Policy chief Zia Yusuf has led Reform’s drive to find savings at councils
A tech start-up investor is taking a leading role in Reform UK’s efforts to access sensitive data in a bid to identify savings in one council controlled by the party, the BBC has learned.
Harriet Green, the founder of Basis Capital, is helping Reform UK’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) find ways to cut costs at West Northamptonshire Council.
She is an entrepreneur whose firm invests in businesses that provide services and work with, or compete against, local government.
Local councillors have raised concerns about whether it is appropriate for Green to access council data and questioned whether businesses backed by Basis would gain an unfair advantage over competitors.
Green declined to comment. Reform UK did not respond to requests for comment.
The BBC has been told Green is the only person Doge has put forward to access data at the council in Northamptonshire so far.
Senior council officers are vetting Green as they consider a proposal to allow her to analyse records of spending on items such as IT systems and hotels housing asylum seekers.
When Doge was launched after May’s local elections, Reform UK said a team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors would “visit and analyse” spending at all of the councils controlled by the party to find “waste and inefficiencies”.
But the unit has been hampered by legal constraints and has not been able to access any council data so far.
Doge has only visited three of the councils controlled by Reform so far. It’s planning to visit a fourth, Lancashire County Council, in October.
Reform UK sources say they see the proposed data-sharing exercise and Green’s role in it in Northamptonshire as a potential model for gaining access to sensitive information at other councils.
Green’s company, Basis, launched last year and describes itself as an “early stage investor reimagining what governments can no longer deliver”.
Basis invests in companies such as Civic Marketplace, which is a public procurement platform designed to connect government agencies with service contractors.
In an interview with the Spectator this year, Green said Basis was a private fund set up to “invest in companies that are building where the state is failing”.
“A loftier way of putting that is we’re trying to outcompete the state,” said Green, a former intern at the Adam Smith Institute, a pro-free market think tank.
LinkedIn
Harriet Green is a founding partner of Basis, as shown here on her LinkedIn profile
Councillor Daniel Lister, who leads Conservative opposition at the council, said Green’s role raised questions about potential conflict of interest given Basis’s stated mission and investments.
Lister said: “When a party unit opens the door to council data, it creates an inside track where firms built to outcompete the state will thrive.”
Jonathan Harris, the Liberal Democrat group leader, questioned what experience Green had in data handling and identifying savings at local authorities.
“There are questions not only about skill-sets but also about whether being involved in a Doge-type activity could provide some form of competitive advantage and access to information which others would not have,” Harris said.
“This would not be allowed under procurement rules for public bodies.”
The councillor said Doge and Green must be vetted by the council’s scrutiny committee if approval was granted.
Legal barriers
Doge is led by Zia Yusuf, Reform UK’s head of policy and its former chairman, and was inspired by billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to cut government costs in the US.
It was set up in June this year after Reform UK took control of 10 local authorities in May’s local elections.
“Our team will use cutting-edge technology and deliver real value for voters,” Yusuf said.
But progress has stalled over data access and instead, Reform UK councillors are trying to find savings without Doge.
In Kent, a cabinet member for local government efficiency has been created, and the county council’s Reform leader has claimed potential savings worth millions have been identified.
Councils across England face significant financial pressures after years of tight funding.
Yusuf’s Doge has come closest to accessing data in West Northamptonshire, where in July the cabinet “approved a mechanism to review information sharing arrangements that could lead to potential future opportunities for identifying savings and efficiencies at the authority”.
In a report, the council said its executive leadership team had met “Reform UK visitors” twice to discuss “potential opportunities to share data with third parties for the purpose of identifying efficiencies and potential savings”.
The report said by law, local authorities must not “promote or publish any material to affect public support for a political party”.
“As the Doge offer is from and associated with Reform UK, a political party, this prohibition and the public law principles alongside it are of particular impact,” the report said.
The council said it understood members of Yusuf’s Doge team were “not employed by Reform UK” and had offered their services at no charge.
Council sources say they are still working through the vetting process.
In the meantime, the party insists the unit’s work is ongoing, pointing to deputy leader Richard Tice’s recent announcement about local government pension schemes.
Yusuf has frequently complained about “waste” in local government and the way in which contracts for services are procured, alleging a lack of competition and corruption.
In her interview with the Spectator, Green was asked whether the political appetite for US President Donald Trump and Doge filled her with confidence.
Green said: “I think there’s a UK-way of doing things that we haven’t felt out yet.
“I don’t think it needs to be brash or kooky or partisan. Those things give you a litmus for something maybe being timely and it’s a good opportunity.”
She added: “I’m not convinced that anyone in the public sector is incentivised in a way that gets good outcomes for the work that they’re doing.”
Former UCLA quarterback Dante Moore warmed up amid windy conditions when Oregon played at Northwestern on Sept. 1 in Evanston, Ill.
(Michael Reaves / Getty Images)
Northwestern’s lakeside stadium might qualify Evanston, Ill., as the Windy City given the strong gusts that have changed the trajectory of passes.
Oregon quarterback Dante Moore, who spent his freshman season with the Bruins, compared the experience to his high school stadium in Detroit, which also bordered the Great Lakes.
“Coming out in warm-up was like, ‘Holy s—, it’s windy,’ ” said Moore, who completed 16 of 20 passes for 178 yards and one touchdown with one interception during the Ducks’ 34-14 victory over the Wildcats earlier this month. “I am looking at Coach [Dan] Lanning, and Coach Lanning said, ‘It’s time to let it rip today.’ ”
So what’s a Southern California native like Iamaleava supposed to do to get ready?
“I don’t really think you can do anything to prepare for it when you’re out here,” cracked Iamaleava, alluding to warm temperatures and calm winds. “I played in a lot of windy games, for sure, and making sure to leave about ball speed and making sure that spiral is right, you know, to spin through the wind.”
Santa Monica easily sits among the pantheon of iconic Southern California communities due to its combination of weather, beach backdrop, energy and friendliness.
Yet, that lore has been chipped away by sexual scandal, stagnation and, more recently, by another bubbling calamity.
How Santa Monica fell into this predicament and the measures it may take, including cutbacks, to remedy this situation are the focal points of their article.
Let’s take a look at their reporting.
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One man’s rampage
The city still faces 180 claims of sexual abuse by a former Santa Monica police dispatcher, a scandal that has already cost $229 million in settlement payouts.
Uller had been hired and continued to work with children despite a 1991 background check that revealed he had been arrested as a teen for molesting a toddler he baby-sat, according to a report reviewed by The Times.
On Tuesday, the city declared that it is in fiscal distress, a move that raised concerns among city workers that cuts, and perhaps layoffs, were coming.
“The financial situation the city is dealing with is certainly serious,” City Manager Oliver Chi said during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
The worries among city workers reached such a peak that before Tuesday’s meeting Chi sent out an email to all city employees, trying to reassure them no layoffs were being planned.
Santa Monica’s recently approved budget for 2025-26 expects $473.5 million in revenue, but $484.3 million in costs, and city officials worry that the sexual abuse scandal could continue to put a drain on city coffers that are already reeling from an economic downturn.
More than just sex scandals
Current and former officials said the current financial woes were taking shape years ago.
“Santa Monica has failed to reign in unnecessary spending for a number of years, and we’ve known this financial crisis has been looming for a while,” said former Santa Monica Mayor Phil Brock, who lost his seat in the November election.
The city has faced a steep downturn in tourism and retail revenues, Brock said, along with several businesses that have left downtown and the promenade.
“You might have to right-side services, and look at areas where [the city] might be overstaffed,” he said. “I recommend we go back to basics.”
But the declaration voted on Tuesday instead called for a declaration of “fiscal distress,” which Chi said was meant more for the city to communicate its financial situation with other agencies, get help in seeking grants and other funding, and as a tool to work on a “realignment of city operations.”
