Congress have called for a probe into conditions amid reports of sailors attempting to jump ship.

United States President Donald Trump has dismissed concerns about conditions on board the USS Abraham Lincoln during its lengthy deployment as part of the US-Israel war with Iran.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump rejected the assertion that the families of those on board the aircraft carrier are worried about their loved ones. “No, they’re not,” Trump said.

When asked if the aircraft carrier had been deployed too long, Trump replied: “No, no, no, not nearly enough.”

His remarks follow a series of reports this week, documenting supply shortages and mental health strain on the USS Abraham Lincoln. That includes accounts of individuals attempting to jump from the ship.

The aircraft carrier left in November from a base in San Diego, California, and it has since been involved in January’s military operation against Venezuela and, more recently, the war against Iran.

Its deployment was expected to end in May, but that timeframe has been extended. It has spent more than 250 days at sea without a port stop, setting a record for the US Navy. More than 5,000 sailors and Marines are housed on board.

Several US lawmakers have since called for an inquiry into conditions on board the ship. One Democratic senator, Ruben Gallego, has also called on the Navy to allow a bipartisan delegation to visit the ship to assess the state of affairs.

Still, the Trump administration has repeatedly denied worsening conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

On Friday, a US official told Al Jazeera the Navy had “not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship”.

The official added that there were five chaplains, one psychologist, one social worker, three “behavioral health technicians”, and one “embedded integrated prevention coordination (EIPC) counselor” on board the vessel. There is also an emotional support dog on board.

‘What military objective?’

While Trump downplayed the length of the deployment, he did confirm reports that the aircraft carrier will be swapped out in the near future.

“That ship is moving right now or very shortly, and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,” Trump said on Friday.

In a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth earlier this week, Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, asked for information on conditions on the boat, including what metrics the Navy was using to measure the mental health of the crew.

“What military objective is the continued deployment of the Lincoln intended to achieve in Iran, and how does the Department assess whether the carrier’s continued presence is necessary to accomplish that objective?” he asked.

The focus on conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln come as diplomatic efforts to end the US-Israeli war in Iran show no signs of breakthrough. The war began with a US and Israel-led offensive on February 28.

In June, the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that called for an immediate pause to the fighting.

But last month, the memorandum collapsed amid a dispute over the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for trade.

The subsequent escalation saw the US re-impose its naval blockade on Iranian ports and Iran constrict traffic through the strait once more.

Iran has since focused its diplomatic efforts on reaching an agreement with Oman over travel routes in the waterway, which is a key artery for oil, natural gas, fertiliser and other goods.

SHE recently hard launched her new man following a turbulent on/off relationship with her Love Island ex Jack Fincham.

But former Towie star Chloe Brockett, 25, might not be ready to reveal everything about Daniel Price just yet. Here, pals tell us why the new romance has raised alarm bells – and the lengths Chloe has been going to to protect him.

We can reveal Chloe made the decision to edit out his ankle tag from pictures of them at a music festival.

An insider said: “Chloe really wants to show people she is happy and has finally moved on from Jack, but there are a few red flags.

“We noticed she had edited out his tag.

“Daniel is well known in and around Essex – he used to date Yasmin Oukhellou– so it’s no secret what he is like.

“Obviously we’re pleased she is having fun but it is a worry because of all the stress she went through before.”

Chloe hard-launched the relationship at the weekend, sharing a kiss with Daniel as they partied with pals.

One of them, influencer Mia Sully, shared a smiling snap with Chloe in which Daniel stood behind them facing the other way.

The black tag is clearly visible on his left leg, but when Chloe shared the same snap on her Instagram it had disappeared.

The Sun has contacted a representative for Chloe for comment.

Daniel has a child from his relationship with Essex girl Natalie Milton, who is friends with a number of the Towie set.

He also dated Towie star, Yazmin Oukhellou, in 2023.

Awkwardly, Chloe and Yaz were arch-enemies during their time on Towie as they clashed over their mutual ex James Lock.

They went on to have a massive feud while filming Ex on the Beach in 2024 having not spoken for four years previously.

Initially, the pair wiped the slate clean, with Chloe acknowledging her behaviour in the past wasn’t great and that she in no way wanted any trouble with Yaz.

But tensions rose as the series developed with Yaz insisting she was “the best bird” James ever had in a blazing row.

Earlier this year, Chloe made it clear she was done with ex Jack, who is now a bareknuckle fighter, after their eighth split.

They had a notoriously turbulent relationship, plenty of rows, and several splits.

In January, The Sun revealed Jack had checked himself back into rehab after he had relapsed into drink and drugs and had just £20 to his name.

He underwent a two-month stay comprising of £32,000 of treatment at Rainford Hall, Merseyside.

Cutting ties, Chloe posted on Instagram: “I want to write this to make this clear and final, me and my ex partner Jack are no longer together and haven’t been for quite some time.

“I want no association with this person, his actions and the things he does.”

Critics say the 39 percent cap was a safeguard against excessive concentration of media ownership in the US.

The United States Federal Communications Commission has voted to rescind the rule that bars local broadcast station owners from reaching more than 39 percent of the total number of US TV households in a move that could help spark industry consolidation.

The FCC on Thursday voted 2-1 to lift the cap in favour of a new case-by-case approach. The commission’s sole Democrat, Anna Gomez, said the proposal was illegal and argued only the US Congress can lift the cap. Many critics argue the move will lead to excessive market power among station owners.

Under the rules, stations with weaker over-the-air signals can be partially counted against a company’s ownership cap. The FCC has limited ownership of local broadcast stations since 1941 and most recently raised the cap to 39 percent in 2004.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the move is about helping local broadcasters survive and pointed to the sharp decline in local newspapers.

“We should stop hamstringing this one segment of the broader market with outdated restrictions,” Carr said.

“The FCC kept a rule on the books in the name of localism that contributed to the gutting of local newspapers … I don’t want local broadcast TV to go the way of local newspapers.”

The FCC said the new rule would consider applications on television company mergers that would go above 39 percent on an individual basis to determine if they are in the public interest. The agency said it would “remove artificial restrictions on opportunities for broadcast television to attract capital and generate revenue”.

Gomez said the decision is “an invitation to bring in a lot of transactions”.

‘More control’

Lifting the cap hands “more control of the public airwaves to a small number of companies whose coverage pleases this administration … It is putting its thumb on the scale in favour of content that this administration likes,” she added.

Carr has said the change would allow local television owners to increase investment in local programming and give them more leverage against national networks.

In March, the FCC approved the $3.54bn sale of ‌local television station owner Tegna to Nexstar despite objections from Democratic-led states.

The acquisition, if not reversed by courts, will expand Nexstar’s presence to cover 80 percent of US TV households. The FCC has said it was waiving the 39 percent rule in approving the deal.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz, a Republican, said last month that he is sceptical the FCC can hike the 39 percent cap without an act of Congress.

