country

About six months after Toni Morrison died in the summer of 2019, Literary Cleveland began hosting annual community tribute parties on the Nobel Prize-winning author’s birthday, Feb. 18. Lorain, Ohio — a suburb of Cleveland — is where Morrison was born and raised, and where she set several of her novels. During these gatherings, participants were prompted to read aloud from their favorite Morrison works, and share why they savored those particular lines.

Over time, these meetings began to feel increasingly intimate, even “sacred,” according to Literary Cleveland’s Executive Director Matt Weinkam, which prompted him, in tandem with Ohio Humanities head Rebecca Asmo, to brainstorm how to take their program state-wide. “This is Toni Morrison, one of our greatest writers,” Weinkam recalls thinking. “We needed to do something bigger.”

At the time, Weinkam and Osmo were also trying to figure out how to commemorate America’s semiquincentennial. Weinkam was listening to Morrison’s entire oeuvre on audio and realized that when you organize the 11 novels in a certain order, “they tell the history of America.” So how, he thought, “could you use the literature of Toni Morrison to view our country through a different lens — through her lens?” He says they knew honoring Morrison as a consequential figure not just in literature but also in the context of American history would be central to Ohio’s celebration of the semiquincentennial.

“[But] only as the project was coming together did we strike on the fact that her novels trace American history from ‘A Mercy,’ set in 1690, through ‘God Help the Child,’ in the 2010s. Not only does her work re-center African Americans in the story of our country, it also tackles major events from our founding, through slavery, to the impact of Jim Crow, to the great migration and beyond.”

In the months leading up to the 250th anniversary, they decided to bring the Morrison salons they were curating in Cleveland to all 88 Ohio counties. For assistance they connected with Britt Lovett, a strategist, community leader and fellow Morrison acolyte.

“People say that reading Toni Morrison is challenging,” says Lovett. “[But] reading Toni Morrison is like my grandmother speaking to me.”

In February, on what would have been Morrison’s 95th birthday, they officially launched “Beloved: Ohio Celebrates Toni Morrison,” a yearlong homage including readings, workshops, lectures and a monthly book club that meets on Sunday evenings. They intentionally programmed the book club so that it would take readers through our U.S. history utilizing Morrison’s vision: Weinkam proposed reading Morrison’s novels in the order in which they are set rather than the order in which they were published. “That simple shift,” says Lovett, “changed everything.”

They began with “A Mercy,” one of Morrison’s later novels, published in 2008 — which is set in the late 17th century, before slavery took hold and the country became “racialized.” Next came “Beloved,” then “Sula” and “Jazz.” “Experiencing the novels this way reveals how Morrison traced generations of Black American life across centuries of our nation’s history,” Lovett says. “What may appear to be individual stories become part of a larger narrative about memory, freedom, family, belonging and the ongoing project of America itself.”

For Morrison, writing fiction was a form of “literary archaeology,” excavating history, and how the past hovers over the present. Her quest was what she termed “rememory.”

Eddie S. Glaude Jr. is a Princeton professor and author of “America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation’s Anniversaries” who has studied Morrison. “She understood the ongoing national effort to disremember — this startling combination of dismembering and remembering — to protect the innocence of America,” Glaude says. “Instead, her novels relentlessly expose the horror and the magisterial efforts on the part of ordinary people to overcome them. In doing so, she takes us to the beating heart of this fragile experiment — something we desperately need to remember in this 250th year of the country.”

In 1973, as an editor at Random House, Morrison published and collaborated with collectors in compiling “The Black Book,” a seminal volume that tells the story of the African American experience in America in the form of an encyclopedic scrapbook that spans from 1619 through the 1940s. There is no narrator, and this is intentional. The visuals — newspaper clippings, slave auction notices, patent applications by Black inventors, photographs, sheet music, relate their own powerful story “Black life as lived” — great joy juxtaposed with the tragedy and legacy of slavery. From her work on that groundbreaking assemblage emerged the idea for “Beloved,” which won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Nearly seven years after Morrison’s death at 88, we are living in a golden age of Morrisonia. Three extraordinary new books, published this year, shed light on the brilliance and complexity of Morrison’s life and work, and place her as an American eminence, a visionary who saw fiction as a means through which to recast her country’s story. “On Morrison” by Namwali Serpell; “Toni at Random: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship” by Dana Williams; and a posthumously published collection of Morrison essays entitled “Language as Liberation: Reflections on the American Canon.” Serpell writes that “Morrison has shaped the way we think about everything.” Morrison herself said that she wrote to “think the unthinkable,” to write novels that were “relentlessly black,” giving no deference to the “white gaze.” Her refusal to sugarcoat the interior and exterior lives of her characters, whether enslaved or traumatized by the past — by events in American history — was purposeful.

“You’re confronted with horrific acts of violence,” Serpell says. “Not to present it in spectacular fashion, nor to feed any kind of voyeuristic or prurient interest on the part of the audience, but to use quiet language — beautiful language — in order to actually get us to step back and think about why this violence is happening and where it’s coming from.”

In that way, Morrison’s work was always a radical experiment — and is perhaps why, according to the American Library Assn., “The Bluest Eye” her 1970 debut — continues to be one of the most frequently “challenged” books in the U.S. “Beloved” runs a close second. But this also is among the reasons her books are considered must-reads in the classroom, and contemporary classics.

John Freeman is an executive editor at Knopf who oversees Morrison’s publishing program. “Her books persist today because they beckon us doubly: they invite us to look clearly at what America is, to come to grips with the fantasies and shadows developed to avoid this awful knowledge,” Freeman says. “They also tell us one phenomenal love story after another.”

Through her book club, cultural icon Oprah Winfrey introduced millions of readers to Morrison by featuring four of the author’s novels. “From ‘The Bluest Eye’ through ‘Beloved,’ ‘Jazz,’ ‘Home,’ ‘A Mercy’ and ‘Love,’ Morrison’s words have helped me become more of myself,” Winfrey says. “She understands the lives of Black women like no one else I’ve ever read. Reading her, I’ve often felt seen in places I didn’t know how to name.”

(HarperCollins; Penguin Random House)

In Morrison’s essays, lectures and other public comments — including as a professor at Princeton for nearly two decades — she occupied the role of public intellectual, always teaching us how to view America’s evolution as a country, and how it became “racialized.”

In a Granta interview conducted late in her life, she challenged the interviewer to consider that the concept of “whiteness” is peculiarly American: “Think about it, “ she prompted. “If you come to this country from Germany or Russia, or anywhere you got off the boat, got on the land, in order to become an American, you have to be white. That’s the quality that brings the country, its people together — having a non-white population. My concept is that if you were from Sweden, you were Swedish. You didn’t have to say, ‘I’m a white Swede.’ You know what I’m saying?”

As we prepare to celebrate America’s 250th, it’s useful to reflect on how Morrison viewed the intersection of fiction, history and memory, how the mission of her fiction was to uncover truths omitted by the standard historical records and history’s “sages.” In her 1987 essay, “The Site of Memory,” she utilized a river as a metaphor to discuss how imagination excavates forgotten histories and people. “All water,” she wrote, “has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were.”

Haber is a writer, editor and publishing strategist, and co-founder of the Ink Book Club on Substack. She was director of Oprah’s Book Club and books editor for O, the Oprah Magazine.

WASHINGTON — Festivities commemorating the 250th anniversary of American independence from Great Britain kick into higher gear across the United States on Friday as celebrations are balanced with efforts to stay safe as much of the country bakes under extreme heat.

President Trump will travel to South Dakota to deliver a speech and watch fireworks at Mt. Rushmore. And in a novel twist, there will be a ball drop in New York City’s Times Square at midnight to usher in the July Fourth holiday with much the same revelry that is typically reserved for New Year’s Eve.

The activity culminates in the main event Saturday, when fireworks will erupt in communities across the U.S., along with backyard cookouts and block parties. Trump will deliver another speech at the National Mall in Washington before what is being billed as a historically massive fireworks show.

But for all the celebrations, there are also serious safety considerations as potentially record heat grips much of the Midwest and East Coast. Officials have warned those celebrating the holiday to stay hydrated and take air-conditioned breaks as needed.

The heat has already affected some of the programming surrounding the holiday. In Washington, organizers of the Capitol Fourth concert banned the public from attending a Thursday rehearsal because of the heat.

The concert Friday, a staple of Washington’s Independence Day traditions, is on, but the gates will open to the public later than usual, at 7 p.m. EDT, an hour before the show. Organizers of celebrations in Washington on Saturday said they were adding water stations along with cooling resources and medical support.

From Boston to Norristown, Penn., and Gettysburg National Military Park, plans were shifting to accommodate the soaring temperatures. Amtrak canceled some trains in the Northeast due to excessive heat that could affect the tracks.

The holiday is unfolding at a unique time in the U.S. The anniversary has served as an opportunity for the country to reflect on its history while also reminding it of the political polarization of the moment.

Even the celebrations themselves have not quite escaped the divide.

Freedom 250, an organization aligned with the White House, has come to rival America250, a bipartisan group founded by Congress a decade ago. Freedom 250 has organized much of the activity in Washington, including the Great American State Fair, which has gained attention for the relatively small crowds it has attracted. America250 is behind the ball drops unfolding in many cities, including New York, and will host a concert in Los Angeles on Saturday.

About 4 in 10 U.S. adults feel “proud” about the country’s 250th anniversary, according to an April survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Roughly 3 in 10 said “excited” describes their emotions.

Sloan writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., Michael Casey in Cambridge, Mass., and Calvin Woodward in Washington contributed to this report.

On Sunday, Mexico will take on England at Mexico City’s famed Estadio Azteca for a round of 16 World Cup match in one of the most hotly anticipated contests of the tournament so far.

But days before anything goes down on the pitch, Mexico and England fans have already started bickering with each other online — from cheeky jabs to heated debates about which country does beans on toast better.

Joining in on the soccer smack talk are two of the biggest rock stars from the countries — Liam Gallagher of Oasis fame and Maná frontman Fher Olvera.

The beef kicked off Wednesday morning when Gallagher replied to a fan question on X about the possibility of England playing Mexico on their home turf before the Three Lions sealed their win against DR Congo.

“Liam how do you feel about England being crushed at the azteca,” the X user @angelchilddemo asked.

Gallagher answered by writing, “I think we’ll beat Mexico 5-0.”

The “Wonderwall” singer’s prediction was so audacious that Olvera took it upon himself to publicly respond with an Instagram video Wednesday evening.

“The singer of Oasis said that Mexico will lose to England 5-0,” Olvera said in Spanish with a giant grin on his face while draped in a Mexican flag. “No way! Check yourself dude! 5 to 0? Calm down! We’ll see you Sunday to see how it goes, dude. Don’t play with me.”

By Thursday morning Gallagher amended his prediction for the match.

“[L]et me just clear someting up I was obv kidding when I said England will beat Mexico 5-0,” the English rocker wrote in an X post. “I reckon it’ll be more like 3-0 to England.”

While Olvera and Gallagher will be at odds over the next few days, the two singers shared parallel experiences as Maná was one of the bestselling Mexican rock bands of the ‘90s and Oasis was the bestselling British rock group of the ‘90s.

Maná already made its mark on this year’s World Cup when it played its 1992 hit “Oye Mi Amor” at the tournament’s opening ceremony in Mexico City ahead of the Mexico-South Africa match on June 11.

Sunday’s contest between England and Mexico also marks the first time the English side will play at Estadio Azteca since the 1986 World Cup when they lost to eventual-champions Argentina in a quarterfinal game infamous for Diego Maradona‘s “Hand of God” goal.

The last time Mexico and England squared off in a World Cup setting was during the 1966 World Cup in England where the Three Lions beat El Tri 2-0 in a group stage match at Wembley Stadium.

“The World Cup is ruining my life,” a neighbor recently said with a laugh. “I’m supposed to be working; instead I’m watching World Cup. I’m supposed to be doing chores; instead I am watching World Cup.”