One city official, who asked not to be named because they weren’t cleared to speak on the record, said employees remained skeptical of what steps the city would take, and whether it could mean cuts to their pay or benefits.
What steps exactly the city is set to take remain unclear.
Whatever happens next in Santa Monica, our reporters will be there to document. As for now, check out the full article.
The week’s biggest stories
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At least 76 killed in Gaza City alone as 450,000 flee Israeli attacks on the coastal enclave’s main urban centre.
At least 91 Palestinians have been killed across the Gaza Strip since dawn, where Israeli forces continue to heavily bomb Gaza City, the main urban centre in the besieged enclave.
Medical sources across Gaza hospitals told Al Jazeera on Saturday that at least 76 Palestinians were killed in Gaza City alone, where the Israeli army has been trying to forcibly expel the entire population in recent weeks.
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In the area’s Tuffah neighbourhood, at least six people were killed in an Israeli drone attack. In western Gaza City’s Shati camp, at least five people, including two girls, were killed in an Israeli assault, an ambulance source told our Al Jazeera colleagues on the ground.
The Israeli military estimates it has demolished up to 20 tower blocks over the past two weeks in the area.
According to the Gaza Civil Defence, some 450,000 – or about half the urban centre’s population – have fled Gaza City since Israel in August announced its decision to capture and occupy it.
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza, move southwards after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south [Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters]
Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from central Gaza, said Israeli forces were attacking people as they fled following Israel’s forced expulsion orders.
“The army is using quadcopters to kill people trying to escape their neighbourhoods and using these robots with residents saying every time they explode it feels like an earthquake,” she reported.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s ruling entity Hamas released on Saturday what it called a “farewell picture” of 48 Israeli captives held in Gaza.
Hamas has persistently warned that intensifying Israeli attacks and a ground invasion would endanger the lives of the captives; some have already been killed by Israeli bombs.
The armed Palestinian group also claims that captives are “scattered throughout the neighbourhoods” of besieged Gaza City.
Situation in al-Mawasi ‘heartbreaking’
While the Israeli army has intensified its deadly bombing and destruction of Gaza City, it said it is also continuing military operations in the south.
At least three of the dead were aid seekers killed by Israeli forces at a distribution centre near Rafah in southern Gaza.
Al Jazeera’s Khoudary said the al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza, touted by the Israeli army as a so-called “safe zone” and where Palestinians in the north were told to flee from, was “overcrowded”, leaving many with few alternatives.
“We’re seeing some tents on the sides of the streets. People have literally pitched their tents in places where there’s no water, electricity or infrastructure,” she said.
“That’s because Palestinians do not have any other option.”
Michail Fotiadis from medical charity Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, says the situation in al-Mawasi is “heartbreaking”.
“Everybody is looking for a place to pitch a tent, but the materials are not available. The situation is really dire for the population. Access to water is very difficult,” Fotiadis told Al Jazeera from al-Mawasi, described by Israel as a “humanitarian zone”.
He said more Palestinians continue to arrive from northern Gaza with nothing after escaping Israel’s military onslaught.
“Usually, in a situation like this, survival prevails. But Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have had to endure so many different displacements, so many situations of fear. They are beyond desperation.”
An oversight body that has documented and exposed substandard jail conditions for decades would cease to exist if the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors moves forward with a cost-cutting plan.
L.A. County could save about $40,000 a year by eliminating the Sybil Brand Commission, according to an August report prepared for the supervisors by the board’s Executive Office.
The Sybil Brand Commission’s 10 members serve a key oversight role, regularly conducting unannounced inspections of county jails and lockups.
Named for a philanthropist and activist who worked to improve jail conditions for women in L.A. starting in the 1940s, the commission’s findings were recently cited in a state lawsuit over what Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta called a “humanitarian crisis” inside the county jails.
“In June 2024, the Sybil Brand Commission reported that multiple dorms at Men’s Central were overcrowded with broken toilets … and ceilings that had been painted over to cover mold,” Bonta’s office wrote in its complaint, which seeks to compel reforms by the county and sheriff’s department.
The recommendation to “sunset” the commission comes amid a spike in in-custody deaths with 38 so far this year, which puts the county on track for what Bonta’s office said would mark at least a 20-year high.
The Executive Office for the Board of Supervisors responded to questions from The Times with a statement Friday that said its report’s “purpose was not to eliminate oversight or input,” but to demonstrate “where responsibilities overlap and where efficiencies could strengthen oversight and support.”
The unattributed statement said the report found issues with “commissioner availability” that led to meeting cancellations and put “limits on their ability to conduct inspections.”
The Sybil Brand Commission took up the possibility of elimination at its meeting earlier this month, when commissioners and advocates railed against the proposal as a shortsighted way to cut costs that will leave county inmates more vulnerable to mistreatment and neglect.
In a separate move, the Executive Office of the Board of Supervisors is reassigning or eliminating a third of Inspector General Max Huntsman’s staff, slashing funding to the watchdog that investigates misconduct by county employees and the sheriff’s department, according to Huntsman.
“At the back of all this is the fundamental question of whether the board wants oversight at all,” Eric Miller, a Sybil Brand commissioner, said in an interview.
Miller added that the “sunsetting of Sybil Brand seems to be part of a persistent attempt to control and limit oversight of the sheriff’s department.”
The report from the Executive Office of the Board of Supervisors said its recommendation to do away with the jail oversight body came after a review of “225 commissions, committees, boards, authorities, and task forces” funded by the county. The proposal would “sunset” six commissions, including Sybil Brand, and “potentially merge” 40 others.
The report noted that “jail and detention inspection duties are also monitored by the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission.”
But that commission, which was established less than a decade ago, takes on a broader range of issues within the sheriff’s department, from deputy misconduct to so-called deputy gangs. Unlike Sybil Brand, its members do not go on frequent tours of jails and publish detailed reports documenting the conditions.
The Executive Office’s statement said “unannounced jail inspections would continue, either through a COC subcommittee or coordinated oversight structure.”
Peter Eliasberg, chief counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said the proposal to get rid of the commission is the latest in a recent succession of blows to law enforcement accountability.
That list includes the ousting of former Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission chair Robert Bonner earlier this year, and the introduction last week of a county policy requiring oversight bodies to submit many of their communications to the county for approval.
Eliasberg said losing the Sybil Brand Commission would be a major setback.
“Sybil Brand has been incredibly effective in shining a really harsh spotlight on some terrible things going on in the jails,” he said. “Sybil Brand, I think, has done some really important work.”
Huntsman, the inspector general, said during a Probation Oversight Commission meeting Monday that his office expects to lose a third of its staff. The “current plan proposes to eliminate 14 positions including vacancies,” according to the Executive Office statement.
Huntsman told the commission that the Executive Office of the Board of Supervisors informed him on Sept. 11 that “a number of positions in my office will be taken away from me and moved to the Executive Office and will no longer be available for independent oversight.”
The inspector general added that “there’s a group of staff that have been specifically identified by the Executive Office and taken away, and then there are positions that are curtailed. So the end result is we have a third fewer people, which will impact our operations.”
The Executive Office’s statement said the changes would “save more than $3.95 million” and avoid “deeper cuts” elsewhere.
“We remain confident that the OIG’s remaining staffing levels will allow the OIG to fulfill its essential duties and carry out its mandate,” the statement said.
Late Friday afternoon, Edward Yen, executive officer for the Board of Supervisors, sent out an email “retracting” the new county policy that required many communications by oversight bodies to undergo prior approval.
“While the intent of the policy was to provide long-requested structure and support for commissions and oversight bodies,” Yen wrote, “we recognize that its rollout created confusion and unintended consequences.”
One resident on Emmerdale will be left ‘devastated’ after a discovery on the ITV soap next week, linked to a separate character’s health scare according to new spoilers
07:30, 19 Sep 2025Updated 07:33, 19 Sep 2025
Two characters face a worrying time on Emmerdale next week(Image: PA)
Two characters face a worrying time on Emmerdale next week, with a “devastating” discovery linked to a character’s health scare.