Clayton Weimers, executive director at Reporters Without Borders North America, said in a statement that with this latest move, the FCC has “abandoned” one of the last significant safeguards against excessive concentration of media ownership in the US, which ensured that “no single company or individual should be allowed to dominate what millions of Americans see, hear, and understand about the world”.

“Today’s vote eliminates that safeguard and only benefits a handful of already powerful media conglomerates. This is not deregulation in the public interest. It is consolidation in the interest of the powerful,” Weimers said.

He said that the action exceeds the FCC’s legal authority and that Reporters Without Borders was evaluating every available legal avenue to challenge this decision.

Miami authorities on Tuesday night responded to a residence after a disturbing video was posted on social media that appeared to involve celebrity blogger Perez Hilton.

The Times has not confirmed the authenticity of the video. But the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said in an emailed statement that authorities had received an influx of calls on Tuesday reporting that an individual was livestreaming acts of self-harm on social media.

After surrounding the Miami residence of a man who was not named, the Sheriff’s Office said around 9 p.m. that he had been “safely recovered and transported by Miami-Dade Fire Rescue to a local hospital, where he is receiving medical attention.”

Deputies had arrived earlier and said they spoke with family members at the scene and confirmed that the man was alone inside the home.

“In many incidents involving a person experiencing a mental health crisis or actively harming themselves, deputies prioritize de-escalation by creating time, distance and opportunities for communication,” the statement read. “Unless there is an immediate threat to others, slowing the situation and utilizing crisis intervention techniques can reduce the likelihood of a suicide-by-cop encounter and minimize the risk of injury to the individual, deputies and the public.”

Authorities said they had “tactically disengaged while continuing to monitor the situation.” In their later update, the Sheriff’s Office said that after the man had been transported to a hospital, mental health professionals were at the scene “providing support and resources to the individual’s family.”

A representative for Hilton did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

In the TikTok live video, a person who seems to be in distress harms himself. The video has since been removed from the platform.

Police and fire personnel converged on the Miami home Tuesday night. NBC6 News reported that some neighbors said Hilton lived at the home, but police would not confirm that.

Hilton, born Mario Lavandeira Jr., has been a pop culture personality since the early aughts when he launched his eponymous celebrity gossip rag. The venture garnered the columnist social status but also made him persona non grata among many celebrities who weren’t fans of his controversial coverage, which was often deemed disparaging, especially toward women.

Aug. 3 (UPI) — Capital One attorneys said in court documents that the bank closed the Trump Organization’s accounts over concerns about money laundering.

Attorneys for the bank have asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought by President Donald Trump over it closing hundreds of Trump Organization accounts in 2021. The motion filed by Capital One on Friday clarifies that money laundering concerns were the reason the accounts were closed.

“The closures were the result of months of analysis and a careful review by Capital One’s [anti-money-laundering] team in accordance with bank policies and regulatory guidance,” the court files read.

Trump argues that banks have “debanked” him and other conservatives for their political views. This followed the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. He has also filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase for the same allegations and sought $5 billion in damages.

Capital One argues that the Trump Organization’s accounts were closed in a lawful manner.

“Instead, Plaintiffs attempt to keep their misguided allegations of political discrimination alive by speculating that Capital One’s anti-money laundering concerns were pretextual and claiming that Plaintiffs were somehow ‘misled’ by the contractually permitted closure decision,” the court filings read.

The bank adds that its contracts with clients give it the discretion to close any account “at any time, for any reason or no reason and without notice.”

About 385 accounts with ties to the Trump Organization, Executive Vice President Eric Trump and other affiliated businesses were closed in total.

In March, U.S. District Judge Roy Altman granted a previous motion by Capital One to dismiss the initial lawsuit that allowed Trump a limited window to refile. Trump and plaintiffs since filed an amended complaint that Capital One says suffer from “the same fundamental flaws as their prior two pleadings.”

If Capital One’s latest motion for dismissal is granted, the Trump Organization will be barred from filing another lawsuit.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has officially launched his reelection campaign, warning against foreign interference and vowing to defend Brazil’s sovereignty as political tensions rise ahead of October’s election.

Egyptian officials have now confirmed that the port facility of Damietta was hit by a drone strike yesterday, the first public acknowledgment that the country has come under fire during this conflict. Though Cairo did not say who launched the attack, it raises the specter of another part of the region being brought into fighting that is largely centered on the flow of energy supplies.

The attack came as the Houthis began to consider imposing tolls on shipping through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, where they have already established a blockade on Saudi shipping and attacked its vessels and energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, Iran continues to lob missiles and drones across the region as tit-for-tat strikes have resumed after a short pause.

“Following the successful containment of the fire, the relevant authorities conducted initial investigations into the incident, which indicated that a drone was responsible,” the Egyptian cabinet said in a statement on Thursday, according to state-funded Middle East News Agency. The cabinet added that “no party has claimed responsibility for the attack.”

“The competent authorities are continuing their investigations to determine the full circumstances surrounding the incident and to take the necessary measures to safeguard Egypt’s interests and national security,” the official government outlet added.

As we reported yesterday, the Ambrey maritime security firm said two vessels were struck by drones at Damietta. One of the ships was a U.S.-owned and operated, Marshall Islands-flagged liquefied natural gas (LNG) floating storage facility and the other was a Greek-owned and operated, Bermuda-flagged LNG tanker, Ambrey stated.

A maritime security specialist told us that the U.S.-owned and operated, Marshall Islands-flagged floating gas storage facility was the Energos Winter while the other ship was the Gaslog Salem.

While there has been no official claim or attribution, U.S. President Donald Trump hinted that it was an Iranian attack.

Asked during a press conference whether Iran was behind the drone attack on the Egyptian port, Trump said “it’s a little more of the same, but it’s going to be straightening out, it’s going to be straightening out. But in the meantime, we are going to be hitting them very hard, because it is our turn to hit ’em. They know it’s coming, they are asking us not to do it.”

“We’re going to hit them very hard.”

President Trump warns adversaries that the U.S. is prepared to respond forcefully following a drone attack on an LNG tanker off the coast of Egypt.

Trump signaled that retaliation is imminent despite requests from adversaries to hold back.… pic.twitter.com/SMOUuj5qGT

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 29, 2026

The New York Times later reported that two Iranians, who asked not to be named to discuss security matters, “said the explosion was a drone attack designed to show that global shipping and energy supplies could be more deeply disrupted if Iran chose to escalate. The individuals did not say whether Iran or an Iran-allied militia in the region had launched the attack, or from where.”

The Iranians are not the only ones targeting energy facilities in the region. Several of their proxies have as well. It is part of a larger effort to impose cost on the U.S. and its allies.

The Saudis claim their oil infrastructure has been attacked by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq in addition to actions by the Houthis in Yemen. That in part prompted a joint U.S.-Saudi strike on militia targets across that country. It was the first publicly confirmed instance where U.S. and Saudi forces worked in concert.