I laughed in guilty recognition. We had met on the street by chance while I was walking the dog. Having just spent the last two hours watching, then celebrating Lionel Messi’s hat trick during Argentina’s first-game victory over Algeria, I had less than an hour to get back in time to watch Austria play Jordan.

That was on Day 6, and it’s only gotten worse. If I had to calculate my own ratio of work done to soccer watched … well, as I am not a sports reporter, I don’t think my editor would be thrilled. (Though I’m sure she appreciated the England/Congo updates I provided as I finished this piece.)

Like millions worldwide, my family and I have been deeply, and in our case, weirdly, engrossed in this year’s games. “Weirdly” because we do not follow men’s soccer. The World Cup is different, of course — going in, I figured I would check out the U.S., keep an eye on Messi, then tune into the final few games. Perhaps my husband would join (but only if he at least pretended to understand the offside rule), but with our two oldest children out of the house, it is, with the exception of the Super Bowl, unheard of for our family to concurrently view any sporting event in real time.

Until this World Cup. I’m not quite sure how it happened, but suddenly we’ve got game times written onto our calendar. Entire days have been spent in front of the TV with at least one child and the others watching from their homes, our family texts studded with “are you watching…?,” “did you just see that?” and, of course, “OMG MESSI!”

(I would attempt to calculate my recent ratio of chores done to Messi videos watched if I weren’t legitimately concerned that my family would have me committed.)

The fact that my son and his girlfriend live in Kansas City certainly helped spark our newfound fascination. Yes, Los Angeles is also a host city, but L.A. hosts so many things; inevitably we were mostly concerned about what it would do to the traffic. KC, on the other hand, is the smallest and most unlikely of the host cities, and over the last few years we have seen — on visits and through my son’s accounts — all the construction, effort and can-do spirit that has gone into preparing for the event.

We were thrilled when it was announced that Argentina, England, the Netherlands and Algeria would be based in or near KC. We wanted the city to shine, and it has — from nearby Lawrence’s enthusiastic adoption of Algeria to Messi’s historic hat trick at Kansas City Stadium.

Team USA defender Mark McKenzie, left, and Turkey midfielder Baris Alper Yilmaz in the World Cup match at Los Angeles Stadium on June 25.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

But it’s more than vicarious Midwestern pride. When our older daughter began texting out missives from the earliest games and our son sent pictures of fans streaming into Kansas City Stadium, we started watching as a way to stay connected.

First, as a family, and then to our country and the rest of world.

The games have been inevitably exciting, especially as now that they’re in the knockout round, but the overall sensation was unexpected relief, a soul-soothing balm.

At a time when the news cycle seems to serve up nothing but conflict, crisis and woe, the World Cup offers shelter, a truly international event in which conflict is defined by long-term sports rivalries and questionable referee decisions.

We want our national or preferred teams to win, of course, but no matter the outcome, it’s impossible not to be thrilled by the sight of phenomenal play, underdog tenacity and so many adoring and enthusiastic fans.

Soccer is called the beautiful game for many reasons, and hours/days/weeks of sustained beauty is impossible to resist. Even social media has surrendered to spectacular highlights along with tales of Japan supporters cleaning up stadiums, fans of the victorious consoling fans of the defeated and Europeans discovering the glories of free refills and ranch dressing.

None of this changes the realities we face in America and the rest of the world. Grocery and gas prices remain catastrophically high; Iran continues to contradict U.S. claims of diplomatic resolution to an unpopular war. The unnecessarily revamped reflecting pool in Washington remains a swamp of algae and tourist arrests, as the semiquincentennial struggles under the weight of our president’s self-centered hubris.

But for a few blessed weeks, the World Cup offers inspiration, escape and cultural healing.

It has also, thus far, escaped President Trump’s so often internationally insulting social-media notice and more importantly, his presence. Historically, the leaders of host countries attend the opening match; Trump has, apparently, been too busy (including planning and attending the UFC Freedom 250 cage match recently held on the South Lawn.)

Given his tendency to suck the oxygen out of any room (like his recent reception at Game 3 of the NBA Finals in New York), it’s definitely for the best. If nothing else, the World Cup has given us a chance to take a break from politics and talk instead about Messi, France’s Kylian Mbappé, England’s Harry Kane and all the amazing goalkeepers, including Cape Verde’s now-iconic Vozinha.

Never before have I so understood the therapeutic power of sport.

Who wouldn’t want to at least take a break from rising measles cases, the latest federal or Supreme Court decisions and primary tea-leaf readings to lose themselves in a game where exquisitely patient passing suddenly bursts into spectacular feats of speed and footwork? Where a well-defended ball can suddenly become a goal with a nearly undetectable flick of a foot, or a perfectly placed shot blocked by a goalie’s incredible ability to launch into space? Where an outcome that seems assured can be overturned in the final minutes to the collective roar of an international cast of thousands?

Vozinha of Cape Verde makes a save during the World Cup match between Spain and Cape Verde at Atlanta Stadium on June 15.

(Justin Setterfield / Getty Images)

Like many Americans, I have been occasionally embarrassed by the World Cup’s exposure of my world-geography ignorance — I know where Bosnia and Herzegovina lies on a map, but until recently, I couldn’t place Cape Verde, Curacao or, if I’m being completely honest, Cote d’Ivoire.

Isn’t it wonderful, though, to have a reason to reacquaint yourself with a world map that isn’t related to war, natural or man-made disaster or economic and political tension? The current U.S. administration may seem to be at odds with just about everyone, but visiting World Cup fans are here to remind us of all we share, beneath our crazy wigs and face paint, our cheers, groans and chants.

And we, as hosts, have shown them that America is so much more than the sum of our current government’s policies and posturing.

Watching all this happen, in real time, has been magical, miraculous and magnetic.

Not every moment, of course. Various visa issues created unnecessary and embarrassing drama; high ticket prices and transportation issues were blamed for empty seats at some of the early games. Members of the Iranian team and its coaching staff criticized the way they were treated (though the team left a handwritten note in the dressing room of Los Angeles Stadium, thanking L.A. for its hospitality). The controversial hydration breaks, and the extra commercials they accommodate, can be irritating (though when it’s close to 100 degrees in many stadiums, quite necessary). And though it didn’t matter in terms of standing, watching the U.S. lose to Turkey wasn’t much fun for American fans (though the Turkish exuberance was pretty infectious).

Overall, the 2026 World Cup has done exactly what it was supposed to do: create, in this country, a stage for the finest teams and players in the world’s most popular sport and, more important, carve out five weeks in which we can all spend a few hours removed from the political and cultural divisiveness that threatens to define us.

It’s space in which we can cheer, gasp and leap out of seats along with our families, friends and all the millions we will never meet but to whom we are connected all the same.

Now if you’ll excuse me, the next game is about to start.

In 1913, Antonino Alati left southern Italy to find a better life in a land where many people regarded him as little better than scum.

He joined millions of his fellow countrymen in the United States, where the press vilified Italians as poor, dirty, violent Catholics who had too many babies, refused to assimilate and could never possibly be considered “white.”

Politicians were already working to shut the door on them. A congressional report released two years before Alati’s arrival cited southern Italians as evidence that “the new immigration as a class is far less intelligent than the old.” They came to the U.S., the report asserted, “with the intention of profiting, in a pecuniary way, by the superior advantages of the new world and then returning to the old country.”

Alati wouldn’t let bigotry win. He soon sent for his wife and children, including his infant son Salvatore. Alati turned to Alito, Salvatore became Samuel. A generation later, the family had a Supreme Court justice in Samuel A. Alito Jr. — the second Italian American, after Antonin Scalia, to sit on the highest court in the land.

During his 2005 confirmation hearings, Alito praised his father as an “extraordinary man who came to the United States as a young child and overcame many difficulties” to ensure a better life for him and his sister. By then, Italian Americans were established as an essential part of this country’s fabric, from music to politics to food.

It’s the most American of tales — which is why it’s so surprising, yet not, to read Alito’s blistering dissent in the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision rejecting President Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship.

If there’s one constant in this country besides death and taxes, it’s how quickly descendants of immigrants, and sometimes immigrants themselves, forget how loathed their ethnic group was and how they proved the haters wrong. Too many become uncharitable to the policies that helped them and the immigrants who followed.

But Alito’s stance against birthright citizenship goes beyond just forgetting his roots. His 39-page opinion describes the supposed impact of undocumented migrants on the U.S., using words — “overran,” “soared,” “exploded,” “massive,” “a stream,” “huge” — that read like the same invective used against Italians in his grandfather and father’s time.

The justice channels anti-Italian conspiracies of the past by casting doubt on the national allegiances of the U.S.-born children of Mexican, Guatemalan and Salvadoran immigrants — the same patriotism test that Italian Americans faced generations ago when xenophobes questioned their Catholicism. Alito claims without evidence that millions of agricultural workers were able to apply for American citizenship after President Reagan’s 1986 amnesty “at least in part because of fraud” — a charge also leveled against Italians who sought to naturalize back in the day.

And so it goes, each passage a jumbled argument dressed up in judicial interpretations largely rejected by his fellow Catholic Supreme Court justices John Roberts, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. Coney Barrett signed on to the majority opinion that Roberts wrote, and Kavanaugh concurred.

Rev. William Barber II speaks during a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on April 1 while justices heard oral arguments on birthright citizenship.

(Al Drago / Getty Images)

I know how quickly families forget their own immigrant histories. Yet I look at people like Alito and wonder how they ended up thinking the way they do, because I could never imagine doing the same.

My maternal grandmother was born in Arizona to parents who fled their home country during the Mexican Revolution, becoming an American citizen by birthright. My father, who crossed the border in the trunk of a Chevy, legalized his status in an era when it was far easier to do so.

Like Alito’s paisanes, my Mexican family was also demonized for supposedly being insufficiently American and posing a threat to national unity. They also sacrificed their own dreams so their children and grandchildren could achieve theirs.

And just like Alito, some members of my family have forgotten our history and support Trump or favor some of his immigration policies, dismissing new arrivals as criminals or lazy. That’s why I will always side with undocumented people and welcome anyone who gives birth in this country with the hope that their newborn finds a better life.

It seems from his dissent that Alito somewhat agrees with me. He posits that millions of Americans who were born in this country to parents without papers “have a strong moral claim to be able to remain in the land where they grew up.” Congress “can and should address their situation,” he writes.

The justice blasts birth tourism, where women from China and other countries travel to the U.S. to have a baby, then return home, benefiting from our generosity and offering nothing in return.

I agree that’s a mockery of what being an American should be and ruins it for people who want to contribute to building a better nation. But Alito throws out the baby with the bathwater by failing to recognize that Trump’s attempt to erase birthright citizenship via executive order is presidential overreach based on bigotry, not rule of law. He’d rather cut up the Constitution to spite something he doesn’t like. Thank God his side lost, yet it’s sad that Trump’s pathetic attempt to define who can be an American went as far as it did.

Alito concludes by stating that the court’s decision to uphold the 14th Amendment is “a mistake that will seriously affect the country’s future.”

What new immigrants might inflict on this country is the perpetual worry of immigration restrictionists — and yet history keeps proving them wrong. Alito’s family did; so did mine. Only in these United States can the progeny of people once portrayed as parasites and invaders side with those making the same argument about the latest batch of newcomers.

History will see Alito’s vote for what it is: a forsaking of the promise his family once fulfilled, to support the people who never wanted them here in the first place.

America 250” is no “Spirit of ‘76.”

For those of us who remember the bicentennial, the semiquincentennial is a complete and utter dud. Many fine festivities will take place on and around July 4, but compared with the years-long nationwide celebration that marked this country’s 200th anniversary, 250 feels like a nonevent.

Perhaps it was inevitable. Semiquincentennial (meaning half of a 500-year anniversary) certainly doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily as bicentennial and our current president isn’t making it any catchier. Mostly because he seems to think 250 is the new 80 (the birthday President Trump recently marked with his UFC Freedom 250 cage match on the White House lawn).