New spoilers for next week’s episodes, released earlier this week, share fan favourite Liam Cavanagh is concerned about a potential diagnosis. Liam’s concern over a health issue leaves him fearing he may have cancer.
Soon the doctor is forced to confess all to his worried fiancée Chas Dingle, leaving her “devastated” when she finds out what her partner has been going through on his own. It kicks off following scenes this week, which showed Liam caught urinating at the allotments by Claudette Anderson.
He was forced to explain that he’s been having issues, unable to control when he ‘relieves himself’. Claudette urged Liam to see someone, and next week he continues to avoid this.
One resident on Emmerdale will be left ‘devastated’ after a discovery on the ITV soap next week(Image: ITV)
Spoilers reveal that Claudette catches up with Liam, and she tells him he needs to attend the appointment for his prostate. With Liam putting it off and avoiding the appointment, Claudette pleads with him repeatedly over the week to rebook it.
He gets her to cancel the initial appointment, and refuses to rebook as he ignores what’s going on. Soon enough someone else finds out what Liam is facing, as his colleague Manpreet Sharma witnesses a desperate Liam relieving himself in his own consulting room hand basin.
She knows something is very wrong and asks him about it, eventually getting to the truth. Liam tries to ignore it all but Manpreet urges him to face up to his health scare, with him also realising he needs to tell his partner Chas too.
He comes clean to Chas who is left “devastated” to hear Liam fears he may have prostate cancer. Gutted that Liam hadn’t confided in her she does her best to support Liam.
Liam Cavanagh is concerned about a potential diagnosis(Image: ITV)
But will Liam be okay, as he finally agrees to an appointment to find out what is going on? It comes amid a dramatic time for Chas and Liam, after Chas’ son Aaron Dingle was almost killed by his husband John Sugden.
John has finally been exposed as a baddie, with it now known he framed Ella Forster for the harassment campaign against Chas and Liam. John set the whole thing up ahead of their planned wedding, in order to make himself seem the hero and in order to get Ella away from the village after her heartbreak over the couple getting together.
Viewers can watch these scenes play out next week!
BEIRUT — Cascades of condemnation from friend and foe alike. An array of international organizations and rights groups leveling accusations of genocide and war crimes. Boycotts across a range of sectors and fields.
As Israel begins its ground offensive to occupy Gaza City, defying international and domestic pressure to negotiate a ceasefire with the militant group Hamas, it skirts ever closer to becoming a pariah state.
“Israel is entering diplomatic isolation. We will have to deal with a closed economy,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a Finance Ministry conference Monday, giving a rare admission of the war’s effect on Israel’s international standing.
Netanyahu engaged in damage control on Tuesday, saying that he was talking specifically about Israel’s defense industry and that the wider economy was “strong and innovative.” But by then his words had already spooked markets, spurring a sharp fall in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and a raft of enraged statements from his political enemies.
“We are not Sparta — this vision as presented will make it difficult for us to survive in an evolving global world,” the Israel Business Forum, which represents the heads of around 200 of the Israeli economy’s largest companies, said in a statement. “We are marching towards a political, economic, and social abyss that will endanger our existence in Israel.”
Netanyahu has forged ahead with the ground operation despite repeated warnings from allies and adversaries that it would trigger a humanitarian catastrophe for the hundreds of thousands of people remaining in what was the enclave’s largest urban center.
Visiting the U.S. in July, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, posed alongside Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), Sen. Jim Risch (R-Ida.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
(Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
Even as tanks and armored vehicles streamed into Gaza City’s western neighborhoods, an independent U.N. commission released a report Tuesday concluding that “Israeli authorities and security forces have the genocidal intent to destroy, in whole or in part, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”
It was the most recent of a number of international organizations and rights groups accusing Netanyahu’s government of committing genocide. The Israeli government dismissed the commission’s report as “falsehoods.”
The European Commission on Wednesday decided on a partial suspension of a trade agreement between the European Union and Israel. The move could involve imposing tariffs on Israeli goods entering the union.
The measure, EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas said in a statement Tuesday on X, is aimed at pressuring Israel’s government to change course over the war in Gaza.
Western governments — including some of Israel’s most loyal supporters — castigated the decision to invade, with Germany’s foreign minister slamming it as “the completely wrong path” and France saying the campaign had “no military logic.”
Yvette Cooper, Britain’s foreign secretary, said it was “utterly reckless and appalling,” while Irish President Michael Higgins, a routinely vociferous critic of Israel, said the U.N. must look to exclude countries “practicing genocide and those who are supporting genocide with armaments.”
Meanwhile, many nations — including traditional U.S. allies such as Australia, Britain, Canada and others — are expected to recognize Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in defiance of intense diplomatic pressure from Washington.
Pope Leo XIV weighed in Wednesday on the carnage in Gaza, expressing his “deep solidarity” with Palestinians “who continue to live in fear and survive in unacceptable conditions, being forcibly displaced once again from their lands.” He called for a ceasefire.
Relatives of Palestinians who died following Israeli attacks mourn as the bodies are taken from Al-Shifa Hospital for funerals in Gaza City on Wednesday.
(Khames Alrefi / Anadolu / Getty Images)
Israel’s military pressed on with the offensive Wednesday, leveling buildings in Gaza City’s north, west and south, residents and local reporters said. Palestinian health authorities in the enclave said 50 people had been killed since dawn Wednesday, adding to a death toll that has exceeded 65,000 since Oct. 7, 2023. It will take months to fully occupy Gaza City, Israeli military leaders say.
It’s unclear whether the U.S. supports the ground invasion. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said President Trump prefers a negotiated settlement, but seemed reluctant to exert any pressure to stop Israel’s incursion. Trump, after professing “I don’t know too much” about the offensive, warned Hamas against using hostages as human shields.
Neighboring Arab nations perceive the ground operation as the latest in a series of moves over the last two years that demonstrate Israel has little interest in peace. Noting the bombings this month of Lebanon, Syria, Qatar and Yemen, they say Israel has become as destabilizing a player in the region as Iran has long been.
Prospects for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between some Arab states and Israel forged during Trump’s first term, appear dimmer than ever. And the United Arab Emirates, a founding and enthusiastic member of the accords, has said the agreements are under threat if Netanyahu goes ahead with plans to annex the occupied West Bank.
The fallout has spread to the cultural arena.
On Tuesday, Spain joined Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia in saying it would boycott the Eurovision contest if Israel were to join. Last week, Flanders Festival Ghent, a Belgian music festival, withdrew its invitation for the Munich Philharmonic to play there because the orchestra’s conductor is Lahav Shani, who is also music director of the Israeli Philharmonic. In August, Israeli actor Gal Gadot blamed “pressure” on Hollywood celebrities to “speak out against Israel” for the paltry box office returns of “Snow White.”
Even Israel’s much-vaunted arms industry, which has used the war in Gaza as proof-of-concept for its wares and has proved to be relatively resistant to opprobrium, is affected.
Though the U.S. remains by far Israel’s largest supplier of weapons, a number of European governments have imposed complete or partial arms embargoes and prevented Israeli manufacturers from participating in defense expos. This week, organizers for the Dubai Air Show, one of the world’s largest aerospace trade events, reportedly barred Israeli defense firms from taking part — reversing a policy in recent years that saw them take pride of place in similar events.
Similarly, beginning next year, Israelis will not be able to attend programs at the Royal College of Defense Studies in London, a prestigious institution that allows enrollment from the British armed services and roughly 50 U.K. partner nations.
“U.K. military educational courses have long been open to personnel from a wide range of countries, with all U.K. military courses emphasizing compliance with international humanitarian law,” the Defense Ministry in London said in a statement Monday. It said the Israeli government’s decision to escalate in Gaza “is wrong.”
“There must be a diplomatic solution to end this war now,” the statement said, “with an immediate ceasefire, the return of the hostages and a surge in humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza.”