The Iranian-backed Houthis, who, as we noted above, are striking Saudi oil infrastructure, on Thursday denied involvement in this incident.

“There is no truth to the rumors about Yemen targeting a ship in the port of Damietta in the Arab Republic of Egypt,” the group stated on Telegram. “The Yemeni position is clear, declared, and explicit, and it only targets the Saudi regime for its unjust blockade and ongoing aggression against the Yemeni people.”

A senior political official from Yemen’s Houthi movement has denied reports that the group plans to impose fees on commercial ships passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait.

Hizam al-Assad, a member of the political bureau of the Houthi movement (Ansar Allah), said in a… pic.twitter.com/PtSGc5XOPj

— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) July 30, 2026

U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, deferred questions about the incident to Egypt.

Regardless of who attacked Damietta, expanding the conflict to Egypt’s Mediterranean ports marks a significant potential escalation. The region’s two main sea arteries for energy shipments are already being choked off. The Iranians have largely closed down the Strait of Hormuz and there is an ongoing U.S. blockade on Iranian ports. The Houthis, as previously noted, have halted Saudi transits through the BAM, which has had a cascading effect on other nations not wanting to risk attack.

As the Iranian threats to the Strait of Hormuz increased, the kingdom diverted millions of barrels of oil per day through pipelines to its Yanbu port on the Red Sea in an effort to minimize the energy shortages due to the hostilities in the Persian Gulf. 

That workaround served its purpose until the Houthi blockade, at which point Saudi Arabia began boosting shipments through the Suez Canal. Exports via that route “rose 106% for the week of the embargo announcement to 1.06 million barrels per day, up from the week starting July 13, according to Kpler data,” The National News recently noted.

The port of Damietta, where yesterday’s attack took place, is 33 miles west of Port Said, which is at the northern entrance to the Suez Canal. Closure of the canal, or even a significant drop in traffic through it, would add to the pressures on the global economy already reeling from what is taking place in the Strait of Hormuz and the BAM.

In a post on X, the Windward maritime intelligence firm called the attack on Damietta “a third front, separate from the Gulf and Red Sea.”

“The strike is assessed as separate from the Houthi Saudi-blockade campaign. Iranian state television had named Damietta as a retaliation target two days earlier, citing Ukraine’s strike on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea, pointing toward an Iranian-directed operation rather than a Houthi one,” Windward explained in a related analysis.

A drone struck ENERGOS WINTER, a U.S.-managed LNG unit at Damietta, Egypt on July 29, with fire spreading to a second tanker alongside. Iranian state TV had named Damietta as a retaliation target two days earlier. This is a third front, separate from the Gulf and the Red Sea. pic.twitter.com/6bmWtST9XH

— Windward (@WindwardAI) July 30, 2026

Operation Aspides, the European-led task force created to provide security to shipping in the Red Sea region, told us it is monitoring reports that the Houthis are considering placing a toll on transits through the BAM, similar to what Iran has tried to impose in the Strait of Hormuz.

“At this moment, there has been no official statement from the Houthis confirming such a measure,” a spokesman told us Thursday morning. “We continue to monitor developments closely and are going to implement our mandate within our means and capabilities.”

On Thursday, Aspides posted an image of one of its member warships, the Italian frigate Bergamini, escorting merchant vessels in the Red Sea region.

The Italian 🇮🇹 Frigate BERGAMINI operating under EUNAVFOR ASPIDES provided support to merchant vessels, crossing the Area of Operations.

ASPIDES plays a crucial role in safeguarding shipping and supporting the safe passage of vessels through critical maritime routes. pic.twitter.com/9FNQL6Y00C

— EUNAVFOR ASPIDES (@EUNAVFORASPIDES) July 30, 2026

Meanwhile, Iran is continuing to lash out across the region.

Kuwaiti officials said one person was killed in an Iranian barrage today.

“The sinful Iranian aggression targeted a building belonging to one of the Chinese companies in the north of the country, resulting in the death of one worker and causing serious material damage to the building,” the Kuwait Defense Ministry (MoD) stated on X. “The Armed Forces affirm that they will continue carrying out their tasks and duties with high efficiency, and taking all necessary measures to protect national sovereignty and preserve its security and stability, in coordination with the competent authorities, in a way that safeguards the safety of citizens and residents.”

The Jordanian military said it foiled an Iranian attempt to target the kingdom with five missiles. There were no casualties, officials said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed missiles made it through and that three F-35 Joint Strike Fighters were destroyed and three more damaged at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base (MSAB) in Jordan. The IRGC said it was in response to deaths caused by yesterday’s attacks by CENTCOM. However, the IRGC frequently fabricates claims or greatly exaggerates them and we cannot independently confirm this one.

As we have pointed out in the past, the base has been frequently targeted by Iranian missiles and drones. Three U.S. Army soldiers were killed in a strike there on July 17.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps released a video of what they say were missiles launched by their naval forces targeting US aircraft at Jordan’s Al Azraq air base, in retaliation for US strikes on Qeshm Island that killed three people. pic.twitter.com/HRxGlWC6AN

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) July 30, 2026

We reached out to CENTCOM for comment, which a short while later put out a statement on X denying the IRGC claim.

Over the past few hours, Iranian state media have continued to report false claims by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – three in particular.

🚫 FIRST CLAIM: The IRGC (again) claims free and open routes through the Strait of Hormuz are dangerous for commercial… pic.twitter.com/J34ILmDvyk

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 30, 2026

Regardless of the claims, the constant Iranian bombardment is beginning to stir unrest in Jordan, where public dissent is banned.

“Hundreds of Jordanian political, legal and other figures signed an open letter last week calling for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Jordan,” The New York Times reported. “People who signed the letter said they were driven by a sense of national responsibility and concern that the troop presence endangered Jordanian sovereignty.”

“We maintain that their presence exposes Jordan to security, political, and economic risks that serve no national interest and increases the likelihood of our country being dragged into a regional conflict to which it is not a party,” the letter said.

🇺🇸🇯🇴 “Hundreds of Jordanian political, legal and other figures signed an open letter calling for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Jordan in a rare public challenge to the government, after Iranian attacks on bases”https://t.co/yYYutkRzEU via @NYTimes @MazMHussain @GerardAraud

— Karim Emile Bitar (@karimbitar) July 30, 2026

As this conflict drags on, CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper, “has prepared an option for a punishing air campaign against Iran that could take up to two weeks,” The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

“Now, as Trump moves to strike back after Iran’s surprise missile attack Tuesday, the president will decide how far to go,” the newspaper noted. “He could greenlight Cooper’s option of 10 to 14 days of intensive airstrikes intended to cripple Iran’s missile capability despite warnings that the U.S. is running low on air-defensive munitions. Or, he could opt for a more limited military strike in the hopes diplomacy could be pursued.”