As many have noted, Trump’s method of honoring this country’s birthday involves making it all about him by demolishing parts of the White House (to install a new bunker-like ballroom), attempting to set up a $1.8-billion slush fund for pardoned Jan. 6 rioters, seeking to build a triumphal arch that a majority of Americans oppose and trying to slap his name and/or image on any surface he can think of (including a proposed $250 bill). No wonder so many artists have dropped out of the concert series planned for the Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C.

To be fair, the federal government’s involvement in bicentennial planning also got bogged down with political and personal hubris. The national commission, originally created by President Lyndon B. Johnson, was reformed under President Richard Nixon. Plagued by criticism and scandal, it was eventually dissolved by Congress and replaced by a new commission that decided to mostly fund community celebrations.

There was much hand-wringing over missed opportunities at the time, but for more than a year, state and local governments staged reenactments, parades and patriotic events all over the country while the commercial sector star-spangled the crap out of everything: T-shirts, bell-bottoms and bathing suits; curtains, bedspreads and throw rugs; dishware, glassware and Tupperware.

The Declaration of Independence appeared on highball glasses, tea towels and collectible plates. Beginning in 1974, CBS ran mini-history lessons called “Bicentennial Minutes,” which were then sent up on shows as diverse as “Hee Haw” and “Maude.” George Washington and other Founding Fathers graced Pez dispensers, coasters and the cover of Mad Magazine. There was a bicentennial Barbie and a colonial Campbell’s Soup doll. McDonald’s sold red, white and blue milkshakes, Burger King offered a flag-bedecked series of glass tumblers, Disney characters wore tricorn hats for a line of park merchandise.

Some called it the “buy-centennial” but for a kid who daily rocked Stars and Stripes sneakers, and, thanks to a year’s worth of American-history-themed “Schoolhouse Rock!,” could, and would, sing the preamble to the Constitution or the anthem “No More Kings” at the drop of a hat, it was great fun.

Now, of course, “No More Kings” is an anti-Trump protest theme, and the right has so co-opted patriotism that wearing a flag-emblazoned T-shirt can feel somehow partisan. American history itself has become a bone of contention, with the left accusing the right of whitewashing this country’s inarguable sins — Native American displacement, slavery, gender inequality and racist policies — while the right insists that the left is obsessed with undermining our nation’s power and legacy by “woke”-shaming it.

The only thing each end of our divided political spectrum can agree on is that democracy is under mortal threat from the other.

That’s one good reason to feel less than festive, and there are plenty of others, including increased political violence, the war in Iran, tariffs, surging gas prices, civil rights rollbacks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics, artificial intelligence’s threat to jobs, the resurgence of measles, the rising cost of just about everything and the fact that some critics are claiming that Steven Spielberg’s “Disclosure Day” is less full of wonder than “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

But things weren’t so great heading into the bicentennial either. I was 12 at the time, born nine months after Alabama Gov. George Wallace gave his infamous “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” speech and less than two months before President Kennedy was assassinated. I hadn’t been alive a year when civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were murdered in Mississippi by members of the Ku Klux Klan and hadn’t turned 5 when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and then-Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were also assassinated.

Sure, it was that now-wistfully remembered time when kids went out in the morning and played, mostly unmonitored, until nightfall (with the inevitable trips to the doctor for stitches and tetanus shots for those wounds too obvious to hide from parents). But by the time the bicentennial rolled around, my life had played out against the backdrop of civil unrest and the Vietnam War, both spilling from our black-and-white television almost nightly.

I was 9 when Wallace, then a presidential candidate, was shot and 10 when I learned what OPEC and gas siphoning meant as my family spent hours in an un-air-conditioned car, inching toward the gas pump after the 1973 “Yom Kippur” Arab-Israeli War resulted in oil shortages.

That same year, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned from office, pleading “no contest” to charges of tax evasion but avoiding prosecution for charges of bribery and criminal conspiracy, and Nixon appointed House Minority Leader Gerald Ford (R-Mich.) to Agnew’s place. In 1974, Nixon, faced with impeachment for his part in the Watergate scandal, became the first president in U.S. history to resign.

The bicentennial’s tall ships festivals, fife and drum parades and Old Glory consumer fest occurred in a country reeling from more than a decade of history-changing assassinations, civil unrest, economic anxiety and high-level political corruption (not to mention a collective fear of the ocean brought on by the 1975 release of Spielberg’s “Jaws”). Democracy was celebrated under Ford, the first, and thus far only, president to come to office through the provisions of the 25th Amendment rather than a national election.

A president who, after being regularly and ruthlessly lampooned by comedian Chevy Chase on the nascent “Saturday Night Live,” reacted by becoming friends with Chase instead of, you know, forcing the network to fire him.

If the bicentennial roiled with some of the same tensions Americans feel today, it did benefit from a cultural cohesion that no longer exists. The year 1976 saw the founding of Apple and the introduction of VHS tapes, but the national audience was still very much a reality. Back then, you couldn’t escape the songs of the summer — “Silly Love Songs” (Wings), “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” (Elton John and Kiki Dee) and “Afternoon Delight” (Starland Vocal Band) — any more than you could miss those “Bicentennial Minutes.” We all listened to the radio, watched TV, went to the movies and bought books, and our preferences revealed the country’s desire for both comfort and change.

On the bestseller lists, Agatha Christie’s final Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple books marked the end of an era, toggling in the No. 1 spot with the political turbulence of Gore Vidal’s “1876” and Leon Uris’ “Trinity.” “Rocky” beat “All the President’s Men,” “Taxi Driver,” “Network,” “Marathon Man” and “The Omen” at the box office and, later, in the best picture Oscar race.

On television, Americans sought the nostalgic comfort food of “Happy Days,” “The Waltons” and “Little House on the Prairie” amid the more pointed social comedies of “All in the Family,” “The Jeffersons” and “MASH,” all of which had nightly averages of 20 million or more viewers.

In today’s cultural landscape, defined by social media bubbles, streaming services and Spotify libraries, the gap between mass audience and cultural significance is much wider than it was 50 years ago (“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” may be the highest-grossing movie of the year, but it’s hard to imagine it winning best picture) and mass audience has become a relative term for pretty much everything that is not the Super Bowl.

Even so, we too find ourselves rooting for the little guy (“Project Hail Mary”) and reaching into the past for inspiration (a new “Little House on the Prairie” debuts next week on Netflix) even as we contemplate the future of tech (“The Six Billion Dollar Man” has become every computer genius who can leap a firewall).

I don’t know what it was like to be an adult in 1976, but I remember my parents fretting over the grocery budget, nixing travel plans because of the price of gas and worrying about the future of a country that seemed so irreparably divided. To paraphrase the Diana Ross hit of the time, did we know where we were going to? Not at all. The bicentennial occurred during an election year, with all the partisan denunciations that entails (though when Jimmy Carter narrowly beat Ford, no one thought of contesting the results).

Even so, most Americans were still ready to party, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of a long-shot revolution that resulted in the United States of America.

So does it stink that the semiquincentennial has been such a flop? Yes, it does. But, as is written in its very singable preamble, the Constitution was written “in order to form a more perfect union.” Not “perfect,” but “more perfect.” As in better.

Even in the most troubled times, the cornerstone of our democracy is the understanding that we will always need to do better and there is a living document that allows us to do so.

And 250 years’ worth of that is definitely worth celebrating.

Pilots and cabin crew are set to strike on Sunday, with passengers facing cancellations and delays

EasyJet passengers with travel plans should keep a close eye on their apps and emails for any last-minute updates arising from strike action in a popular holiday destination. Those flying to or from Italy on Sunday, July 5, face the risk of delays and cancellations.

Travel expert Kate Donnelly (@Thedonnellyedit) has reminded anyone who has trips booked to or from the European destination with the airline to monitor their inboxes carefully, as the situation could change at short notice. It comes as airline workers walk off the job this weekend, July 5.

She said: “If you’re travelling to Italy on July 5, you may well already be aware that multiple strikes are set to take place involving air traffic control and ground handling staff. But, now another one has been added to the calendar.”

Reports have confirmed that EasyJet’s Italian operation will strike on Sunday, July 5, with flights expected to be disrupted throughout the entire 24-hour period. According to the Strike Tracker website, the issue will last until midnight, with normal service expected to resume from Monday, July 6.

It says: “EasyJet pilots and flight attendants in Italy will stage a 24-hour national strike on July 5 (00:00-23:59), called by FILTCGIL, FITCISL, UILTUIL, UGL Trasporto Aereo and ANPAC. Flights to/from Italian airports may be cancelled or delayed. Travellers should check flight status with the airline.”

Kate points out that this is an airline-specific issue, meaning it “won’t matter which airport you are arriving or departing from”. Any flight booked through EasyJet could potentially be affected, reports the Express.

She said: “If you are on an EasyJet flight, it could be impacted on this date. With this particular strike action, there is obviously the risk of delays, but also a higher risk of flight cancellations.

“Airlines will obviously do what they can to try and minimise disruption. Make sure you keep an eye on your app notifications and your emails because, if they do make changes ahead of the date, you will be notified directly by them first.”

Can I get compensation if EasyJet cancels my flight due to strike action?

If EasyJet reschedules your flight as a result of their own Italian pilots or cabin crew walking out, you are legally entitled to compensation. Internal staff strikes are not regarded as extraordinary circumstances.

If the airline can prove that your flight was rescheduled due to Air Traffic Control closing the skies or the airport’s baggage handlers staging a walkout, this is considered an “extraordinary circumstance”. In this case, you will receive a refund or be rebooked, but no additional compensation.

Even where the airline is not at fault, EasyJet is still legally obliged to take care of you. If your rescheduled flight leaves you stranded at the airport or stuck in Italy overnight, they are required to provide:

• Free food and drink vouchers
• Free hotel accommodation
• Free transport between the hotel and the airport

To claim compensation or expenses from easyJet for a delayed or cancelled flight, you must submit a claim directly through the official easyJet Compensation Claims Portal or the easyJet Expense Claim Form. You will need your booking reference and your exact flight number.

MANCHESTER, England — Andy Burnham, likely the next U.K. prime minister, pledged Monday to give away a chunk of his power by handing greater autonomy to local leaders in a “circuit-breaker” for the sclerotic British state.

The former mayor of Greater Manchester also said he would move part of the prime minister’s office from London’s 10 Downing St. to northwest England as part of “the biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen.”

“Growth cannot be ordered from the top down. Instead, it can only be nurtured from the bottom up,” Burnham said in a speech aimed at bringing voters, Labour Party colleagues and financial markets up to speed with his economic vision.

Burnham is the strong favorite to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who announced his resignation last week.

“If councils can’t fix potholes, what chance do they have of bringing forward major regeneration schemes to get growth going?” Burnham said. He set out a 10-year plan to get “good growth in every postcode,” in a country where wealth and power are concentrated in London and the south of England.

He said he would reverse almost two decades of low growth since the 2008 financial crisis through an approach dubbed “Manchesterism” — harnessing private and public money to invest in areas like transport, housing and infrastructure. He also pledged to create new industrial jobs and better educational opportunities, and to reform the U.K.’s inefficient and expensive privatized water and energy utilities.

Moving the new ‘No. 10 North’ to Manchester

During the speech at the People’s History Museum in the city where he spent nine years as mayor, Burnham said a new government office in Manchester – dubbed “No. 10 North” — would oversee regional development and become “the nerve center of a rewired Britain,” tasked with equalizing living standards across the country. Regional mayors would get more power over housing, welfare and education as part of his planned reforms.

Burnham’s rousing speech was short on specifics about where the government would find more money, and he didn’t take questions from journalists.

Burnham won praise for his role in revitalizing and regenerating Manchester, but he has not served in a U.K. government for almost two decades, and may struggle to replicate “Manchesterism” on a U.K.-wide scale.