At a time when its leadership is in question and its mission challenged, the Library of Congress has named a new U.S. poet laureate, the much-honored author and translator Arthur Sze.
The library announced Monday that the 74-year-old Sze had been appointed to a one-year term, starting this fall. The author of 12 poetry collections and recipient last year of a lifetime achievement award from the library, he succeeds Ada Limón, who had served for three years. Previous laureates also include Joy Harjo, Louise Glück and Billy Collins.
Speaking during a recent Zoom interview with the Associated Press, Sze acknowledged some misgivings when Rob Casper, who heads the library’s poetry and literature center, called him in June about becoming the next laureate.
He wondered about the level of responsibilities and worried about the upheaval since President Trump fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden in May. After thinking about it overnight, he called Casper back and happily accepted.
“I think it was the opportunity to give something back to poetry, to something that I’ve spent my life doing,” he explained, speaking from his home in Santa Fe, N.M. “So many people have helped me along the way. Poetry has just helped me grow so much, in every way.”
Sze’s new job begins during a tumultuous year for the library, a 200-year-old, nonpartisan institution that holds a massive archive of books published in the United States. Trump abruptly fired Hayden after conservative activists accused her of imposing a “woke” agenda, criticism that Trump has expressed often as he seeks sweeping changes at the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian museums and other cultural institutions.
Hayden’s ouster was sharply criticized by congressional Democrats, leaders in the library and scholarly community and such former laureates as Limón and Harjo.
Although the White House announced that it had named Deputy Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche as the acting librarian, daily operations are being run by a longtime official at the library, Robert Randolph Newlen. Events such as the annual National Book Festival have continued without interruption or revision.
Laureates are forbidden to take political positions, although the tradition was breached in 2003 when Collins publicly stated his objections to President George W. Bush’s push for war against Iraq.
Newlen is identified in Monday’s announcement as acting librarian, a position he was in line for according to the institution’s guidelines. He praised Sze, whose influences range from ancient Chinese poets to Wallace Stevens, for his “distinctly American” portraits of the Southwest landscapes and for his “great formal innovation.”
“Like Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, Sze forges something new from a range of traditions and influences — and the result is a poetry that moves freely throughout time and space,” his statement reads in part.
Sze’s official title is poet laureate consultant in poetry, a 1985 renaming of a position established in 1937 as consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress. The mission is loosely defined as a kind of literary ambassador, to “raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry.”
Sze wants to focus on a passion going back more than a half-century to his undergraduate years at UC Berkeley — translation.
He remembers reading some English-language editions of Chinese poetry, finding the work “antiquated and dated” and deciding to translate some of it himself, writing out the Chinese characters and engaging with them “on a much deeper level” than he had expected. Besides his own poetry, he has published “The Silk Dragon: Translations From the Chinese.”
“I personally learned my own craft of writing poetry through translating poetry,” he says. “I often think that people think of poetry as intimidating, or difficult, which isn’t necessarily true. And I think one way to deepen the appreciation of poetry is to approach it through translation.”
Sze is a New York City native and son of Chinese immigrants who in such collections as “Sight Lines” and “Compass Rose” explores themes of cultural and environmental diversity and what he calls “coexisting.”
In a given poem, he might shift from rocks above a pond to people begging in a subway, from a firing squad in China to Thomas Jefferson’s plantation in Virginia. His many prizes include the National Book Award for “Sight Lines.”
He loves poetry from around the world but feels at home writing in English, if only for the “richness of the vocabulary” and the wonders of its origins.
“I was just looking at the word ‘ketchup,’ which started from southern China, went to Malaysia, was taken to England, where it became a tomato-based sauce, and then, of course, to America,” he says. “And I was just thinking days ago, that’s a word we use every day without recognizing its ancestry, how it’s crossed borders, how it’s entered into the English language and enriched it.”
WASHINGTON — Hours after the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, FBI Director Kash Patel declared online that “the subject” in the killing was in custody. The shooter was not. The two men who had been detained were quickly released. Utah officials acknowledged that the gunman remained at large.
The false assurance was more than a slip. It spotlighted the high-stakes uncertainty surrounding Patel’s leadership of the bureau when its credibility is under extraordinary pressure, as is his own.
Patel now approaches congressional oversight hearings this week facing not just questions about that investigation but broader doubts about whether he can stabilize a federal law enforcement agency fragmented by political fights and internal upheaval.
Democrats are poised to press Patel on a purge of senior executives that has prompted a lawsuit, his pursuit of President Trump’s grievances over the Russia investigation long after it ended, and a realignment of resources that has prioritized illegal immigration and street crime over the FBI’s traditional pursuits.
The hearings will offer Patel his most consequential stage yet, and perhaps the clearest test of whether he can convince the country that the FBI, under his watch, can avoid compounding its mistakes in a time of political violence and deepening distrust.
“Because of the skepticism that some members of the Senate have had and still have, it’s extremely important that he perform very well at these oversight hearings” on Tuesday and Wednesday, said Gregory Brower, the FBI’s former top congressional affairs official.
The FBI declined to comment about Patel’s coming testimony.
Inaccurate claim after Kirk shooting
Kirk’s killing was always going to be a closely scrutinized investigation, not only because it was the latest burst of political violence in the U.S. but also because of Kirk’s friendships with Trump, Patel and other administration figures and allies.
While agents investigated, Patel posted on X that “the subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody.” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said at a near-contemporaneous news conference that “whoever did this, we will find you,” suggesting authorities were still searching. Patel soon after posted that the person “in custody” had been released.
Two people were initially held for questioning in the case, but neither was a suspect.
As the search stretched on, Patel angrily vented to FBI personnel Thursday about what he perceived as a failure to keep him informed, including that he was not quickly shown a photograph of the suspected shooter. That’s according to people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to discuss it by name and spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press. The New York Times earlier reported details of the call.
Asked about the scrutiny of Patel’s performance, the FBI said it had worked with local law enforcement to bring the suspect, Tyler Robinson, to justice and “will continue to be transparent.”
Patel’s overall response did not go unnoticed in conservative circles. One prominent GOP strategist, Christopher Rufo, posted that it was “time for Republicans to assess whether Kash Patel is the right man to run the FBI.”
FBI personnel purge
On the same day Kirk was killed, Patel also faced a lawsuit from three FBI senior executives fired in an August purge that they characterized as a Trump administration retribution campaign.
Among them was Brian Driscoll, who as acting FBI director in the early days of the administration resisted Justice Department demands for names of agents who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. Driscoll alleged in the lawsuit that he was let go after he challenged the leadership’s desire to terminate an FBI pilot who had been wrongly identified on social media as having been part of the FBI search for classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Trump, while out of office, was indicted for his role in Jan. 6 and the classified documents case.
The upheaval continues a trend that began before Patel took over, when more than a half-dozen senior executives were forced out under a Justice Department rationale that they could not be “trusted” to implement Trump’s agenda.
There’s since been significant turnover in leadership at the FBI’s 55 field offices. Some left because of promotions or retirements, but others because of ultimatums to accept new assignments or resign. The head of the Salt Lake City office, an experienced counterterrorism investigator, was pushed out of her position weeks before Kirk was killed at a Utah college, said people familiar with the move.
FBI’s priorities shift
Patel arrived at the FBI having been a sharp critic of its leadership, including for the Trump indictments and investigations that he says politicized the institution. Under Patel and Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, the FBI and Justice Department have become entangled in their own politically fraught investigations, such as one focused on New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James.
He’s moved quickly to remake the bureau, with the FBI and Justice Department working to investigate one of the Republican president’s chief grievances — the years-old Trump-Russia investigation. Trump calls that probe, which found that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help him get elected but did not establish a criminal conspiracy between Russia and Trump’s campaign, a “hoax.”
The Justice Department appeared to confirm in an unusual statement that it was investigating former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan, pivotal players in the Russia investigation, but did not say for what. Bondi has directed that evidence be presented to a grand jury.