Cooper has prepared an option for a punishing air campaign against Iran that could take up to two weeks, people familiar with the matter said.

Now, as Trump vows to strike back after Iran’s surprise missile attack Tuesday, the president will decide how far to go. W @mgordonwsj…

— Lara Seligman (@laraseligman) July 29, 2026

Iran, working to rearm as the fighting continues, is expected to receive “a first shipment out of up to 400 Chinese-made shoulder-fired air-defense missile launchers,” Reuters reported, citing three sources familiar with the deal.

“The purchase, valued at $60-70 million, is one of Tehran’s largest-known efforts to strengthen its short-range air defenses since the outbreak ‌of its war with the U.S. and Israel, which exposed gaps in Iran’s ability to protect military sites and strategic infrastructure,” the outlet noted.

China isn’t just buying Iranian oil— it’s re-arming the regime.

We need to enforce the sanctions against China now. https://t.co/qvasMaBkOa

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) July 29, 2026

That’s it for now. We’ll update this when there is more information to share.

UPDATE: 4:58 PM EDT –

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addressed the drone strike on Damietta. In a post on X, he hinted at Israeli involvement but did not explicitly deny that Iran carried it out.

“Egypt is considered a friend and important partner in the region, and its security constitutes an utmost priority for us,” Araghchi stated. “We must all remain vigilant toward Israeli schemes and ‘false flag’ operations that aim to undermine regional peace. The threat is clear, shared, and fears Muslim solidarity.”

تُعدُّ مصر صديقًا وشريكًا مهمًا في المنطقة، ويُشكّل أمنُها أهميةً قصوى بالنسبة لنا.
يجب علينا جميعًا أن نكون يقظين تجاه المخططات الإسرائيلية وعمليات “العَلَم الزائف” التي تهدف إلى تقويض السلام الإقليمي.
إن التهديد واضح، ومشترك، ويخشَى تضامن المسلمين.

— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) July 30, 2026

Contact the author: howard@twz.com

In the latest twist in Shohei Ohtani’s battle with left knee discomfort, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts held him out of the lineup Thursday against the Seattle Mariners.

Ohtani reported soreness Wednesday night in his left knee, which he treated over the All-Star break with a lubricating orthovisc injection and rest. So the Dodgers’ athletic training staff recommended a day off.

“I expected him to play,” Roberts said. “I appreciate him saying that there’s some soreness to then allow me to make a decision of what is in his best interest, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Roberts said he’s “very confident” that Ohtani will be in the lineup Friday when the Dodgers open a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox.

But the Dodgers previously believed only pitching aggravated the injury. Ohtani hasn’t pitched in a game since July 3, and he hasn’t thrown off a mound in a little over a week. He’s been running through weighted plyo ball drills to keep his arm in shape without putting pressure on his knee.

It raises questions about how to best manage Ohtani for the rest of the season.

“I’m trying to restrain from a forecast of what’s going to happen, as opposed to just reading and reacting,” Roberts said. “Three days ago, we just had an off day, and to say there’s some soreness certainly is different than what we’ve done the last two weeks. Is it a trend? I hope not. But if it is, then we just got to manage it.”

Roberts said he didn’t believe any specific incident Wednesday aggravated Ohtani’s knee.

“The last couple days he’s been on base a lot more,” Roberts said. “So I think that’s been a good thing in one sense, whereas the last part of the road trip he wasn’t, so there might have been a little something to that.”

Ohtani also mentioned earlier this week that his biceps problem, which flared for the second time this season on July 3 during his last at-bat, has not completely subsided. But the Dodgers have downplayed the severity of that ailment and are under the impression that throwing doesn’t hurt it.

When asked if the team would consider shutting down Ohtani for 10 days to help him fully recover, Roberts said: “That’s a hard question and I understand the thought behind it. But it’s gotten better over the last few weeks, markedly. He’s been a very productive player. … You trust him. He feels like he can go.

“He’s not 100%; very few players are 100%. Then what is it? Is it 70%, is it 80%, is it 90%? For me, there’s still that conversation, where he understands the most important part of the season is to come, and he understands his value with our team.”

It doesn’t seem like the Dodgers are ready to put Ohtani on the injured list just yet. Roberts said he hopes Ohtani will start playing catch this weekend or next week.

The Dodgers, however, had expressed hope that the injection and time off over the break would prevent Ohtani from having to manage the problem. That no longer seems to be in play.

“We’re talking about this constantly, we are,” Roberts said. “And nothing should be off the table and nothing is set in stone. So I think it’s more of how he feels. This surprised me. So now with this new information we’ve got to have new conversations.”

Roughly six weeks before the first midterm ballots are mailed out, the U.S. Postal Service is emerging as a pivotal player in an election season that will determine control of Congress.

President Trump is seeking greater control over mail balloting through an executive order while a change to how the agency processes mail is leading to criticism that it’s failing to deliver ballots on time.

Democratic officials have raised concerns over the past week about how quickly the Postal Service will process ballots after tens of thousands of them in California and hundreds in Wisconsin arrived at local election offices too late to be counted in elections earlier this year. The top election offices in Kansas and Michigan are urging voters who want to cast their ballots early to avoid the mail and instead drop them off in person.

The Postal Service replied to those concerns by saying it remains “committed to fulfilling our role in the electoral process.”

“We provide a secure, efficient, and effective way for citizens to participate when policymakers decide to use mail as part of their elections,” it said in a statement Tuesday.

Trump’s order puts more focus on mail ballots

The Postal Service faced similar questions about mail delivery in 2024, but the scrutiny this year is heightened because of an executive order Trump issued in March that seeks to create a national voter list to guide the Postal Service in deciding who gets a mail ballot.

The order has sparked multiple lawsuits and federal court orders, leading to a case now before the U.S. Supreme Court in which the administration is asking the justices to allow it to impose its restrictions on mail balloting.

Trump has lied for years about voter fraud to try to explain away his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, and mail balloting is a favorite target, even though he has used the method himself. During a recent stop in Michigan, he falsely characterized mail balloting as “inherently corrupt” and added, “Hopefully there will be no mail-in ballots.”

A 2025 report from the research group Brookings identified about four cases of fraud for every 10 million mail ballots cast.

Despite Trump’s attacks, the method remains popular with voters of both major parties. In 2024, nearly 30% of U.S. voters cast their ballots by mail, according to federal data. In Michigan, where competitive U.S. House and Senate races could help determine the balance of power in Congress, the state said it has sent out more than 2 million absentee ballots for the state’s Aug. 4 primary.

“We want to keep vote by mail. We want to protect it. We want to expand it,” said Jonathan Smith, president of the 200,000-member American Postal Workers Union, which launched a campaign in April promoting it and is opposed to turning the Postal Service into an election administrator. “Why? Because it works.”