The Institute for Public Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank, said Burnham is right to focus on “rebalancing Britain.”

“The U.K.’s concentration of power and opportunity in Westminster has held back growth, productivity and living standards for too long,” said IPPR Executive Director Harry Quilter-Pinner. “The real test now is delivery.”

Matthew Flinders, a politics professor at the University of Sheffield, said replicating Burnham’s Manchester approach on a national level would require “a fundamental shift” in the way politics is done in Britain.

“And at the heart of that would be moving from a very traditional, elitist, centralized model of politics toward something that is in many ways far more European, far more based on power-sharing in order to develop long-term policymaking capacity,” he said.

Burnham is likely to inherit Starmer’s challenges

Burnham will be aware that Starmer also announced a 10-year mission — the equivalent of two full terms in government —- to transform Britain soon after he was elected in a landslide in July 2024. Starmer is leaving after two years in office marred by missteps and judgment errors that eroded his standing with his party and the public.

Burnham won a special election for a seat in Parliament on June 18 and was sworn in as a lawmaker on June 22, the same day Starmer announced that he will resign as soon as a successor is chosen.

Burnham is so far the only contender in the Labour Party leadership contest. If no one challenges him, he will become prime minister by July 20.

While Burnham is considered more charismatic than the stolid Starmer, he will face many of the same political and economic challenges, including a sluggish economy, tattered public services and a cost-of-living squeeze. He will also be constrained by the platform the center-left Labour Party was elected on in 2024, with its pledges not to increase taxes on working people.

And like other NATO countries, the U.K. is under pressure to dramatically increase defense spending to counter a more aggressive Russia and less reliable United States.

The government’s long-awaited defense investment plan — which sparked the resignation of Defense Secretary John Healey on June 11 — is expected to be published before a NATO summit in Turkey on July 7 and 8. Starmer’s successor will be expected to stick to the commitments in the plan.

“Andy Burnham’s big idea is to shuffle power between politicians,” said opposition Conservative Party Chairman Kevin Hollinrake. “Not fix the welfare system. Not cut the taxes strangling working families and British business. Not fund the defense our country desperately needs.”

Grant and Lawless write for the Associated Press. Lawless reported from London. AP writer Brian Melley contributed to this report.

Less than two hours before the Dodgers took the field in Minneapolis on Wednesday, a pair of powerful earthquakes rattled Venezuela, where the wife and two kids of Dodgers shortstop Miguel Rojas were visiting and where his sister lives.

The successive magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes left the country’s northern coastal state of La Guaira in ruins, collapsing more than 770 buildings and killing at least 1,450 people, local authorities said Sunday.

All of Rojas’ family members were OK, the Venezuelan native told reporters ahead of Friday’s game against the Padres in San Diego.

“Literally two blocks away from where my family was, two buildings collapsed — the whole building,” he said. “I’m lucky, to be honest with you guys. I’m really lucky to have my family still alive and with me. I’m not taking this for granted.”

Rojas’ wife and kids were in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, which is only about six miles south of the destruction along the coast. His wife was there to renew her passport, and the kids were going to try to get Venezuelan citizenship. His sister was in Los Teques, Rojas’ hometown about 17 miles south of the coastal destruction.

Rescue workers search through rubble on Saturday in Catia La Mar following the devastating double earthquakes.

(Fernando Vergara / Associated Press)

“It’s really tough to see teammates of mine and players that I played with at some point in my career to lose family members, to lose kids,” said Rojas, who had spent years playing baseball in La Guaira. “It’s really devastating. It’s been really hard for me to go to sleep at night.”

Rojas, on Friday, said he was talking daily with his family members, who were still in Venezuela. He hoped to bring them back to the United States as soon as possible. Aftershocks continued to rattle the country into Sunday morning.

As the Dodgers and Padres started their series in Petco Park on Friday, both teams wore caps with the letters “VZ” embroidered on the side to honor the people of Venezuela as the road to recovery begins.

“That means a lot because both teams will be doing it — it means a lot, because it brings awareness,” Rojas said.

“We are on one of the biggest stages in sports, and I really appreciate what the Dodgers do to support us,” he added. “It’s not just what happens now, it’s what’s going to happen in the future. It’s going to take a long time for people to recover.”

Times staff writer Maddie Lee contributed to this report.

When FIFA expanded the World Cup field from 32 to 48 teams for this summer’s tournament, the gnashing of teeth and clutching of pearls was as predictable as it was loud. The field would be watered down, the traditionalists protested. The group stage would be a series of blowouts, the sharks would devour the minnows.

In fact, none of that happened.

What we got instead was plucky Cape Verde playing No. 3 Spain to a draw and becoming the smallest nation to reach the elimination rounds. We got Austria advancing on a goal six minutes into stoppage time — eliminating unbeaten Iran, which deserved better — and Canada, Egypt and the Democratic Republic of Congo all winning World Cup games for the first time.

We got Lionel Messi scoring six goals and Mexico and Spain giving up none. We got South Africa, Canada, Egypt and Cape Verde advancing to the knockout rounds for the first time while South Korea and Uruguay went home.

It was one of the most surprising, exciting and compelling group stages in recent World Cup history. And on Sunday it gave way to the first game of the knockout rounds, with Canada beating South Africa 1-0 on a goal by LAFC midfielder Stephen Eustáquio in the second minute of stoppage time.

Canada’s Stephen Eustáquio reacts after a 1-0 win over South Africa at the World Cup on Sunday at SoFi Stadium.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Unlike much of the group stage, Sunday’s game was a sloppy, sleepy affair, with South Africa relying on some heroic play from its back line to keep the game even. But it ended with a bang with Eustáquio latching on to a loose ball at top of the box and blasting a right-footed volley just inside the left post.

Canada will play the winner of Monday’s Netherlands-Morocco match in the round of 16 next week. For South Africa, the World Cup is over.

For both countries, this World Cup was the most successful ever. Canada, which is sharing host duties with Mexico and the U.S., has won twice. South Africa had won games before, but it had never gotten beyond the group stage.

For South Africa, that success is part of a continental soccer resurgence. Four years ago in Qatar, Morocco became the first African nation to reach the World Cup semifinals. This summer, thanks to the expanded field, 10 African nations qualified for the tournament and nine advanced to the round of 32.

And the rise of African soccer hasn’t just boosted the fortunes of African teams. Top-ranked France, a World Cup favorite, has 21 players of African descent on its roster; at least a dozen other non-African teams, including Canada, have at least two players of African heritage.

Canada is one of the world’s most diverse countries with nearly a quarter of its population having been born somewhere else. Former coach John Herdman leaned into that diversity when he took over the men’s team in 2018; four years later, Canada made its second trip to the World Cup with a lineup that included four dual nationals.

Jesse Marsch, the U.S.-born coach who succeeded Herdman, doubled down on that. As a result, the 26 players on Canada’s roster, or their parents, come from more than 17 countries — from Iran, Croatia, Jamaica and Barbados to Haiti, Lebanon, Nigeria and the Philippines. Captain Alphonso Davies, Canada’s best player, was born to Liberian parents in a refugee camp in Ghana before being resettled in Edmonton, becoming a citizen in 2017.

Canada goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau makes a save against South Africa on Sunday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

Davies, who hasn’t played since sustained an acute hamstring injury in early May, came on in the 76th minute Sunday and had an immediate influence, threading a perfect pass to the feet of Promise David, whose right-footed shot from the top of the box drifted inches wide of the left post.

Three minutes later, Davies drew two defenders to him on the left flank, opening space for Jonathan David to slip into the box and get off a tight-angled shot near the end line that stood up South African keeper Ronwen Williams. But the winner came from Eustáquio, the son of Portuguese parents who Herdman wooed away from the Portuguese U-21 team in 2019.

He has made 60 appearances with Canada’s senior national team, none bigger than Sunday’s.

Canada’s Tani Oluwaseyi, center, gets caught between South Africa’s Khuliso Mudau (20) and Sphephelo Sithole during the first half Sunday.

(Kelvin Kuo / Los Angeles Times)

The warning comes as the country has faced hazardous conditions this week

Spain’s Ministerio del Interior has issued a warning to anyone in the country, including visiting tourists, as hot weather bakes the country. This week, the European nation faced unprecedented, record-setting heat.

The country was caught in a severe and hazardous heatwave caused by hot air travelling north from the Sahara Desert. These extreme temperatures broke long-standing weather records and led to widespread red alerts, especially in the northern and central parts of the country. Temperatures soared past 45C in some areas of northern Spain at the beginning of the week.

The northern region of Cantabria broke its previous heat record, hitting an incredible 43.7C in Tama. Bilbao Airport recorded temperatures over 40C on three different days (Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday). This is a historic first for the region: reaching this level three times in one year.

On Thursday, June 25, temperatures began to drop, and there was some rain and thunderstorms in parts of the northern and central plains, including Madrid. However, high temperatures are still sticking around.

Places like Andalusia and cities such as Seville and Córdoba are experiencing usual summer highs. Temperatures are rising back up to 37C to 38C as the weekend comes to a close.

The Ministerio del Interior translates as the Ministry of the Interior (also known as the Home Office or the Ministry of Internal Affairs). This government cabinet department handles domestic policy, public safety, law enforcement, immigration, and civil protection.

Taking to X on Sunday, June 28, the ministry urged people to avoid doing three things for safety reasons. It said: “In the forest, every gesture counts.

“Don’t throw away cigarette butts or matches. Don’t make fire outside of authorised areas. Don’t abandon flammable waste.” It added: “With heat and wind, the risk increases. A small oversight can turn into a big fire.”

Has Spain experienced wildfires this week?

This week, Spain has been hit hard by a serious wave of wildfires after experiencing its first big summer heatwave. The temperatures soared above 45C in the south and reached up to 43C in the north.

These extreme heat levels, along with dry weather and lightning strikes, have led to several devastating fires. One major wildfire erupted between Tamarite de Litera and Alcampell, consuming more than 4,000 hectares of land. It is thought that a harvesting machine started the fire, which resulted in the evacuation of around 240 people from three nearby villages.

Is Spain prone to wildfires?

Spain faces a significant risk of severe wildfires during hot weather, ranking it among the most fire-prone countries in Europe. The mix of intense summer heatwaves, extended periods of drought, and powerful winds results in “tinderbox” conditions that enable fires to start and spread rapidly.

Data from the Ministry for Ecological Transition in Spain reveals that human activity is responsible for the majority of wildfires. More than half of the annual fires in Spain are deliberately set, and a significant portion is due to accidents or negligence, such as mismanaged agricultural burning, cigarette butts that are carelessly thrown away, or barbecues.

COUNTRY legend Alan Jackson is preparing to take the stage one final time – but behind his emotional farewell has been a grueling 15-year battle with a degenerative nerve disease that has changed his life.

The music icon was diagnosed with Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease in 2011, but kept it private for a decade before publicly revealing the condition in 2021.

The hereditary disorder causes nerve damage, mostly in the arms and legs, leading to muscle weakness, loss of sensation, balance problems, and difficulty walking.

While it’s not typically considered fatal, it has led to deaths – including 911: Nashville actress Isabelle Tate, who passed away from the disease in 2025. 

Behind Alan’s final curtain call is a brutal health battle that has quietly followed him for more than 15 years.

“It’s been affecting me for years,” he said in 2021 while first revealing the diagnosis on the Today Show. 

“And it’s getting more and more obvious. I know I’m not going to be able to tour like I have.”

Alan, 67, also revealed the diagnosis runs in his family, explaining: “I have this neuropathy and neurological disease. It’s genetic that I inherited from my daddy.”

The disease affects balance, coordination, and muscle control – making even simple movement more difficult as it progresses.

For a performer known for commanding massive stages and playing live instruments, the condition has made touring especially challenging.

Alan has opened up about his struggles, saying: “I know I’m stumbling around on stage. And now I’m having a little trouble balancing, even in front of the microphone.” 