Critics of the new Russia inquiry consider it a transparent attempt to turn the page from the fierce backlash the FBI and Justice Department endured from Trump’s base following the July announcement that those agencies would not be releasing any additional documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking investigation.
Patel has meanwhile elevated the fight against street crime, drug trafficking and illegal immigration to the top of the FBI’s agenda, in alignment with Trump’s agenda.
The bureau defends its aggressive policing in American cities that the Trump administration contends have been consumed by crime, despite falling crime rates in recent years in the cities targeted. Patel says the thousands of resulting arrests, many immigration-related, are “what happens when you let good cops be good cops.”
Critics say the street crime focus draws attention and resources from the sophisticated public corruption and national security threats for which the bureau has long been primarily, if not solely, responsible for investigating.
OMAHA — No formal agreement has been signed to convert a remote state prison in Nebraska into the latest immigration detention center for President Trump’s sweeping crackdown, more than three weeks since the governor announced the plan and as lawmakers and nearby residents grow increasingly skeptical.
Corrections officials insist the facility could start housing hundreds of male detainees next month, with classrooms and other spaces at the McCook Work Ethic Camp retrofitted for beds. However, lawmakers briefed last week by state officials said they got few concrete answers about cost, staffing and oversight.
“There was more unanswered questions than answered questions in terms of what they know,” state Sen. Wendy DeBoer said.
Officials in the city of McCook were caught off guard in mid-August when Republican Gov. Jim Pillen announced that the minimum-security prison in rural southwest Nebraska would serve as a Midwest hub for immigration detainees. Pillen and federal officials dubbed it the “Cornhusker Clink,” in line with other alliterative detention center names such as “ Alligator Alcatraz ” in Florida and the “Speedway Slammer ” in Indiana.
“City leaders were given absolutely no choice in the matter,” said Mike O’Dell, publisher of the local newspaper, the McCook Gazette.
McCook is the seat of Red Willow County, where voters favored Trump in the 2024 election by nearly 80%. Most of them likely support the president’s immigration crackdown, O’Dell said. However, the city of around 7,000 has also grown accustomed to the camp’s low-level offenders working on roads, in parks, county and city offices and even local schools.
“People here have gotten to know them in many cases,” O’Dell said. “I think there is a feeling here that people want to know where these folks are going to end up and that they’ll be OK.”
The Work Ethic Camp first opened in 2001 and currently houses around 155 inmates who participate in education, treatment and work programs to help them transition to life outside prison. State leaders often praise it as a success story for reducing prisoner recidivism.
Some lawmakers have complained that Pillen acted rashly in offering up the facility, noting that the state’s prison system is already one of the nation’s most overcrowded and perpetually understaffed. The governor’s office and state prison officials met with members of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee last week to answer questions about the transfer.
What the lawmakers got, several said, were estimates and speculation.
Lawmakers were told it was the governor’s office that approached federal officials with the offer after Trump “made a generalized, widespread call that we need more room or something for detainees,” said DeBoer, a Democrat in the officially nonpartisan Legislature.
Lawmakers were also told the facility — which was designed to house around 100 but is currently outfitted to hold twice that — would house between 200 and 300 detainees. The prison’s current staff of 97 is to be retrained and stay on.
The costs of the transition would be borne by the state, with the expectation that the federal government would reimburse that cost, DeBoer recalled.
A formal agreement between the state and federal agency had yet to be signed by Friday.
Asked how much the state is anticipated to spend on the conversion, the agency said “that number has not yet been determined,” but that any state expenditures would be reimbursed. The state plans to hire additional staffers for the center, the agency said.
A letter signed by 13 lawmakers called into question whether Pillen had the authority to unilaterally transfer use of a state prison to federal authorities without legislative approval.
To that end, state Sen. Terrell McKinney — chairman of the Legislature’s Urban Affairs Committee and a vocal critic of Nebraska’s overcrowded prison system — convened a public hearing Friday to seek answers from Pillen’s office and state corrections officials, citing concerns over building code violations that fall under the committee’s purview.
“How can you take a facility that was built for 125 people and take that to a capacity of 200 to 300 people without creating, you know, a security risk?” McKinney asked.
Pillen maintains state law gives him the authority to make the move, saying the Department of Correctional Services falls under the umbrella of the executive branch. He and state prison officials declined to show up at Friday’s hearing.
But dozens of Nebraska residents did attend, with most of them opposed the new ICE detention center.
The California Legislature on Thursday passed a pair of bills to prohibit on-duty law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from masking their faces and to require them to identify themselves.
Senate Bill 627, written by Sens. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Jesse Arreguín (D-Berkeley), includes exceptions for SWAT teams and others. The measure was introduced after the Trump administration ordered immigration raids throughout the Los Angeles area earlier this year.
Federal officers in army-green neck gaiters or other face coverings have jumped out of vans and cars to detain individuals across California this summer as part of President Trump’s mass deportation program, prompting a wave of criticism from Democratic leaders.
Representatives for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security defend the face coverings, arguing that identifying officers subjects to them to retaliation and violence.
If supported by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the law would apply to local and federal officers, but not state officers such as California Highway Patrol officers. Wiener, when asked about that exemption on the Senate floor, declined to elaborate.
Leaders in Los Angeles County are exploring a similar measure to ban masks despite some legal experts’ view that the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution dictates that federal law takes precedence over state law.
The bill’s backers argue that permitting officers to disguise themselves creates scenarios where impostors may stop and detain migrants, which undermines public trust and ultimately hinders legitimate law enforcement operations.
“The idea that in California we would have law enforcement officers running around with ski masks is terrifying,” Wiener said in a brief interview. “It destroys confidence in law enforcement.”
Wiener’s bill allows exceptions for masks, including for undercover officers. Medical coverings are also allowed. .
Senate Bill 805, a measure by Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Alhambra) that targets immigration officers who are in plainclothes but don’t identify themselves, also passed the state Legislature on Thursday.
Her bill requires law enforcement officers in plain clothes to display their agency, as well as either a badge number or name, with some exemptions.
Inside Superchief Gallery, murmurs of excitement and eagerness filled the air. Around 60 people gathered in the downtown art space for a screen printing workshop on a late summer evening in August.
Young families, friend groups and couples filled neon pink pews, ready to print designs on T-shirts. Salsa music blared over the speakers as a few stragglers took their seats and others admired artwork on the walls, including a fine-line David Lynch drawing, a ceramic Garfield and a depiction of a lowrider’s paint job.
Despite the lively atmosphere, this gathering might be one of the last. Co-founder Bill Dunleavy said the gallery may be forced to close this month if it can’t raise enough money to pay the bills.
“We thought we had until November to save Superchief, but it came early,” Dunleavy said. “It’s not easy to build the type of community we’ve built. It would be a real shame, and set the culture back to some degree.”
For over a decade, Superchief has established itself as a place where punk rockers, graffiti writers, street photographers, homegrown fine artists and anyone with a piqued interest in counterculture gather to celebrate art.
Audrey Caceres poses with her screen printed jersey at Superchief Gallery, during the workshop.
(Jonathan Alcorn/For The Times)
The gallery’s possible closure would add to the list of shuttered businesses in downtown L.A. that have struggled to rebound following the COVID-19 pandemic. Although downtown continues to attract residents, many office buildings are struggling with falling values and high vacancies.
This year alone, the neighborhood has seen legacy kitchens like the Original Pantry Cafe and Cole’s French Dip face permanent closure. The Mayan, a historic nightclub, is set to shut down later this month and Angel City Brewery announced that its Arts District taproom is being put up for sale.
Nick Griffin, executive vice president of the DTLA Alliance, a coalition of property owners, said the closures reflect the “ebb and flow” of business and changing tastes rather than conditions in downtown.