Legal battles intensify over Trump’s order

The Postal Service proposed a rule in June in line with Trump’s executive order that would create a national list of eligible voters, based on databases kept by other federal agencies. Only those on the list would be eligible to receive mail ballots.

Democratic officials in nearly two dozen states filed a federal lawsuit in Massachusetts. A federal judge there blocked Trump’s order last month, and an appeals court upheld that ruling, prompting Trump’s appeal to the Supreme Court. But the appeals court for the District of Columbia refused Tuesday to block the order in a separate case, calling a legal challenge premature.

Democratic senators and governors have written to the Postal Service urging it to abandon efforts to implement Trump’s order.

“Donald Trump has shown he’ll stop at nothing to meddle in our upcoming elections,” Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin said in a statement to The Associated Press. “At best, this new push will exacerbate already severe delays for mail-in voters and at worst, it will stop eligible Americans from casting their ballots.”

In a letter to Democratic senators earlier this month, the heads of the Postal Service said they were abiding by the court rulings that had halted the executive order. But Smith, of the postal workers union, told the AP on Tuesday that USPS information technology staffers who are union members are working on a planned portal for the list of eligible voters “behind the scenes.”

The Postal Service declined to respond to Smith’s statements and said it could not comment about whether it’s moving forward with work related to Trump’s order because of the litigation.

The postal workers’ union opposes the plan for a portal, a national list of eligible voters and using that list to determine who can receive a mail ballot. Smith said it shouldn’t be postal workers’ responsibility “to decide who can vote and who can’t vote.”

A plan to consolidate mail processing centers upsets officials

The Postal Service has been under financial stress for years and has been consolidating mail processing into fewer regional centers. Mail travels an average of 139 miles to reach one and sometimes 500 miles, according to a recent Brookings report.

In January, a group of mostly Democratic senators said it was concerned about a decision to end twice-daily mail dispatches from local post offices to regional processing centers. The result is that mail arriving after the only daily dispatch would go out the next day.

California officials said the change was a factor in the state rejecting more than 148,000 ballots from its June primary, with 63% of them arriving too late despite a seven-day grace period. Officials worried that some ballots were postmarked at processing facilities the day after they were dropped off at a post office, possibly invalidating them. Wisconsin officials also said hundreds of ballots from an election in April arrived late.

The Postal Service said postmarks generally are being applied with automated equipment at processing centers, “in the same manner and to the same extent as before.” It said someone who wants to make sure their ballot envelope gets a timely postmark can get a free one applied by a postal worker.

A report on the 2024 election by the USPS Office of Inspector General said the Postal Service handled more than 59 million pieces of ballot mail from Sept. 1 to Nov. 15 that year and that 97.3% arrived on time.

Some state election officials advise voters to avoid the mail

The Michigan secretary of state’s office is advising voters to hand-deliver ballots to their local clerk’s office or a drop box.

“We’ve seen these issues over a number of election cycles now — they’re always concerning, and that’s why we’ve put out that guidance,” said Deputy Secretary of State Aghogho Edevbie.

The Postal Service said its Michigan centers are not seeing processing delays.

In Kansas, concerns about late ballot deliveries in the state’s 2024 primary election prompted a quip on the social platform X from Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican: “The Pony Express is more efficient at this point.” Asked his view now, spokesperson Whitney Tempel said Schwab still believes “keeping your ballot out of the hands of the federal government is best.”

Jamie Shew, a Democrat elected to oversee elections in Douglas County, home to the main University of Kansas campus, said his office is trying to change voters’ perceptions.

“I think voters are used to, you can drop it off on Friday and we’re going to receive it by Election Day,” Shew said Tuesday. “That’s just not the reality.”

California’s state budget includes $10 million for social media campaigns and other efforts to discourage last-minute ballot mailings.

And the Postal Service said it hasn’t changed its own longstanding advice for voters: They should get their ballots in the mail at least a week before their state’s deadline for receiving them.

Hanna writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Scott Bauer in Madison, Wis., Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles, Michael Casey in Boston, and Jacqueline GaNun in Lansing, Mich., contributed to this report.

The Hogwarts Express has arrived in Perris, Calif.

The Southern California Railway Museum has temporarily turned into Platform 9 3⁄4 to host “Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure.” The one-hour theater performance takes place on a moving train and features singalongs, spellcasting and House cheers. Tickets cost between $72.25 and $93.25 per passenger.

The experience is the first of its kind in the United States, said Jarrette Ireland, vice president and general manager of Colorado-based Rail Events Inc., and Kathleen Wallis, vice president of global themed entertainment at New York-based Warner Bros. Discovery.

As of July 23, the experience sold just under 11,000 tickets in pre-sales.

The train event commences as the Harry Potter franchise’s author, J.K. Rowling, continues to draw criticism for her opposition toward transgender women. She has long been criticized for transphobic commentary on X and for funding organizations that fight to exclude trans women from public life.

In Perris, local LGBTQ+ activists urge for a boycott. Ashley Williamson, lead director of R.I.S.E. Perris Pride, said that financially supporting the experience — and anything to do with a Harry Potter trademark — funnels money to Rowling, who puts that wealth toward initiatives targeting trans rights.

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1. The cast performs with magic wands in “Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure.” 2. A passenger holds a Platform 9 3/4 ticket. 3. The Hogwarts Express conductor performs in “Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure.” (David Fouts / For The Times)

“What’s really terrifying is that influence. It’s already being felt in the United States,” Williamson said. “There’s a trans genocide happening. It’s very serious.”

Williamson, who is nonbinary and identifies under the trans umbrella, said it is “already very scary being openly queer in Perris,” where the Harry Potter experience is hosted. She, her children and other queer and trans folks in their circle have experienced hateful slurs, home vandalism and other queerphobic prejudice.

Asking the public not to purchase anything Harry Potter related, they said, is “the most we feel that we can do for our community.”

Responding to general concerns about Rowling, Wallis said, “We feel privileged to create these experiences for the fans who love the stories, and there’s a very deep fandom out there. A lot of these kids, my own included, grew up with these movies and stories, and they love to experience them in new ways.”

Warner Bros. Discovery did not respond to a request for comment about local advocacy at the time of publication.

Ireland said Rail Events “is really proud to welcome all guests to a great experience” and later clarified that it doesn’t have “a personal connection” to Rowling.

But Warner does. For instance, its new Harry Potter television series will air this Christmas.

There was no mention of Rowling during a recent preview of the train experience, which is geared toward children. Passengers travel through “Platform 9¾” and board the train, where four Hogwarts students belonging to each House greet them.

A cast member carries Fred Weasley’s Basic Blaze Box.

Passengers watch the performance in “Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure.”

“Are you a Hufflepuff?” one of the Hogwarts students asked a visitor.

For those unfamiliar with the Harry Potter universe, each House embodies a trait: courage for Gryffindor, loyalty for Hufflepuff, wisdom for Ravenclaw and ambition for Slytherin.