Over the years, Alan has continued performing despite worsening symptoms, though he acknowledged the disease has forced him to adjust.

“I don’t feel comfortable,” he said of performing while navigating the disorder. “It’s going to disable me eventually.”

While Charcot-Marie-Tooth does not always directly impact life expectancy, there is no cure, according to the Mayo Clinic. 

Treatment typically focuses on managing symptoms through physical therapy, braces, pain management, and mobility support.

Still, Alan said he has refused to let the diagnosis define him, pushing through multiple tours and live shows while accepting that the end of his road on stage would come in the nearer future. 

Now, the singer is set for his final full-length concert, Last Call: One More for the Road – The Finale, on June 27 at Nissan Stadium. 

The massive send-off will bring Alan back to Nashville – the city where his career first took off – and feature an all-star lineup including Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Luke Combs, Miranda Lambert, George Strait, Carrie Underwood, Lainey Wilson, Little Big Town, Thomas Rhett, Jake Owen, Jon Pardi, and Lee Ann Womack.

The sold-out show will begin in the early evening and rock on all night, with more than 50,000 fans expected in attendance.

And for those who can’t make it in person, the historic farewell will be filmed for an NBC primetime special titled Alan Jackson: The Last Show, before streaming the following day on Peacock.

For the country crooner, it’s a full-circle moment – and the closing chapter of one of music’s most enduring careers.

The Georgia native has sold more than 75 million records worldwide, with a staggering 35 Number 1 hits and 50 Top 10 singles to his name. 

He’s won two Grammy Awards, 16 CMA Awards, 17 ACM Awards, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2017.

The singer is also a member of the Grand Ole Opry and has long been praised for helping preserve traditional country music through hits like Chattahoochee, Livin’ on Love, Remember When, and Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning).

Alan has long credited his family as the backbone of his decades-long career.

He has been married to his high school sweetheart, Denise Jackson, since 1979 after the pair met as teenagers in their hometown of Newnan, Georgia.

Denise famously helped launch his music career after running into country legend Glen Campbell on a flight and passing along Alan’s demo – a moment that helped change their lives forever.

Together, Alan and Denise share three daughters: Mattie Jackson Smith, Alexandra Jane Bradshaw, and Dani Grace Jackson.

STEP into your own David Attenborough show on a dreamy family staycay.

From a gorgeous country estate on the England/Wales border, to seal-spotting and wild swimming while kipping in sleepy Harleston

Marrington Escapes, Shropshire

Lifestyle Editor Catherine Bennion-Pedley and her gang found a gorgeous country estate brimming with nature on the England/Wales border.

A grazing pony, strutting pheasants and hopping hares are just a few of our neighbours on the glorious, family-owned Marrington Estate.

And we’ve spied them all before we even embark on an hour’s walk down through the stunning Dingle Valley, where the babbling River Camlad is home to crayfish, otters and kingfishers.

We’re kipping in one of the estate’s biggest properties, Marrington Farmhouse, which sleeps 10 under cloud-like duvets – although the dining room is better-suited to eight – and which comes with a kitchen proper cooks will love.

WAIL OF A TIME

I drove Irish Route 66 with deserted golden beaches and pirate-like islands

TEMPTED?

Tiny ‘Bali of Europe’ town with stunning beaches, €3 cocktails and £20 flights

A large hot tub, The Traitors board game complete with cloak, a verdant lawn and an apple orchard brimming with harvest make it an idyllic spot and, come evening, we toast marshmallows on the firepit and stargaze.

Our welcome hamper includes pistachio sablés from What A Pickle! in the county’s foodie capital Ludlow and a bottle of zingy Shropshire Lady white wine using Solaris grapes from Kerryvale Vineyard, 10 minutes’ drive away.

But with little ones in tow, we resist a vineyard tour and tasting, £25 per person (Kerryvalevineyard.co.uk), and instead take a trip across the border to Wales on board a steam train.

The nearby Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway trundles us through the rolling hills and, once we arrive in Llanfair, Poppy, seven, and Raffy, four, are thrilled when the friendly driver spots them looking on wide-eyed in awe and invites them into his cabin to pull the steam whistle.

Return tickets cost £27 per adult, £10 per child (Wllr.org.uk). We’re also close to several castles, from which we pick the striking 13th-century Powis Castle, a 20-minute drive away.

Its baroque terraces are a spectacular display of colour, and feasting on a cream tea, £7.50, among the blooms before a stroll through the woodlands is heavenly.

Adult tickets cost £18, over-fives are £9 (Nationaltrust.org.uk).

On our way back, we make a pitstop at The Nags Head Inn in Garthmyl for the Sunday roast of dreams, tucking into a delicate crab salad with watermelon and pineapple salsa, before tackling ginormous three-meat platters with all the trimmings in the lively dining space (Nagsheadgarthmyl.co.uk).

Two courses cost from £24.45, and we haven’t had a roast that good since!

Stays at Marrington Farmhouse, sleeping 10, cost from £30 per person, per night (Marringtonescapes.com).

Mendham Mill, Suffolk

Writer Ellie O’Mahoney and her family spotted seals and tried wild swimming while kipping in sleepy Harleston.

Paddling in canoes up the River Waveney, it feels like we are in the middle of a painting.

We’re staying at Mendham Mill Holiday Cottages on the Norfolk/Suffolk border, and canoes here are free to borrow, from which we spot newly hatched goslings, grazing cows and a hovering kestrel.

We’re bedding down in wheelchair-friendly North Meadow Cottage, which sleeps six, and our children, Elliot, 11, and Molly, nine, whoop for joy when they find the games room with table tennis and a pool table.

Later, we take a bracing swim in the river at the bottom of the garden, then warm up under the outdoor shower.

Norfolk is famous for its seal colonies, so we make the hour’s drive to one of the UK’s largest, Horsey Gap, to spot them (Horseygap.co.uk).

Close by is wooden marvel BeWILDerwood, where the kids burn off their energy exploring the treehouses, zip wires, mazes and slides.

Tickets cost from £20.95 for those over 92cm (Bewilderwood.co.uk).
Another day, Framlingham Castle, inspo for Ed Sheeran’s Castle On The Hill, proves the perfect spot for playing warring knights.

Entry costs from £8.10 (English-heritage.org.uk).

Later, we get a Michelin-recommended taste of old-school Suffolk at The Peacock Inn in Chelsworth, a 14th-century Grade-II-listed pub in the prettiest of villages.

Battered haddock with koji tartar sauce, £18, is standout, while the mousse, £11, made with 85% chocolate from local chocolatier Pump Street is to die for (Thepeacockchelsworth.com).

Stays at Mendham Mill Holiday Cottages, sleeping six, cost from £35 per person, per night (Premiercottages.co.uk).

 OR GO REALLY WILD…

The Reserve, Cheshire

Wake up to giraffes as campmates at Chester Zoo, says Lifestyle Editor Catherine Bennion-Pedley.

Stuffing play balls with lucerne hay, my kids are thoroughly enjoying preparing teatime treats for giraffes with zookeeper Sophie, while learning about their surprisingly small poos and why their long tongues are black (to protect them from the sun, FYI).

The excitement continues when later we join an after-hours tour to catch a glimpse of nocturnal animals waking, including aardvarks, and learn about the incredible cancer-fighting superpower of naked mole rats.

By sleeping over, guests are helping the conservation efforts here and The Reserve’s reception, restaurant and bar ooze sophistication.

Welcome cocktails of sapling vodka, lime and honey – and juices for the kids – are quickly slurped, and the 51 lodges are swishly furnished, although our lakeside pad is without much of an actual lake view and comes with the buzz of traffic that leaves us feeling very much still in England when on our veranda.

Pricier lodges overlook the giraffe enclosure and, on our stroll to the plentiful breakfast, we spot the majestic creatures through gaps in the foliage.

As well as exclusive animal tours and fireside stories in the lounge, overnight guests also get to step into the zoo early, and it is undoubtedly one of the UK’s best – home to more than 500 species, including orangutans, elephants, leopards and lions.

All in all, our little ones think this is a roar-some mini-break.

Family stays for four at The Reserve cost from £306 B&B, including two-day zoo access (Chesterzoo.org).

WASHINGTON — The Democratic National Committee is organizing hundreds of community events across the country this weekend in hopes of harnessing the same concerns about affordability that President Trump capitalized on to return to the White House.

The events include school supply giveaways, food bank drives, neighborhood door knockings and organizer trainings.

“Everything costs too damn much under Donald Trump and the Republicans,” Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said in a statement.

Martin said party members planned “to reach, engage, register, and mobilize voters who will make the difference in races up and down the ballot.”

Two years ago, Democrats were the ones accused of being indifferent to Americans’ anger about rising prices. Now they’re pointing the finger at Trump, who has downplayed the effect of lingering inflation.

He has described affordability concerns as a “hoax” and recently said, “I love the inflation” because he expects costs to drop as he tries to resolve his war with Iran.

About one-third of U.S. adults approve of how Trump is handling the economy, according to an AP-NORC poll from June. That’s down from the start of his second term, when 40% approved.

About 7 in 10 U.S. adults say the country’s economy is “poor,” according to an AP-NORC poll from June. That’s up from 65% in March, and underscores Americans’ ongoing unhappiness with the cost of living, which is being compounded by high gas prices because of the war in Iran.

Slightly more U.S. adults say the Democratic Party would do a better job than the Republican Party in handling inflation and the cost of living, according to a Marquette Law School/SSRS poll from May. Roughly one-third of U.S. adults — 35% — said the Democrats would do a better job, while 28% believe the Republicans would. Roughly one-third say the parties would be the same, or neither would be good.

This weekend’s events vary by region.

In New Mexico, Gov. Michelle Luján Grisham will convene a training for 150 potential campaign staffers. Nevada’s statewide campaigns will knock on doors in rural and working class neighborhoods. Others will call voters in swing districts with competitive U.S. House races to talk about the rising price of gas.

Some events are geared toward directly helping voters to persuade them that Democrats are concerned about affordability.

For instance, the local party in Kenosha County, Wis., plans to collect and distribute school supplies to poor families. And canvassers will fan out to discuss affordability issues in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The Republican National Committee dismissed the weekend’s events.

“Despite being millions of dollars in debt, the DNC is choosing to throw pitiful pep rallies to distract from the fact they created the inflation crisis,” said Delanie Bomar, an RNC spokeswoman. “Meanwhile, Republicans are hard at work fixing the economic mess Joe Biden and the Democrats created.”

Democrats hope that the events will show that their time in the political wilderness has made them more serious and effective at tackling kitchen table issues. But some fear their agenda may not be heard by voters in an increasingly fractured media environment.

“One of Donald Trump’s greatest strengths is that he’s so loud,” said Brian Derrick, a Democratic strategist. He said that events like the weekend’s itinerary help Democrats focus on an “Achilles’ heel” issue for Trump, “which right now is his lack of interest in addressing everyday costs for people.”

Brown writes for the Associated Press.

Venezuela woke up this morning to scenes of destruction and grief that not even three decades of political and economic collapse could have prepared us for. On June 24, two of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in Venezuelan history struck the country’s northern coastline.

At the time of writing, over 39,000 people have been reported missing, and the interim government of Delcy Rodríguez has confirmed at least 164 deaths. Yet images of flattened residential buildings across Caracas and La Guaira suggest that this number will continue to rise in the days ahead.

The aftermath is even more devastating when one considers how profoundly unprepared Venezuela is to respond to a disaster of this magnitude. Natural disasters are catastrophic by definition, posing immense challenges even for wealthy countries with competent institutions. For the battered nation that is post-Maduro Venezuela, responding to a crisis of this scale may prove overwhelming.

Venezuela has faced what the United Nations defines as a complex humanitarian emergency, a prolonged and multidimensional collapse of the state’s ability to perform its core functions. This has been the status since at least 2016. Few sectors have suffered more than healthcare. Years of mismanagement, systemic corruption, and chronic underinvestment have devastated the country’s health system, compounding the deterioration of the electrical grid and other essential public services.