“Superchief might be closing, but Dataland, the digital AI Art Museum up on Bunker Hill, is going to be opening next year. The Lucas Museum, a massive billion-dollar museum, is opening in Exposition Park. The Broad is doing a $100-million expansion of its facility,” said Griffin. “It’s the normal churn of businesses and culture.”
He says that more businesses are opening in the area than are closing, but the ones that are closing tend to be “very high profile,” cater to niche audiences and often have a cult following — like Superchief.
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After waiting in line to use the printing mechanism, Nick Rivera and Courtney Florento work together to screen-print a t-shirt. (Jonathan Alcorn/For The Times)
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Screenprint artist Alex Calderon, of Destroy LA, was in charge of teaching the workshop. He is pictured helping a girl named Gianna print a design. (Jonathan Alcorn/For The Times)
Art galleries have faced their own challenges.
The global art market declined 12% in 2024, marking its second consecutive year of falling sales, according to the Art Basel and UBS Global Art Market Report. Facing shrinking revenue and rising overhead costs, several other art galleries across the city, like Blum, Clearing and Tanya Bonakdar, have also recently announced the closure of their L.A. locations.
Dunleavy first started to notice a falloff in business about a year ago. The gallery’s usual sponsors, who would attach their names and brands to the various exhibitions, started to pull out and revenue from digital art (NFT) sales declined.
“People are just being more careful with their money,” Dunleavy said. “They’re scaling back their advertising and promotional budgets. At the same time, fewer people are buying art. These are the two things that keep an art gallery business model afloat: sponsors and sales.”
Last spring, he and his business partner Ed Zipco launched a fundraising campaign to help save Superchief. They started a Patreon, a monthly subscription service tailored to individual audiences where members are invited to attend special events and get various perks for a monthly fee ranging $10 to $30.
Subscribers and regular gallery-goers have since carved pinewood derby cars, participated in a figure drawing class where models in lingerie were bound by ropes and shopped at a monthly vendor market. The crowdfunding now has about 400 members.
Although the fundraising has helped, the gallery isn’t making enough to cover monthly expenses that range from $10,000 to $15,000, most of it to pay for renting the 10,000-square-foot building on South Los Angeles Street.
The gallery employs two part-time employees and is now open only on the weekends. Dunleavy disclosed that he hasn’t paid himself in over two years and has taken on more loans to meet expenses.
A flier with a Patreon QR code is pictured at the Superchief Gallery during their event.
(Jonathan Alcorn/For The Times)
“We started to incur a lot of debt in order to stay afloat, hoping things were going to get better. But things didn’t get better, they just got worse,” he said.
Superchief moved into its current location in 2022. The gallery, which opened in 2014, was previously housed in a warehouse in Skid Row where it shared space with artists. It soon built a relationship with L.A.’s underground art scene, selling artworks and competing with larger mainstream galleries.
In 2020, a few weeks before the pandemic, a nearby explosion damaged the building, and the gallery was forced to relocate to its current location.
“The economy is unreliable, and the art market is not what it was pre-pandemic, so it’s forcing us to make some real pivots and adaptations,” Dunleavy said.
Though September may be the final curtain call for the gallery, Dunleavy hasn’t given up. He plans to host ticketed parties and other fundraising events with the gallery’s associated artists.
“Patreon is about halfway where it needs to be in order to be sustainable,” Dunleavy said. “I’ve learned how to cope with stressful situations by throwing crazy parties and unconventional events — so that’s exactly what I plan to do.”
Surrounded by ink-flooded screens and piles of white T-shirts used for the August workshop, Audrey Caceres, a frequent Superchief goer, had just finished printing her pink jersey with the gallery’s logo in bright blue ink. The Boyle Heights resident says the gallery’s location, on the outskirts of downtown near East 21st Street, has brought new life to the commercial area.
“I really can’t imagine LA [sub]cultures without Superchief. It’s such a strong foundation for photographers, zine makers, and multimedia artists,” Caceres said. “So, if they weren’t here, I don’t know where people would run to display their work.”
It was the same feeling last season – that Chelsea did not feel invincible and there were areas where they could be exploited.
Yet nobody managed to take advantage as they went unbeaten in their WSL, FA Cup and League Cup triumphs.
They took time to settle in Friday’s opening game, instead needing to figure out how to stop the movement of their opponents and get around a new-look set-up from Andree Jeglertz in his first game in charge of City.
The match had been teed up nicely by Chelsea’s presentation of blockbuster deadline day signing Alyssa Thompson walking out on a red carpet before kick-off.
Sam Kerr, the Australian superstar striker, was also back in the squad for the first time in 20 months after her recovery from an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
And there was a debut for Kerr’s compatriot Ellie Carpenter – an exciting full-back addition from eight-time Champions League winners Lyon.
But after working out City’s fluid system, the hosts quickly settled into their usual routine to take control of the match.
They realised Carpenter had the better of City captain Alex Greenwood with her pace and was causing the visiting defence problems. So Chelsea kept getting the ball to Carpenter and the debutant assisted Aggie Beever-Jones for the opener.
They doubled their lead in the second half, capitalising once again with their attacking quality after City created good chances of their own, but did not take them.
An own goal from Niamh Charles on a Greenwood set-piece was the only chink in the armour despite all of City’s pressure and creativity – and the unanswered chants of “we want Kerr” was the only thing missing in an otherwise perfect scenario for the Chelsea support.
They had three points against one of their title rivals and Carpenter ran the show.
“Yeah, I’m pleased with the result but also the performance,” said manager Bompastor. “In the first half we had control and created the most dangerous opportunities.
“We were able to keep some really good players at City quiet. We had a strong start in the season and I’m pleased with that, but it’s only the first game.
“In terms of the psychological aspect, it’s always important to beat a big opponent and someone who is trying to fight for the league.
“I won’t go crazy with these three points. We still have 21 [games] to go.”
WASHINGTON — Facing viral rumors of his imminent death, President Trump emerged in the Oval Office on Tuesday alive and scowling. Core tenets of his economic policies were under strain. Flashy diplomatic overtures to Moscow appeared to be backfiring. And a scandal over a notorious sexual abuser that has fixated his base was roaring back to life in Washington.
It was a challenging week for the president, whose aggressive approach to his second term has begun to hit significant roadblocks with the public and the courts, and overseas, with longstanding U.S. adversaries Trump once hoped to coax to his will.
The president called for an expedited Supreme Court review of an appellate court ruling that he had exceeded his authority by issuing sweeping global tariffs last spring — a decision that, if left standing, could upend the foundation of his economic agenda. On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics issued jobs numbers showing a contraction of the labor market in July, a first since the depths of the pandemic in 2020.
New art lining a hallway in the West Wing features photographs of Trump’s summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, where Trump said the Russian president had agreed to meet with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to discuss an end to the war. Yet, three weeks on, Russia had launched its most intense bombardment of Kyiv in years, and Putin traveled to Beijing for a military parade hosted by Xi Jinping, which Russian state media used to mock the U.S. president.
During an appearance in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon, Trump said reaching a deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine has turned out to be “a little bit more difficult” than he initially thought.
And a rare spree of bipartisanship broke out on Capitol Hill — in opposition to Trump’s causes.
A tense hearing at the Senate Finance Committee with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. laid bare concern over the direction of federal vaccination policy and public health recommendations under his leadership across party lines.
Trump declined to stand behind him wholeheartedly after the hearing. “He’s got some little different ideas,” Trump told reporters, adding: “It’s not your standard talk.”
On Wednesday, moments after a group of more than 100 women pleaded for Trump’s help from the steps of the Capitol seeking transparency over the investigation of their alleged abuser, Jeffrey Epstein, Trump dismissed the matter as a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats.
“The Department of Justice has done its job, they have given everything requested of them,” Trump repeated on Truth Social on Friday. “It’s time to end the Democrat Epstein Hoax.”