When the train takes off, the students make these personality differences known. The Gryffindor and Slytherin maintain a traditional rivalry, the Ravenclaw nerds out about magical history and the Hufflepuff attempts to mediate them all.

To successfully complete their journey, each student must embody a virtue that belongs to a different House. The Gryffindor must hone wisdom, the Hufflepuff courage, the Ravenclaw ambition and the Slytherin loyalty.

Throughout the ride, the students put their new traits to the test: confronting a hippogriff blocking the tracks, capturing runaway chocolate frogs and facing off a soul-sucking dementor. By the end of the journey, they overcome their House stereotypes and learn they aren’t so different from one another after all.

A dementor puppet moves through the train in “Harry Potter: A Hogwarts Express Adventure.”

According to the experience’s website, the train travels along a route through the neighborhoods of Perris and starts and ends at the same place. When visitors disembark the train, they head to an area inspired by Hogsmeade, a village that sits outside Hogwarts. Here, they can purchase themed drinks, food and merchandise.

Navigating the logistics of “putting theater tech into a train” was a “real adventure,” Ireland said. Inside, TV screens replaced the overhead luggage compartments, and a strip of lights lined the carriages’ walls from front to back. Gray shades embellished with a circular “Hogwarts Express” logo covered all the windows, so visitors can’t see outside.

These elements aided the storytelling. The TVs played scenes from the Harry Potter films and helped suspend disbelief where magical creatures were involved, and the lighting system aided in spellcasting.

Streaks of light fly down the carriage in one dueling scene, and in the show’s climax, the lights go dark when a dementor — played by a hooded actor puppeteering the creature strapped to their torso — floats down the aisle.

It was the Hufflepuff who, with the help of passengers, vanquished the dementor.

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1. The cast showcases floating feathers after performing a levitation spell. 2. A cast member carries a box of chocolate frogs through the train.

“Everyone, repeat after me!” the Hufflepuff called, wand pointed at the creature. “Expecto Patronum!”

As passengers chanted the incantation together, white light flashed through the carriage, and music swelled from the speakers. Defeated, the dementor drifted down the aisle and out of sight.

The experience will run at the Southern California Railway Museum through Sept. 27.

Ireland said future stops will be announced in the fall, with plans to expand throughout North America and, ultimately, to the United Kingdom.

Though ostensibly aimed at giving diplomacy another shot at ending the conflict with Iran, the Trump administration’s pause in attacking the Islamic Republic reportedly comes as concerns linger over the supply of munitions, especially air defense interceptors. It is a notion that the president again dismissed on Monday; however, the lack of sufficient magazine depth is an issue that TWZ has raised frequently for years, and especially in regard to America’s air and missile defenses, in particular. In fact, we laid out in detail these exact concerns and how they would be a major issue in war with Iran just prior to the conflict starting in a feature you can read in full here. Meanwhile, amid the lull in fighting between the U.S. and Iran, Saudi Arabia and Jordan say they are still being attacked.

The U.S. and Iran stopped firing at each other late last week, leading to a pause after 13 straight days of continuous tit-for-tat operations. There hasn’t been a U.S. strike on Iranian territory since last Thursday. On Monday, President Donald Trump claims the U.S. has sufficient weapons stockpiles.

“…we have a lot,” Trump proclaimed to reporters aboard Air Force One when asked if he is concerned about a shortage of high-end munitions like interceptors for Patriot and Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) systems. “We have a lot of the mid-level stuff too. Maybe more than we could ever use, no matter what. But we have a lot. I’d like to have more, to be honest.”

After again blaming the Biden administration for giving away too many weapons to Ukraine, Trump said the U.S. is restocking.

“So we’re building it very rapidly,” he exclaimed. “Plants are being built. A lot of equipment’s being built. The Patriots, in particular, are being built. That system is going up. We have a lot. Every one of our contractors is building four to five plants right now, and we’re in very good shape. But for some of the more sophisticated stuff, we certainly like that part.”

Before Trump spoke, the Pentagon on Monday announced that it signed “two landmark seven-year framework agreements” with Lockheed Martin and L3Harris “to expand production capacity for key components of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptor and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) weapon system.”

“Under this agreement, L3Harris will accelerate the production of its advanced two-pulse solid rocket motor, Attitude Control Motors, and the Lethality Enhancer,” the Pentagon said in a media release. “The motors deliver the critical speed, extended range, and precise maneuverability the PAC-3 MSE needs to defeat advanced tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and enemy aircraft.”

Concurrently, “the THAAD interceptor propulsion agreement, signed by the DoW, L3Harris, and Lockheed Martin, will expand manufacturing of two critical components: the solid rocket boost motor that launches the interceptor and the highly responsive Liquid Divert and Attitude Control System (LDACS),” the Pentagon added. “The LDACS provides the vital in-flight maneuverability required to engage and neutralize ballistic missile threats both inside and outside Earth’s atmosphere.”

As we have noted in previous reporting, current production PAC-3 MSE “is around the baseline rate of 650 interceptors per year, with half the deliveries going to the United States and the rest to allies and partners,” CSIS postulated in a May report about the severity of the depletion of U.S. offensive and defensive weapons during the 39 days of Epic Fury. 

Under a contract with the Pentagon inked in January, Lockheed is committed to boosting Patriot annual production to 2,000.

Still, the supply of these weapons remains a major issue.

The Wall Street Journal on Sunday reported that questions about the supply of U.S. offensive and defensive weapons are a large factor in the Trump administration’s reasons for halting attacks on Iran.

“The U.S. military had been poised Friday to launch an intensive series of strikes against Iran, which could have lasted up to two weeks,” the Journal noted, citing officials.

But the operation was delayed “so diplomacy could proceed and as officials discussed the effect a major attack could have on the U.S.’s shrinking stocks of Patriot and other air defense interceptors,” the publication added. “The president could still order an attack, officials said, noting that the situation remains fluid.”

The White House “has been informed of the declining inventories of air defense interceptors by Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,” the publication continued. “The issue is a concern for Caine, who believes that the low inventories wouldn’t preclude a resumption of major combat operations against Iran, but would add to the risk.”

Several officials said Adm. Brad Cooper, who leads U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), “believes the U.S. can cope with the limited stocks of Patriot and other air defense interceptors because stepped-up U.S. strikes, if they are approved by Trump, would blunt Iran’s ability to launch large numbers of missiles.”

We reached out to CENTCOM for comment.

Questions about American stocks of high-end weapons also extend to Europe and Asia.

“U.S. officials now worry that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China could be factoring the shortages into calculations of their next moves, in Ukraine and Europe for Mr. Putin and perhaps against Taiwan for Mr. Xi,” The New York Times posited on Sunday.

Trump also claimed that the Iranians are eager to reach a peace accord.

Iranian leaders requested a meeting and “the only reason they want to meet is because we’ve been hitting them very hard,” Trump told reporters.