Since at least 2022, the Venezuelan state has increasingly adopted a hands-off approach to governance. This shift, shaped by a post-socialist form of laissez-faire economic policy, reduced state control over large parts of the economy and contributed to a modest but visible revival in business activity. In many ways, the tate appeared to retreat from major areas of public administration while preserving absolute control over others, particularly the security apparatus and the machinery of censorship and political repression.

The corruption and mismanagement that destroyed Venezuela’s health system, combined with the dangerous belief that the state could simply step aside, help explain why the country now lacks even minimally functional search-and-rescue capacity.

These dynamics, though somewhat altered, have largely persisted after January 3. Following Operation Absolute Resolve, which culminated in the arrest of Nicolás Maduro, the interim administration of Delcy Rodríguez (with the backing of the United States) introduced reforms aimed at attracting American investment in the oil and mining sectors, fueling cautious optimism about eventual economic recovery.

From a public health perspective, however, the economic liberalization first embraced under Maduro and now continued by Rodríguez marks the culmination of a much longer process: the gradual withdrawal of the state from its responsibility to protect the health and welfare of Venezuelans.

The liberalization of recent years also triggered a rapid expansion of private health insurance. For those able to afford plans, often costing thousands of dollars, private coverage has offered an attractive alternative to Venezuela’s chronically underfunded and dysfunctional public hospitals. This produced a deeply unequal arrangement: those with resources could secure healthcare privately, while most Venezuelans remained dependent on a system that had largely ceased to function.

But this model can only take a country so far.

The private sector (particularly one as small and fragile as Venezuela’s) cannot replace the functions of a public health system. Private clinics in Caracas, however modern, cannot conduct nationwide vaccination campaigns, build epidemiological surveillance networks, or address child malnutrition at scale.

Nor can private healthcare alone care for the thousands of victims created by disasters such as these earthquakes. It cannot train sufficient first responders, coordinate nationwide rescue efforts, or provide the ambulances, heavy equipment, and emergency infrastructure required in the immediate aftermath of a catastrophe.

This may become the clearest test yet of how committed the Trump administration truly is to supporting Venezuelans, not merely safeguarding its economic interests in the country.

The corruption and mismanagement that destroyed Venezuela’s health system, combined with the dangerous belief that the state could simply step aside, help explain why the country now lacks even minimally functional search-and-rescue capacity. They also explain its overwhelming dependence on foreign aid.

For that reason, many Venezuelans are watching statements from Marco Rubio as closely as those from Rodríguez. All signs suggest that meaningful large-scale assistance will need to come from Washington rather than Miraflores. Rubio has already promised a “big, fast, and effective whole-of-government response,” offering a measure of hope to an exhausted and grieving population.

This disaster may become the clearest test yet of how committed the Trump administration truly is to supporting Venezuelans, not merely safeguarding its economic interests in the country. Recovery without explicit and substantial American support appears highly unlikely.

Other countries across the globe and the ideological spectrum—including Mexico, El Salvador, Cuba, Iran, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain—have also offered assistance. All such support is welcome. In these first critical hours, every resource matters if lives are to be saved.

The images circulating on social media, people trapped beneath rubble in La Guaira, surrounded by exhausted neighbors refusing to abandon them, or volunteers searching debris with only the flashlights of their mobile phones, amount to a testimony of the solidarity of the Venezuelan people and an urgent plea for help, one that both Venezuelan authorities and the international community must answer.

They also serve as a painful reminder that public health and disaster preparedness are responsibilities that governments simply cannot outsource.

If you want to know more about ways to help, or need information on missing people, please visit the following link.

OCHOPEE, Fla. — The immigration detention center in the Florida swamps known as “Alligator Alcatraz” is closing after nearly a year, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday.

DeSantis said the center was always supposed to be temporary and now federal officials have enough ability to handle detention and deportation in more permanent facilities.

“It served its purpose for the time,” the Republican governor said.

Officials announced a temporary closure of the facility earlier in June, saying hurricane season made it unsafe to keep the detainees in the Florida Everglades. All the of people kept at the isolated airstrip had been sent to other facilities.

Immigration advocates said the tents were never humane or safe to hold people. Detainees at the facility have talked about their difficulty accessing lawyers and have described poor physical conditions, including worms in the food, toilets that don’t flush, flooding floors with fecal waste, and mosquitoes and other insects everywhere.

The detention center was built by DeSantis’ administration in a matter of days in 2025, and President Trump came to visit site.

DeSantis and Trump said the detention center was critical to Republican efforts to return people in the country illegally back to their home countries. The Republican governor said 21,000 people were deported through the facility.

Collins writes for the Associated Press.

I rose from my living room couch before Mexico’s World Cup match against Czechia when the Telemundo announcer stated it was time for the Mexican national anthem.

The public address system at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City played a short string intro. My back straightened. I pressed my right hand against my chest horizontally in the traditional gesture that accompanies the tune. And then I recited the opening lyrics to a song I’ve heard all my life but that I only began committing to memory this month:

Mexicanos al grito de guerra/El acero aprestad y bridón/Y retiemble en sus centros la tierra/Al sonoro rugir del cañon

Those florid 19th century words — “Mexicans, at the cry of war/Ready the steel and the bridle/and may the Earth tremble to its core/at the cannon’s resounding roar” — make “The Star-Spangled Banner” seem as anti-war as “Give Peace a Chance.” My kumbaya heart nevertheless jumped as the anthem continued.

Goosebumps blossomed on my skin as Mexico’s head coach Javier Aguirre, he of a stern face and gray haircut worthy of a drill sergeant, beamed while singing. My eyes watered as the camera panned over his arm-in-arm players as they shouted the line, “Think, o beloved homeland! That heaven/gave you a soldier in each son.”

Millions of Mexican Americans like myself have stumbled through the himno nacional during this World Cup, whereas in previous years, we might have just hummed some bars or stayed silent. It’s a boisterous way to connect with one half of our hyphenated lives and get in the right mindset to root for El Tri, but otherwise something we don’t really have to know all the way through given we’re in the U.S.

Yet seeing stadiums and bars packed with Latinos wearing the jerseys of their ancestral homes and warbling their national anthems during this World Cup has been a jolt of inspiration I wasn’t expecting. Those few minutes before each match have become a reminder of what we’re up against at this moment in the Western Hemisphere, as President Trump thirsts to smash Latin America into submission while persecuting too many of us stateside.

In downtown Santa Ana earlier this week, Alicia Rojas quietly recited Colombia’s national anthem word for word before a game against the Democratic Republic of the Congo, even though she was just one of a handful of Colombian fans at Chapter One: The Modern Bistro.

“It reconnects me to my roots, my family and the memories of home,” said Rojas, who was born in Bogotá and moved to the U.S. at age 12. The artist has helped to organize against federal immigration raids in Orange County and volunteers for local political races. “Those few minutes remind me that beyond our differences, we share a history, a culture and a love for the land that made us who we are.”

Latinos are a famously divided bunch, to the point that we don’t even like a catch-all label for “us.” A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that 52% of Latinos prefer to refer to themselves by their family’s country of origin, while only 30% identify as Hispanic or Latino and just 17% use plain ol’ American.

One thing that can unite us all — and all lovers of liberty, for that matter — is those Latin American national anthems. Many were written in the aftermath of wars for independence. Most are bright, rousing listens, even if you don’t understand Spanish, because their chords reflect the Romantic classical music popular at the time of their composition in the 19th century. All call for their countrymen to fight against tyranny.

Fans cheer after Lionel Messi scores a goal against Algeria during a World Cup watch party at Mercado Buenos Aires on Tuesday, June 16 in Van Nuys.

(Ronaldo Bolaños/Los Angeles Times)

Cue up this soundtrack for your summer:

Paraguay’s national anthem starts by stating that the people of the Americas were “oppressed for three centuries” until they rebelled. Ecuador’s recalls how its founding fathers “cried out a holy voice to the heavens/that noble voice of a unbreakable pledge/to defeat that [Spanish] monster of blood.” Colombia’s similarly doesn’t shy away from how violent its fight for independence was, but takes solace that “in furrows of pain/good now germinates.”

On and on, these songs stir the soul. Argentina: “Hear the sound of broken chains/See noble equality enthroned.” Uruguay: “Tyrants: Tremble!/We shall cry out ‘Liberty’ in battle!” — a boast backed by flutes and violins that make it sound like a Rossini overture. I especially like how Panama’s national anthem concludes by urging “shovel and pick/to work without delay” — a reminder that the job of creating a better society is never done.

Conservatives have, unsurprisingly, long railed at the very idea of singing the national anthems of other countries on American soil. But that just reinforces Samuel Johnson’s adage that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

There’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from the clarion calls of other countries. “O Canada” is as soaring as “God Save the King,” while revolutionaries across the world have chanted “La Marseillaise” for centuries. And yes: I sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” with all my heart as well — and I definitely know the words to it.

But the message of the U.S. national anthem isn’t enough for Latinos right now. Hailing survival against an invading force is important, but it’s a mindset too many of us have resigned ourselves to under Trump.

The theme of Latin America’s national anthems is the demand that we stand against despotism and push for a better world through sacrifice and valor. They should be a wake-up call, especially for Latinos, to lead the electoral charge against Trump this November. We helped put him in the Oval Office in 2024, and we have the power to take Congress away from his GOP vassals.

Alas, all those paeans to freedom have played out better in song than in real life. Latin America is swinging rightward again, electing presidents who promise to channel the strongmen of yore and rule the region through might, not right.

On the same night that Rojas was cheering on Colombia, she was bemoaning that her homeland had elected Abelardo de la Espriella, a millionaire criminal defense lawyer and political novice who earned Trump’s endorsement for his “tremendous accomplishments in life” — which include claiming that female voters would pick him because of the supposed size of his genitals.

We must channel the hopes and dreams of Simón Bolívar, Emiliano, Zapata, José Martí and other heroes of the Americas who fought for freedom for their countrymen, sought to cast off the long reach of colonialism and imperialism and urged pan-American alliances over forever wars.

Nothing like the World Cup’s unofficial pre-game soundtrack to reinforce this eternal, universal message.

Mexico dominated Czechia 3-0 and finished first in its group. When El Tri plays again on Tuesday in the first round of the knockout stage, I will stand at a packed Chapter One with other fans and so many more across the U.S. and sing again Mexico’s national anthem.

I will hope to have it all memorized by then instead of reading off my smartphone — the thing is hard! The Spanish is archaic, the intonations are complicated, and the words tumble over themselves like a hard charge toward the goal posts.

But I will do it — a little victory in the long battle for freedom that never ends.

WASHINGTON — A Democratic U.S. senator warns the Trump administration is getting ready to round up 500 immigrant children in a hasty effort to remove them from the country, bypassing legal protections. It would be their second attempt after a federal court intervened last year in an overnight plan to fly out hundreds of children on Labor Day weekend.

Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon wrote in a letter Wednesday to U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which oversees the Office of Refugee Resettlement caring for unaccompanied migrant children, that he had “credible information” that the Trump administration had a list of more than 500 migrant children it was targeting for a fast-track removal process and that the department was racing to act in days. He warned that the administration was abdicating “core humanitarian and child welfare mandates” and demanded an immediate halt to any plans to remove the children.

Wyden, who is the ranking member and senior Democrat of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over ORR, did not detail how he came by his information. His office declined to provide further details. ORR falls under the Department of Health and Human Services.

An HHS spokesperson denied any such plans.

“The new information I obtained leads me to believe that the Department is laying the groundwork for another lawless deportation effort, this time on a greater scale, across more countries of origin,” Wyden wrote.

“You have been entrusted with the care and safety of the children placed within the ORR network. Proceeding with this plan knowingly endangers their lives and violates your duty to these vulnerable children.”

Wyden also issued an early warning last August ahead of what eventually became a chaotic weekend of efforts by the Trump administration to remove Guatemalan children in its care and send them home.

HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in “there are no plans to target these children,” calling Wyden’s claims ”irresponsible fearmongering.”

“The Trump Administration is working to identify the parents or legal guardians of unaccompanied alien children in our care because ensuring every child is placed with a properly vetted sponsor is our top priority,” she said.

Over the Labor Day weekend, dozens of migrant children either staying in government-supervised shelters or with foster families were taken from their homes and bused to airfields in Texas bound for Guatemala. A federal judge woken up in the middle of the night eventually stopped the planes. Lawyers for the children — many who had fled violence at home to come to the U.S. — later described how traumatic the middle-of-the-night removal effort was for them.

The administration insisted it was reuniting the Guatemalan children — at the Central American nation’s request — with parents or guardians who sought their return. Lawyers for at least some of the children said that wasn’t true and argued that in any event, authorities still would have to follow a legal process that they did not.

Migrant children traveling alone are usually entrusted to U.S. government care, and there are various legal protections designed to protect them once they’re in the U.S. and navigating the immigration system.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 is one of the key pieces of legislation designed to protect them. With some limited exceptions, it requires that children be placed in the “least restrictive setting possible,” which generally means that they can be released to a sponsor such as a relative in the U.S. while their immigration proceedings play out.

The children can apply for a specially protected status if they can’t return to their home country because of abuse or neglect and they can also apply for asylum.

The Trump administration has made it increasingly difficult for those children to be released to sponsors though. The administration says that they are doing due diligence to make sure that sponsors are thoroughly vetted and that in the past, children were released into dangerous situations.

But advocates say that the result has been children lingering for months in government shelters.

This time, Wyden said the children at risk of being removed come from various countries, potentially including Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Afghanistan, and have been in U.S. custody — mainly in foster care — for at least 180 days. He said they were described as not having any “viable sponsor” who could come forward and take care of them in the U.S.

Not having an identified sponsor could mean the child’s parents are in their home countries, are deceased or are too afraid to claim their children after ICE started arresting some parents who are not in the country legally during their reunification efforts.

Gonzalez and Santana write for the Associated Press.

A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit Venezuela near the city of Moron, followed by a stronger magnitude 7.5 quake in the same area.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed the Trump administration to resume carrying out speedy deportations of undocumented migrants throughout the United States, not just near the border.

A divided three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out a lower court ruling that temporarily blocked President Trump’s expanded use of expedited removal. The ruling was a big victory for the Republican administration, which views the expansion of so-called expedited removal as a key tool for carrying out its mass deportation policy.

An attorney for the plaintiffs said the ruling “undermines the fundamental principle that people receive due process when the government seeks to deport them.”

“The Trump administration’s push for fast-track deportations will subject people to an unfair and error-prone system,” Anand Balakrishnan, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement.

Trump appointed the two judges in the majority in Tuesday’s decision. The third was appointed by President Obama, a Democrat.

The plaintiffs had not “shown that the expedited-removal process denies its members notice and an opportunity to be heard,” Judge Justin R. Walker, one of the Trump appointees, wrote.

Expedited removal — quick deportation without a chance to appear before a judge — has previously been applied to migrants arriving by sea or caught at or near the border shortly after crossing.

In January, Trump expanded its use to undocumented migrants all over the U.S. Immigration agents began whisking migrants away from courthouses where they had gone for immigration proceedings and then removing them from the country within days.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ruled in August that plaintiffs challenging the expansion had made a “strong showing” that it was trampling on people’s due-process rights, and she issued a stay order putting the policy on hold. Cobb was appointed to the federal bench by President Biden, a Democrat.

Many migrants living deep in the U.S. have been in the country for more than two years, making them ineligible for expedited removal under federal law. Cobb said the administration had not developed procedures to ensure they and other groups of migrants were not wrongly deported under the expedited process.

The plaintiffs had put forward “substantial evidence” that the expedited removal process, on the contrary, carried a high risk of error when applied more broadly, Cobb said. The ruling cited examples of people who had lived in the U.S. for far longer than two years but were still ordered to be removed in expedited proceedings.

The Trump administration appealed, arguing in a court filing that its expansion was legal, and protections were in place to prevent arbitrary removal.

Cobb’s ruling was an “egregious error” that was depriving the administration of an “essential tool to combat the unprecedented surge of illegal immigration over the past few years” and efficiently deport potentially millions of people, Justice Department attorneys argued in the October filing.

Thanawala writes for the Associated Press.

Time to break out the “Paper Rings”: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s trip down the aisle is just around the corner.

Since Swift and Kelce’s engagement in August 2025, fans have been wondering when, where and how they’ll tie the knot — and looking for clues anywhere they can.

All of the signs indicate that wedding bells should be ringing any day now. Here’s everything we know so far.

The reception may take place at Madison Square Garden

Leave it to Taylor “Eras Tour” Swift to hold her wedding at the most iconic arena in the U.S. In early June, TMZ reported that the Swift-Kelce wedding would take place at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, with over 1,000 attendees.

Fans immediately jumped on board with the theory, since Taylor has played the venue eight times and famously loves the Big Apple. There’s also notably a “Blank Space” on the MSG calendar between June 28 and July 7. According to TMZ, Swift even secretly had a “massive stage” built offsite to use at the venue, which can hold up to 22,000 people.

The tabloid also broke the news that MSG was not the couple’s first choice wedding venue. Allegedly, they were hoping to tie the knot in Rhode Island, where Swift has an oceanside property, on June 13, but that plan fell through after it was leaked to the press.

Importantly, sources also said that while the celebratory reception is set for MSG, the ceremony will take place beforehand “somewhere more intimate.” Could Rhode Island still be on the table?

It could happen any day now (or maybe it already has?)

Though Swift and Kelce have kept their official wedding date under wraps, signs point to the upcoming Fourth of July weekend. Back in April, Page Six reported that the date was set for July 3, and last Monday, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani helped legitimize the rumor at a press conference, addressing the city’s preparedness for a holiday weekend with a World Cup matchup at MetLife Stadium along with other high-profile events.

“We are the biggest city in the country,” he said. “We are used to big events, and we are incredibly excited for this one. We know it coincides with July 4, America 250, Taylor Swift’s wedding all happening at the same time.”

However, given TMZ’s report that the nuptials will take place before the massive reception, some outlets are speculating that vows may have already been exchanged.

The bachelor and bachelorette parties may have already gone down

Sightings of Swift and Kelce gathering separately in single-sex groups have prompted major speculation about the stars’ respective bachelor and bachelorette parties.

On Wednesday night, photographers captured Kelce meeting up with pals, including his brother and podcast co-host Jason Kelce, former Kansas City Chiefs teammate Ross Travis and comedian Druski at the members-only Bird Streets Club in West Hollywood.

Across the country, paparazzi captured images of an all-female group — that appears to include Swift and her childhood friend Abigail Anderson Berard — gathering at Swift’s Rhode Island estate. Armed security guards were also spotted on the property.

Rumors of guest list drama are swirling

Unsurprisingly, Swift and Kelce have been tight-lipped about wedding details, but keeping an event this huge under wraps is an uphill battle. Page Six linked the duo to discreet wedding planner Mark Seed, and multiple outlets report that the couple required guests to sign a strict nondisclosure agreement before receiving any revealing information.

Even with the secrecy, rumors of drama have emerged. Swift’s ex-BFF Blake Lively (and her husband Ryan Reynolds) were reportedly not invited to the celebration, and Star reported that a number of guests complained about being invited without a plus one. These kinds of issues might sound familiar to anyone who’s ever planned a wedding — and most people don’t have to add security concerns into the equation.

“Do you have an extra ticket?” a man shouted outside SoFi Stadium last Thursday.

The World Cup has been drawing fans from around the globe. But for many, getting a seat in the stadium has come at a steep price.

Some were lucky enough to nab $400 to $500 tickets through official World Cup lotteries, others paid thousands of dollars to catch the action IRL. Tickets for the upcoming USA versus Turkey match were selling for more than $1,400 on resale sites.

The demand has been so high that authorities have been warning fans about how to avoid ticket scams.

As crowds flocked into the stadium, we asked attendees about how much they paid to get into the most-watched sporting event in the world. Here’s what they shared.

Their responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Luis Moreno, Luis Moreno Jr., Angelica Castellano, Diana Moreno and Ramon Aguilera of Orange County

Luis Moreno, Luis Moreno Jr., Angelica Castellanos, Diana Moreno and Ramon Aguilera sport Mexico gear.

How much did you pay for your tickets?

Diana: We don’t want to say because I don’t want our parents to know.

*Whispers* We paid retail. It was like $500 per ticket. For Father’s Day, we wanted to make sure he got to enjoy it.

Why did you want to attend the World Cup?

Castellano: We went in ‘86 in Mexico, ‘94 in Pasadena and now here. We’re excited because I want to enjoy it with my kids. If we didn’t come, I would’ve been sad because they need to see how it is.

Diana: Now, it’s our turn. Even though [today’s match] is not our country, we still had to come and experience it. We’ll watch our team play later on the big screen.

Did you have to give up anything to be here?

Diana: Work, but that doesn’t matter. This is more important. Time with family.

Luis Jr.: Sleep. [Laughs]

Diana: It’s Thursday. We’re out here watching the game, we’re drinking, so there’s no complaints.

Was it worth it?

Diana: Absolutely. No matter what happens today. The fact that we’re here, it’s already a success.

Tell me about your outfit. You’re rocking Paisaboys, an L.A. brand.

Diana: I got the Paisaboys shirt on, repping. I know they have a collaboration with Nike. I got my Nike shoes on and I’m just ready to have a good time. My mom sewed her top last night. She wanted to add a little touch to it.

Angelica: Yes! This is an old, old, old jacket.

Diana: My dad’s outfit is sponsored by me. All Adidas, Father’s Day gift.

Luis Sr.: I got lucky this year.

Adam Chapman and Sarah Harrell of Washington, D.C.

Adam Chapman and Sarah Harrell.

How much did you pay for tickets?

Harrell: We went to two games: USA versus Paraguay [in Los Angeles] and Senegal versus France in New Jersey/New York.

Chapman: The L.A. tickets were way more expensive. We bought them presale for like $1,940, but the [seats] were still very high in the arena and the resale prices are actually cheaper than the ones we bought on presale. It’s horrible. [Laughs]

Why did you want to come to the World Cup?

Chapman: This is my first men’s World Cup. I went to the women’s World Cup in Australia a couple years ago. The last time the U.S. had a men’s World Cup here was like forever ago. We’re probably not going to have another in our lifetime, so I really wanted to make sure we had a chance to go to some games.

Did you have to give up anything to be here?

Harrell: We’re moving the day we get back, so we were packing until the moment we got here. Some of this gear was last-minute purchasing in order to make that work. Also, we took a six-hour plane ride, middle seats. We really committed to get here. We got cat sitters, we both took days off from work, the whole thing.

Was it worth it?

Chapman: Yeah, just for the experience. It’s more money than we would’ve wanted to pay but yeah.

Harrell: We bought the tickets like a year and a half ago, so it’s been on the calendar forever. We ended up getting to bring my brother and his best friend to celebrate his 40th birthday, so it sort just worked out for all of us.

Laila Samimi and Elizabeth Cambage of Los Angeles

Laila Samimi and Elizabeth Cambage.

How much did you pay for your ticket?

Cambage: Nothing. Sorry.

Samimi: We were blessed.

Why did you want to attend the World Cup?

Cambage: This is my first fútbol game ever. I wanted to come cause it’s L.A. Yay sports! It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Let’s get out there and get into it.

Samimi: I’m born and raised in L.A. so I’m happy to see the World Cup here.

Tell me about your outfit inspiration.

Samimi: I’m wearing Honor the Gift, Russell Westbrook’s brand, a Nike top, my shorts are from a random boutique in L.A. and Jordan shoes.