Trump was close friends with Epstein for more than a decade. But his base has repeatedly called for the release of thousands of files in his case — and some of Trump’s staunchest allies in Congress are set to vote against his wishes for a discharge petition directing the Justice Department to do so in the coming days.
A far-right political activist released hidden camera footage this week of a Justice Department official claiming the agency would redact the names of Republicans, but not Democrats, identified in the files. In the video, the DOJ official also suggested that Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was recently moved to a lower-security prison as part of a deal to keep her quiet.
Public support for Trump has appeared stable since July, with roughly 42% of Americans approving of his job performance across a series of high quality polls. But the end of the August recess in Washington — and the oncoming flu and COVID-19 season — could return public attention to subjects that have proved politically perilous for the president this week.
Polls show that a majority of the president’s Republican voters support vaccines. They oppose Putin and increasingly support Ukraine. And across the political spectrum, Americans want the Epstein files released, unredacted and in full.
A string of court losses
The president’s agenda suffered several setbacks this week, as federal judges across the country ruled his administration had broken the law in various instances.
In San Francisco, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s deployment of military troops in Los Angeles was illegal and barred soldiers from aiding immigration arrests in California in an order set to take effect next week.
In Boston, a federal judge said the Trump administration broke the law when it froze billions of dollars in research funds awarded to Harvard University. In another court ruling, a judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting dozens of unaccompanied migrant children to Guatemala.
And on Friday afternoon, a federal judge stopped the Trump administration from taking away the deportation protections under Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans and Haitians living in the United States.
While the court decisions represent a snag for key portions of the administration’s agenda, the cases continue to play out in court — and could ultimately turn in favor of Trump.
Legal experts are closely watching those decisions. In the case of the military troop deployments, for instance, some fear a reversal on appeal could ultimately hand the president broader power to send troops to American cities.
Trump has floated additional federal deployments — to Chicago, Baltimore and New Orleans — in recent days.
Trump reacts to a bad week
Trump greeted the waves of bad news with a characteristic mix of deflection, finger-pointing and anger.
He warned that losing his appeal on tariff policy at the Supreme Court would render the United States a “third world country,” telling reporters, “if we don’t win that case, our country is going to suffer so greatly.” And he said he was “very disappointed” in Putin.
After the parade in Beijing — which was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, a longstanding U.S. ally now ostracized by Trump’s tariffs — drew widespread media attention, Trump wrote on social media that the countries were conspiring together against the United States.
In another lengthy social media post on Friday, Trump accused Democrats of fueling the Epstein “hoax” as a means to “distract from the great success of a Republican President.”
Days earlier, survivors of Epstein’s sexual abuse publicly pressured lawmakers to back a legislative measure to force the release of the sex trafficking investigation into the late financier.
“This is about ending secrecy wherever abuse of power takes root,” said Anouska De Georgiou, who was among the Epstein victims who held a news conference on Capitol Hill.
A few high-profile Republicans also broke with Trump on the Epstein issue, calling for more transparency on the investigation. Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said she is willing to expose those who are tied to Epstein’s sex trafficking case.
On a phone call with Trump on Wednesday morning, Greene suggested he meet with Epstein’s victims at the White House while they were gathered in town. He was noncommittal, the congresswoman told reporters.
The survivors left town without a meeting. At the direction of the White House, Republican leadership continues to press Republican members to oppose efforts to release the files.
It was on August 8 that Priyanka Gandhi went quite out of her way, calling Israel’s war in Gaza genocide and using international human rights parlance. It was an exercise of raw political courage in Indian politics, when politicians avoid criticizing Tel Aviv out of fear of antagonizing Israel in case, they risk losing the favour of an increasingly strategic partner of New Delhi and Tel Aviv. But the reply was not that of the Indian government but Indian ambassador to Israel Reuven Azar, denouncing her remark as the work of “shameful deception.” His action was a first ever public rebuke of an Indian politician, a flagrant disregard for diplomatic propriety.
This raw intervention by a visiting envoy revealed an uncomfortable reality, India’s political leadership under Narendra Modi. This is increasingly coming to accept the presence of outside players inserting themselves into domestic political debates. By not condemning or even admonishing the outburst by the envoy, the Modi government left room for an embarrassment.
Diplomats are generally expected to practice restraint, especially in nations where political sensitivities are high. Azar’s statement, however, crossed the line into India’s internal affairs, raising questions about whether New Delhi is sacrificing its sovereignty at the altar of strategic partnerships.
The muted response from the government revealed how India-Israel relations have evolved. Once cautious and balanced, New Delhi’s position on the Israel Palestine conflict has undergone a sharp realignment. The Modi government has grown more transactional in its international relations placing more value on arms sales, intelligence sharing, and corporate alliances than on historical conceptions of non-alignment or subaltern solidarity. This realignment of the mind, long articulated as Hindu nationalism as a form of Zionism, has played itself out domestically as well, particularly in Kashmir, where settler-style governance becomes more apparent. Moreover, opposition parties like Congress and Shiv Sena criticized the ambassador’s comments, saying that the government of India could not safeguard its dignity. But the silence of the government was deafening.
It was a syndrome where foreign policy is less about India’s independent voice than using strategic bargains with powerful allies. This was witnessed again when New Delhi abstained from joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in condemning Israeli bombings of Iran, upholding selective usage of values. In putting transactional advantage over regional interests and human rights, India is compromising its credibility.
This compromising of credibility is not hypothetical just in foreign affairs. In the household as well, the Modi government’s autocratic instincts muzzling opponents, bullying critics, and taking minorities off at arm’s length have fashioned a climate where even visiting envoys find themselves empowered to speak truth to power. Reuven Azar’s diatribe thus not only defied diplomatic etiquette but also addressed the frailties of an India so widely seen as rolling over for it on the world stage. If a nation permits its local discourse to be shaped by foreigners free of cost, the distinction between sovereignty and dependence gets erased. The larger problem is that India is willing to offer up national pride as a sacrifice at the altar of materialistic gain. In making defence and economic arrangements, the government has forgotten the symbolic value of diplomatic ego. The scandal related to the Israeli envoy is a betrayal of how India’s rulers, present themselves as world brokers, but simultaneously have let others trample over Indian politics. Laxity in diplomatic lines can be perilous as it opens the door for future intrusions, watering down India’s global brand as also its democratic self. Last but not least, the dressing down Priyanka Gandhi received was more than a personal rebuke. It was an indication of India’s growing dependence on strategic alliances and its failure to protect its sovereignty. To protect both its democratic legacy and diplomatic mantra, New Delhi must reassert limits, impose diplomatic standards, and prioritize principles over deals. Otherwise, these incidents will continue to leave India open to accusations of not being an emerging power but rather a vulnerable one susceptible to foreign interference in its internal affairs.
Factory activity in the Eurozone expanded for the first time since mid-2022 due to domestic demand offseting the impact of U.S. tariffs.
However, mixed signals were reported over the Chinese economy, with one survey suggesting modest expansion, contradicting an official readout that showed activity continuing to shrink. Export powerhouses Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan all saw manufacturing activity shrink in August, underscoring the challenge Asia faces in weathering the hit from sharply higher trade barriers erected by U.S. President Donald Trump.
In Europe, Greece and Spain led factory growth, while manufacturing in Germany shrank at a slower pace. The HCOB Eurozone Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to an over-three-year high of 50.7 in August from 49.8 in July.
However, the recovery is still fragile, with inventory levels continuing to decline and order backlogs dropping. Manufacturing in Germany rose to a 38-month high of 49.8, offering hope for the economy that shrank 0.3% last quarter on slowing demand from its top trading partner the U.S.
The EU and the U.S. struck a framework trade deal in late July, but only the baseline tariff of 15% has so far been implemented.
ASIA
The S&P Global Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) and South Korea’s factory activity have both fallen for the seventh consecutive month due to higher US tariffs and competition from cheap Chinese exports.