Asked how much patience he has for negotiations, he said: “I have a lot of patience.”

“We’ll see what happens,” the president added. “I think there is a good chance that something could happen. If it doesn’t, we go back to doing what we were doing two days ago.”

Officials in Tehran scoffed at Trump’s assertion, saying there are no direct negotiations taking place.

The American leader also dismissed an assertion by Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelensky that Russia was providing Iran with satellite imagery used to help Iran strike U.S. an allied targets in the Middle East.

“We’ll find out if that’s true,” Trump told reporters. “I’ll ask Putin about it. It hasn’t had much impact, because we knocked the hell out of them.”

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration urged Congress on Tuesday to approve roughly $70 billion in emergency defense funding to sustain U.S. military capabilities amid its escalating war against Iran, warning that without it the Pentagon could face “critical shortfalls” disrupting its readiness.

The request comes as the United States and Iran have traded strikes for 10 consecutive days in a renewed conflict, deepening concerns in Washington over an expanding war that could inflame the global economy and trap the president in a quagmire.

The collapse of a ceasefire agreement and the sudden resumption of war have raised alarms within the Pentagon over its ability to protect U.S. forces and assets in the Middle East over a prolonged conflict, with defensive munitions in dangerously short supply, two Defense Department officials told The Times.

Yet the administration is facing bipartisan skepticism from lawmakers over the continuation of a war unpopular with a vast majority of Americans, over which they have had little oversight, and that in recent days has led to deaths of U.S. soldiers.

Those tensions became clear as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee to make their case for the tens of billions of dollars and offer their first in-depth public remarks about the war since May.

Hegseth told senators the United States is at a “moment where we cannot afford inaction,” while Caine argued the funding request is coming to Congress “while time is still on our side.”

“It is critical that we stay ahead of our adversaries and we must have the funds before we are out of time,” Caine said.

Hegseth said the war is now expected to cost Americans $37.5 billion, up from a $29-billion estimate from early May. The war, initially projected by President Trump to last four to five weeks, is now entering its fifth month.

With no end in sight, senators from both parties signaled frustrations with the administration’s plans.

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said Democrats will not support more funding for the war.

“This administration’s refusal to explain what it is doing, or how this war is protecting Americans, its refusal to seek authorization from Congress, and its expectations that Americans will just pay for it all without any explanation or transparency is disrespectful,” she said.

Republican lawmakers also confronted Hegseth and Caine on several fronts.

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told the Pentagon leaders that lawmakers “need some proper answers and some straight talk” about the administration’s plans to ensure Iran does not choke traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

Asked whether Iran would impose tolls on merchant vessels passing through the vital waterway, Caine said it was a “hypothetical” scenario — a response Kennedy rejected.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) also put pressure on Hegseth, as she asked him whether the administration was still taking the position that it needed no authorization from Congress to continue hostilities against Iran.

“Senator, I know there’s a long-standing legal debate on this particular topic, but we certainly at the department share the position with the White House that we have all the necessary authorities at this moment,” Hegseth said.

Murkowski’s remarks come just weeks after Republicans joined Democrats in both the House and Senate in voting to reassert Congress’ constitutional role over the war, underscoring the simmering tensions over Trump’s decision to sideline Congress in the matter.

Hours before the hearing, Trump downplayed concerns over the war’s effect on the midterm elections and further threats in the war, as Houthis, the Iran-backed militia in Yemen, declared a maritime blockade Monday on Saudi Arabia.

“So far, it hasn’t happened. It might happen but we take care of things, if something like that happens,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump maintained that Iranian leaders are “desperately” trying to reach a deal to end the war but said he has no interest in meeting with them until he is convinced the talks will be “meaningful.”

“If we left right now, it would take Iran 20 to 25 years to rebuild. We are not finished at all,” Trump said. “We are not leaving right now.”

A protester interrupts Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as he testifies at Tuesday’s hearing.

(Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

Asked if he thought Iran was trying to have an effect on the midterm elections by threatening the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said, “probably.”

“It won’t have any impact on me,” he said. “The election, I can’t think about that having to do with this.”

An agreement reached in June between the United States and Iran proposed an end to a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and to U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports in exchange for Tehran allowing unfettered commercial shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. But the agreement fell apart, with Iran firing on commercial vessels and pursuing a toll system for transit that had not existed before the war started.

The deal was supposed to set up a structure for more detailed negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, a prime target of the U.S. campaign launched in February in partnership with Israel.

Much of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure was degraded in a U.S. strike conducted last year that targeted three major facilities. But the fissile material required to build nuclear weapons remains in the country, under the watch of U.S. satellite surveillance. Iran has vowed to continue pursuing civilian nuclear work.

“How about these people? They’re in this because of nuclear weapons, and they’re trying to possibly reconstitute a site? We’ll hit that site. Any site where they’re even thinking about nuclear — we’ll be hitting it very, very powerfully,” Trump said.

As the war expands, there’s been heightened concern about the infrastructure that civilians in neighboring countries rely on for water and power.

Iranian officials said U.S. strikes hit the Bunji desalination plant on Iran’s southeastern coast, leaving 20 villages — where some 10,000 people reside — without water, according to reports from Iran’s semi-official news agency Tasnim.

Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti government said its power plants and desalination plants were struck by Iran on Monday — the fourth consecutive day of attacks on a key source of drinking water for the small desert nation.

The attacks spurred the Kuwaiti government over the weekend to launch an ad campaign calling on residents to reduce their water and power usage, especially during peak hours between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.

A concerted campaign targeting desalination plants would be devastating both for Iran and the Persian Gulf nations it has peppered with drones and missiles since the start of the war.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, the Emirates and Saudi Arabia are among the world’s eight most water-stressed countries. Israel ranks 9th, while Iran is 14th, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Water Resources Institute.

All of them suffer from “absolute water scarcity,” according to metrics used by the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture organization.

Times staff writer Nabih Bulos in Beirut contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — President Trump appeared poised to question the security of U.S. elections with a planned prime-time speech Thursday night, eliciting fears from Democrats and voting rights advocates that he is planning yet another play for federal control over voting in November’s midterms.

The exact reason for the speech has not been disclosed by the White House, with Trump only characterizing it to reporters this week as “really, really big news.” He confirmed it would have to do with “free and fair elections.”

The Washington Post reported, citing sources, that Trump planned to argue that there are vulnerabilities in the nation’s election infrastructure and claim that China had accessed U.S. voter data. The White House declined to confirm any such details Wednesday.

The announcement of the speech set off concerns among the president’s political opponents, as well as elections experts and voting rights advocates, that Trump could again escalate claims that the nation’s voting system is vulnerable to domestic fraud and foreign attacks.

He has previously said that Republicans should “nationalize” election administration, a job that falls to the states under the Constitution, and has pressured his party to tighten federal voting rules.