Cambage: I just went crazy at the Nike store. I’m not gonna lie. We just came from the Nike store. I’m reppin’ USA today. Yes, I am Australian, but I do live in America and USA is AUS. [Laughs]

Kenan Sahbaz of St. Louis and family

Bosnia and Herzegovina fans cheer on their team.

How much did you pay for your ticket?

I got mine directly through the FIFA website. We paid $500 a piece. I brought my son, my cousins and their kids.

Why did you want to attend the World Cup?

Sahbaz: This is our very first World Cup. It’s a historic event for our very small country, Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is a huge accomplishment in the past 12 years. This is going to be the first time we’ve made it here again. We’ve got a really good squad and I think we can do some amazing things for our country. This is a time when we really need some support and joy in the country, and no better way to do it than at the World Cup.

Who’s your favorite player?

Kids: Džeko.

Did you have to give up anything to be here?

Sahbaz: A lot. Work. Time. We were initially going to go on vacation to the Bahamas, but I asked him either the Bahamas or the World Cup. So when we found out that we made it, it was the World Cup. We canceled everything else. We even went to the qualifiers in Wales and that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience as well. There was just no way we were going to miss it.

Was it worth it?

Sahbaz: 100%. Win or lose, we still win today.

Daniel Henriquez and David Njenga of Seattle

David Njenga, left, sports Kenya gear, while Daniel Henriquez cheers for El Salvador.

How much did you pay for your ticket?

Henriquez: This match was $500 each. We bought it in like October of last year.

Why did you want to attend the World Cup?

Njenga: Because this is the World Cup. You have to go to a World Cup. This is my second one. I was in Qatar for the last World Cup.

Henriquez: The energy! World Cup baby!

Njenga: There’s people from all over the world. We are all assembled here to enjoy this moment.

Henriquez: This is what happens when all the world comes together. This is our utopia. We all love each other. We’re all here for one thing, to support our country.

Did you have to give up anything to be here?

Njenga: My job. I have to be at work right now, but I took the day off. I don’t mind.

Henriquez: I’m a nurse for the fire department. My boss was awesome. She gave me a day off. I love my boss Nancy. Go Nancy!

Was it worth it?

Njenga: It is worth every penny. It’s not even the money. It’s the experience. After this, we head to San Francisco for another game.

Henriquez: Then we’re heading to Vancouver and then we have another game in Seattle.

Njenga: We’re going to six games [in total]. Our Houston tickets were the cheapest. They were about $400.

Cindy Vazquez of Grenada Hills

Cindy Vazquez Zavala reps Mexico with her outfit.

How much did you pay for your ticket?

It was free.99. Shh!

Why did you want to come to the World Cup?

This is my first World Cup. The Jordan team invited me to attend this game, so lucky me. That’s why I’m wearing Jordans today. I’m in the industry so they invited a few employees from neighborhood stores to come.

Tell us about your outfit inspiration.

Today there’s a Mexico game, so I still gotta rep even though I’m attending this match [Switzerland versus Bosnia and Herzegovina]. The outfit is a Nike T90 jersey and my lace is from Amazon. I got the little [soccer] ball, the little World Cup and teddy bear from the gas station. I needed it.

Did you have to give up anything to be here?

I actually had to request PTO to attend, but the store is still running without me. Right after this game, I actually have to jet back. I work at Feature, which is a sneaker boutique in Studio City. S/O Feature for allowing me to come here!

Fabian Almiron of Spain

Fabian Almiron, originally from Paraguay but currently living in Spain, rides Metro to the game.

How much did you pay for your ticket?

I paid $1,100 for the first game [June 12], $290 for the Turkey game [June 19] and the last game with Australia was $170 [June 25].

Why did you want to come to the World Cup?

This is my first World Cup. I live in Spain, but I’m rooting for Paraguay. I’m very excited to be seeing them participate after 16 years.

Did you have to give up anything to be here?

I used like 20 to 25 days of vacation time to come see the World Cup.

Was it worth it?

Yes!

Sunny Kwong, Sam Mallari, Antonio Evangelista, Michael Evangelista of San Diego and Los Angeles

Antonio Evangelista, Sam Mallari, Michael Evangelista and Sunny Kwong are decked out in Bosnia and Herzegovina gear.

How much did you pay for your ticket?

Michael: We paid $400 each. We got lucky with the last chance lottery. They released the tickets a few months ago.

Why did you want to attend the World Cup?

Michael: We’re rooting for Bosnia this time. This is our first World Cup.

Antonio: It’s a lifelong dream. I’ve loved the sport ever since I was in the Philippines.

Did you have to give up anything to be here?

Michael: Most of us had the day off. I worked in the morning at like 6 a.m. and then I’m going to work afterward. I really wanted to carve out time to be there.

Mallari: I took time off because this is my first soccer game ever and I wanted to experience the World Cup with true fans.

Was it worth it?

Michael: 100%. It’s honestly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It’s been awesome to be here with my dad. We watched the last World Cup finals and we were literally in tears. I know he’s been playing soccer ever since he was in the Philippines military.

Antonio: 20 years.

Becky Clift of Orange County and William Wagner of San Diego

Colleagues William Wagner and Becky Clift sport traditional festival inspired outfits to cheer on Switzerland.

How much did you pay for your ticket?

Clift: They were gifted to us.

Wagner: We’re a fortunate group.

Why did you want to come to the World Cup?

Clift: The World Cup in America is super fun, so we wanted to support it and be a part of it. This was the game that we got tickets for, so we decided to dress up a little bit and have some fun.

Wagner: We’re both soccer people. We both speak the world’s language, so we’re happy to be a part of it here.

Tell me about your outfit inspiration.

Wagner: I have a very close Swiss friend who was equipped for this. One quick phone call and here I am.

Clift: Then I had to get mine so I could support.

Did you have to give up anything to be here?

Wagner: A full day of work. We’re both engineers. We know each other through work.

Was it worth it?

Wagner: We’ll find out.

Clift: Heck yeah!

Jorge Morales of Topanga

Jorge Morales holds out a ball he got at the World Cup opener in Mexico City.

How much did you pay for tickets?

It was between $800 to $900 for my USA versus Paraguay tickets. I bought them through Seat Geek.

Why did you want to come to the World Cup?

I wanted to experience it not just in Los Angeles, but I also wanted to experience it in Mexico. I’m going to three games in Los Angeles and four in Mexico City. Going to my first World Cup in Mexico City was a whole different ballgame. Mexico played in their home country and they won. It was like pandemonium. Even though it was raining over there at the time, it was still a lot of fun. Everyone was hugging each other. I’m looking at you, New York Knicks fans. [Laughs]

Did you have to give up anything to be here?

I’m used to traveling, so I’m like this ain’t nothing. I just wanted to experience a World Cup game and the fact that it’s in three countries, you’re not going to experience that any other time. It’s the one and only World Cup where you’re going to see three countries hosting it.

Alexi Kulik, Marcella Harkness, Luke Kulik and Ian Harkness of San Diego

Switzerland fans Alexi Kulik, Marcella Harkness, Luke Kulik and Ian Harkness.

How much did you pay for your ticket?

Ian: $450 per ticket.

Alexi: We won the ticket lottery. That’s the only way ‘cause the resale is expensive.

Why did you want to attend the World Cup?

Marcella: This is our first World Cup!

Ian: I was at the Switzerland versus Qatar game. Similar outfit. We got it dialed this time. Lots of fun. Tough ending, but what are you going to do?

Luke: We wanted to support Switzerland. Everyone in the family is Swiss. It’s fun to go to a World Cup game. We were just excited to get tickets. I think it’s a great way for the family to spend time together and a good excuse to get out of work.

Did you have to give up anything to be here?

Luke: Time off work. Time to come here. We drove up here. I don’t think we gave up much. We just enjoy being here.

Ian: $450.

Alexi: And we woke up at 5 a.m., so that we could come up here and spend the day together.

Was it worth it?

All: Yes!

Anja Gegic, Dino Gegic, Benjamin Mustafic, Nordin Kapic, Armin Kapic of Los Angeles

Bosnia and Herzegovina fans Anja Gegic, Dino Gegic, Benjamin Mustafic, Nordin Kapic and Armin Kapic.

How much did you pay for your ticket?

Nordin: $3,000. We’re like literally on the field.

Anja: $450. In L.A., we got it like that.

Why did you want to attend the World Cup?

Anja: This is our second time ever qualifying for the World Cup. We are so proud to be here and support our country today.

Nordin: I mean, look around. Why would you not want to be here today?

Armin: We’re hoping for the win!

All: 2-0!

Bendicht Hügli and Lucia Grajales of Mexico City

Lucia Grajales and Bendicht Hugli, both currently living in Mexico City, hold a Swiss flag.

How much did you pay for your ticket?

Hügli: The ticket was $650. That’s stealing. That’s robbery. When I went in ‘86, I think the tickets were 10% of the price I paid for this year.

Why did you want to attend the World Cup?

Hügli: I had some business in San Diego. I saw Switzerland is going to be here, so let’s hit it and break the bank to get tickets. I went to the World Cup in Mexico City in ’86. I saw 12 games. I’m going to one this time.

Was it worth it?

Hügli: We’ll see. If Switzerland plays lousy, then I’m going to be pissed, but I think they’ll do better than in the first game.

Flavia Sacco and Isidoro Garcia of Washington, D.C.

Flavia Sacco and Isidoro Garcia root for Paraguay.

How much did you pay for your ticket?

Isidoro: I think it was around $500 per ticket. Again, we were very lucky because Paraguay was the first game.

Flavia: It was early bird without knowing who was going to play.

Isidoro: We’re also going to the Paraguay versus Turkey game in San Francisco and the third one in Mexico City.

Why did you want to come to the World Cup?

Flavia: We’re rooting for Paraguay. I’m from Paraguay, born and raised.

Isidoro: This is my second World Cup. I went to the one in Qatar. We were very excited about it. Actually, we were very lucky too because we bought Paraguay’s tickets when they were selling them blank. So we just bought the three tickets for Paraguay before knowing the group stage and then it turned out to be in the U.S., so it was awesome.

Flavia: We were hoping it would be on the East Coast because that’s where we live and it ended up being on the other side of the country, but we already had the tickets and we really wanted to go to a game, so we flew. We’re coming straight from the airport. We have our 5-month-old baby who is at the hotel with my mom.

Did you have to give up anything to be here?

Isidoro: I guess time with our daughter. Even though it’s only going to be a few hours, we miss her a lot. She’s very tiny. Every [moment] is precious with her.

Was it worth it?

Isidoro: Yes, even though it’s a few hours and hopefully Paraguay will pull it off.

Jorge Espinosa of Los Angeles

Jorge Espinosa of Los Angeles.

How much did you pay for tickets?

For the USA versus Paraguay ticket, I think I paid like $1,800, and for another match, I think I paid about $1,020, so a little less. I think that’s when the prices started to go down.

Why did you want to come to the World Cup?

I’ve always wanted to go. I missed my chance to go to Brazil in 2014. I really wanted to go, but I had just taken a huge trip to Asia, so I couldn’t really go. I didn’t have any money left and I’ve been thinking about the World Cup being here since it was awarded to the U.S. I was really bummed out when it was awarded to Qatar instead of the U.S. and also instead of Australia. I’m really excited about it. It feels unreal.

What does it mean for the World Cup to be in your hometown?

It means so much. I remember when they had it here in ‘94. I didn’t get a chance to go to any of the games, but the energy that you feel around the city is like next level. The events they’ve been hosting are so awesome. You get to meet more people from other walks of life and other countries.

Did you have to give up anything to be here?

I just pretty much had to pick up more debt, but I get points so it’ll help fly somewhere. Also, debt disappears when you die so they can try coming after me for that World Cup money, but they never will. [Laughs]

Was it worth it?

I looked at the price and was like, “It’ll never be this cheap in my life, ever.” It’s only ever going to go up, and, hey, it’s in my backyard.