“We don’t know anything about what he might say … or what he might try to do with his very limited powers, as the president, over elections,” said David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research. “I expect we’re going to hear a lot of rehashed and debunked claims.”

The president could potentially use new claims to argue that the nation is facing an emergency in upcoming elections that necessitates further federal intervention into voting, Rep. Joseph Morelle of New York, the ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee, which has oversight of elections, said in an interview with The Times.

“This is going to be the rationale for declaring a national emergency,” Morelle said. “It’s transparent that he is creating the emergency and he’s creating the evidence out of whole cloth to suggest there is an emergency.”

Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, which oversees federal elections, told The Times on Wednesday that Trump was using a known playbook to “[sow] doubt about the outcome before a single vote has been cast.”

“All signs show that tomorrow’s speech will be more of the same: debunked conspiracy theories offered up not because they’re true, but because chaos and doubt are the only cards he has left to play,” Padilla said.

The speech, which Trump announced on social media Monday, comes four months ahead of midterm elections that will determine whether his party retains legislative control in Washington.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt dismissed news reports about what Trump might say in the 6 p.m. PDT speech as speculation, and said “nobody knows yet what President Trump will ultimately say.”

The address also comes as Trump’s ceasefire with Iran has fallen apart, renewing expectations for increased gas prices, and his approval rating on the economy has steadily dropped. On Tuesday, it also became public that Trump had paid $5.6 million to the writer E. Jean Carroll, as ordered by a jury that in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her.

“What we’re going to be talking about Thursday is, it doesn’t get bigger,” Trump told reporters who asked Tuesday about the speech. “Because without free and fair elections you don’t have a country.”

Trump has spread baseless claims of widespread election fraud for years. But his prioritization of his claims about the voting system — even as much of the nation’s attention is on cost-of-living issues — has been on particularly clear display in recent days.

He has aggressively lobbied reluctant Republican senators to pass his voter ID legislation, refusing to sign a bipartisan housing bill over it; he fired all remaining members of the bipartisan U.S. Elections Assistance Commission; and his Justice Department said it would send election monitors to six states.

Since the midterm primaries began, Trump has also sown doubt about election security — chiefly in California, where he suggested Democrats had cheated or attempted to in the gubernatorial and Los Angeles mayoral primaries.

Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff, whose state was often at the center of Trump’s 2020 fraud claims, said the president’s speech posed a threat to voting rights.

“I expect him to use whatever he puts out there on Thursday as a pretext, either for some attempted unconstitutional use of federal power to interfere in the election,” Ossoff said Tuesday on MS Now, “or to give his proxies and loyalists in state and local jurisdictions some cover for whatever they might attempt, or to lay the groundwork for challenging the result.”

Any effort to federalize or take over elections would face serious legal obstacles, said Nahal Kazemi, a Chapman University law professor. Although Congress can pass laws regarding election administration, as it did with the Voting Rights Act, the executive branch doesn’t play a role in running elections.

“You run into essentially a brick wall that is the Constitution, which makes very plain that states run elections,” Kazemi said.

When it comes to concerns about foreign interference, experts say there is little evidence of other countries attempting to hack systems or change votes. Instead, foreign actors have largely operated via disinformation campaigns, as the U.S. determined had occurred in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

“Of the information that is available to us now, there’s no reason to be alarmed about the possibility that a foreign adversary is going to take over election systems,” said Kazemi, who has studied foreign election interference.

One of the things that helps make American elections generally secure, she said, is that they are not centralized but are run by thousands of counties. Hacking into so many voting systems would be extraordinarily difficult for a foreign adversary, she said.

Jenny Farrell, executive director of the League of Women Voters of California, said California “takes elections security extremely seriously” and has one of the most secure systems in the country, subject to strict voter verification measures and intense chain of custody and auditing procedures.

Democrats have worked with elections experts in recent months on attempts to assure the public that U.S. elections are safe and secure. They have also tried to counter claims by Trump that mail ballots and voting machines are unreliable.

A slew of 2020 election reviews, including by Trump’s first administration, concluded that Trump lost and Biden won. Election experts say there is no evidence that widespread fraud determined the outcome of the election.

A judge also found that claims pushed by Trump and his attorneys that the company Dominion Voting Systems manipulated votes cast through its machines in favor of Biden were untrue.

Published on 13/07/2026 – 6:56 GMT+2•Updated
6:59

The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, gained 3.9% to $78.96 per barrel, while the US benchmark crude oil price rose 4% to $74.26 per barrel.

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Prices for both types of crude oil had recently slipped back to the levels seen before the war with Iran began, after the two sides reached an interim agreement to end the conflict and ships resumed transporting oil through the Strait of Hormuz.

However, the United States launched several waves of strikes on Iran early on Monday morning following an Iranian attack on a container ship in the Strait of Hormuz that set the vessel ablaze and left one crew member missing over the weekend. Iran retaliated by targeting countries across the Middle East.

US stock futures fell, with the contract for the S&P 500 down 0.4% and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.3% lower. Nasdaq Composite futures lost 1%.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 index lost 1.1% to 67,786.86, while in Seoul, the Kospi declined 5.6% to 7,060.69.

Shares in South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix, which soared 13% on their Wall Street debut on Friday, slumped 10.6% in Seoul. Its bigger rival, Samsung Electronics, fell 6.7%.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng edged 0.1% higher to 24,202.41, and the Shanghai Composite index shed 1.2% to 3,947.34.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.3% to 8,777.00.

US stocks ticked higher on Friday after investors showed sustained appetite for winners of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The S&P 500 rose 0.4% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.3%. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.3%.

SK Hynix’s shares jumped after trading began at midday after it raised roughly $26.5 billion by selling American depositary shares at a price of $149 each.

SK Hynix’s stock in Seoul had already surged more than 600% over the past year thanks to enthusiasm for AI. The boom has translated into real profits, driven by soaring demand for computer memory. But it has also raised concerns that AI stock prices have climbed too high and that the world’s spending on chips and data centres will not generate enough productivity and profit growth to justify the investment.

That has led to sharp swings in AI stocks, which have become some of Wall Street’s most influential because of their enormous market values.

Nvidia was the single biggest force lifting the S&P 500 on Friday, rising 4%.

Beyond the uncertainty surrounding AI, investors are turning their attention to the upcoming corporate earnings season.

Companies across industries will need to deliver strong profit growth to justify their elevated share prices, which remain close to record highs. This week will bring earnings reports from many of the biggest US banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo, with several reporting on Tuesday alone.

Concerns about how the continued fighting with Iran will affect the global flow of crude oil are clouding the outlook for both energy costs and overall inflation.

High bond yields have been weighing on financial markets worldwide because more expensive oil and persistently high inflation could prompt the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates.

Higher interest rates can help keep inflation under control, but they also slow economic growth and weigh on the prices of all kinds of investments.

Additional sources • AP