Both countries have struck trade deals with the US, which have eased pressure on their export-reliant economies. This has led to a double-whammy for Asian economies, as they face higher tariffs and competition from cheap Chinese exports.
The RatingDog China General Manufacturing PMI unexpectedly rose to 50.5 in August, exceeding the 50-mark that separates growth from contraction. This contradicts an official survey that showed activity shrank for a fifth straight month due to weak domestic demand and uncertainty over Beijing’s trade deal with the US.
Trump extended his tariff truce with China for another 90 days, withholding imposition of three-digit duties until November 10. India, which grew at a much better-than-expected 7.8% in the last quarter, continues to be a significant outlier in the region, with manufacturing activity expanding at its fastest pace in over 17 years.
It is always dangerous to suggest Djokovic looks vulnerable, and Norrie is certainly wary.
But Norrie’s brand of tennis – trying to make things physical and drag Djokovic into an energy-sapping scrap – could be key if the former world number eight is to snap his losing streak against the Serb great.
“”I will have to beat him with physicality,” said Norrie, who showed his own survival instincts in a four-set battle against Argentina’s Francisco Comesana on Wednesday.
“I did see the blister but he’s the king of adversity. He fights and pushes through it.
“I’m not going to be a servebot and serve him off the court.”
BALTIMORE — Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case has become a flash point in President Trump’s aggressive effort to remove noncitizens from the U.S., was detained by immigration authorities in Baltimore on Monday to face renewed efforts to deport him after a brief period of freedom.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys quickly filed a lawsuit to fight his deportation until a court has heard his claim for protection, stating that the U.S. could place him in a country where “his safety cannot be assured.”
The lawsuit triggered a blanket court order that automatically pauses deportation efforts for two days. The order applies to immigrants in Maryland who are challenging their detention.
Within hours of Abrego Garcia’s detention, his lawyers spoke with Department of Justice attorneys and a federal judge in Maryland, who warned that Abrego Garcia cannot be removed from the U.S. “at this juncture” because he must be allowed to exercise his constitutional right to contest deportation.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said that overlapping court orders temporarily prohibit the government from removing Abrego Garcia, and that she would extend her own temporary restraining order barring his deportation.
Drew Ensign, a Justice Department attorney, told the judge that he understands Abrego Garcia’s “removal is not imminent” and that the process often takes time.
Crowd yells ‘shame!’
Abrego Garcia, a 30-year-old Maryland construction worker and Salvadoran national, spoke at a rally before he turned himself in.
“This administration has hit us hard, but I want to tell you guys something: God is with us, and God will never leave us,” Abrego Garcia said, speaking through a interpreter. “God will bring justice to all the injustice we are suffering.”
About 200 people gathered, prayed and crowded around Abrego Garcia while he walked into the offices for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Baltimore, where he was detained. When his lawyer and wife walked out without him, the crowd yelled, “Shame!”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X that Abrego Garcia was being processed for deportation. U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi told Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office that Abrego Garcia “will no longer terrorize our country.”
Brief reunion with family
Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland for years with his American wife and children and worked in construction. He was wrongfully deported in March to a notorious prison in his native El Salvador because the Trump administration believed he was a member of the MS-13 gang, an allegation that Abrego Garcia denies.
His removal violated an immigration judge’s 2019 ruling that shielded him from deportation to his native country because he had “well-founded fear” of threats by a gang there.
Abrego Garcia’s wife sued to bring him back. Facing a U.S. Supreme Court order, the Trump administration returned him in June. He was subsequently charged in Tennessee with human smuggling. He has pleaded not guilty and asked a judge to dismiss the case on ground of vindictive prosecution.
The allegations stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee for speeding. Abrego Garcia was driving with nine passengers in the car, and officers discussed among themselves their suspicions of smuggling. He was allowed to continue driving with a warning.
The Trump administration has said it wants to deport Abrego Garcia before his trial, alleging he is a danger to the community and an MS-13 gang member.
A federal judge in Tennessee determined that Abrego Garcia was not a flight risk or a danger. He was released from jail Friday afternoon and returned to his family in Maryland.
Video released by advocates of the reunion showed a room decorated with streamers, flowers and signs. He embraced loved ones and thanked them “for everything.”
What’s next?
Federal officials argue that Abrego Garcia can be deported because he came to the U.S. illegally and that the immigration judge’s 2019 ruling deemed him eligible for expulsion, just not to his native El Salvador.
Attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told reporters Monday that Abrego Garcia is being held in a detention facility in Virginia. His lawyers don’t know when he’ll have a reasonable-fear interview, where he can express fears of persecution or torture in the country the U.S. wants to send him. Officials have said it’s Uganda.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have raised concerns about human rights abuses in Uganda as well as his limited ability to speak English in a country where that’s the national language. But there are also unanswered questions about whether he could be imprisoned or sent on to El Salvador. A judge blocked the U.S. from sending Abrego Garcia back in 2019 because he faces credible threats from gangs there.
Uganda recently agreed to take deportees from the U.S., provided they do not have criminal records and are not unaccompanied minors.
“We don’t know whether Uganda will even let him walk around freely in Kampala or whether he’ll be inside of a Ugandan jail cell, much less whether they are going to let him stay,” the attorney said.
If immigration officials determine that Abrego Garcia lacks a reasonable fear of being sent to Uganda, he should be able to ask a U.S. immigration judge to review that decision, Sandoval-Moshenberg said. And if the immigration judge upholds the determination, Abrego Garcia should be able to bring it to the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Sandoval-Moshenberg said that’s the process when someone is slated for deportation to their native country. And he said it should be for third-country deportations as well.
“This is all so very new and unprecedented. … We will see what the government’s position on that is,” he said.
Abrego Garcia informed ICE over the weekend that Costa Rica was an acceptable country of removal because he had “received assurances from Costa Rica that they would give him refugee status, that he would be at liberty in that country, and that he will not be re-deported onto El Salvador,” his lawyer said.
“Costa Rica is not justice,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “It is an acceptably less-bad option.”
The notice to ICE about Costa Rica was separate from an offer made by federal prosecutors in Tennessee to send Abrego Garcia to the Central American nation in exchange for pleading guilty to human smuggling charges. Abrego Garcia declined the proposal.
Witte, Loller, Kunzelman and Finley write for the Associated Press.
Aug. 22 (UPI) — A former chief adviser to New York Mayor Eric Adams has been charged with accepting more than $75,000 in bribes in what the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office describes as “a wide-ranging series of bribery conspiracies.”
The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, announced Thursday four separate indictments against Ingrid Lewis-Martin, charging her with four fourth-degree conspiracy counts and four second-degree counts of receiving bribes for perpetrating schemes that leveraged her former position in Adams’ office.
“We allege that Ingrid Lewis-Martin engaged in classic bribery conspiracies that had a deep and wide-ranging impact on city government,” Bragg said in a statement.
“Hardworking city employees were undermined, businesses and developers who followed the law were pushed aside and the public was victimized by corruption at the highest levels of government.”
The charges add to an indictment filed against her in December over allegedly receiving more than $100,000 from real estate advisers in exchange for influencing the Department of Buildings in their favor.
Like the December indictment, two of the four unveiled Thursday also charge her adult son, Glenn Martin II.
Prosecutors alleged in one of the indictments that of the $75,000 in bribes Lewis-Martin was paid, $50,000 was received by her son in cash from a diverted New York City contract as well as benefits. She also allegedly received the benefit of an appearance on a TV show.
That indictment alleges the mother-son pair conspired to steer contracts for asylum seeker shelter sites to developer Tian Ji Li’s preferred property owners, with Li allegedly receiving 10% of each contract.
One such contract involving a New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation allegedly netted Li $1.2 million.
The indictment also accuses Lewis-Martin of fast-tracking city approvals for V Show, a karaoke bar being developed by Li.
The second indictment alleges Lewis-Martin conspired to have the city withdraw its approval for a Brooklyn street redesign involving protected bike lanes on behalf of the owners of Broadway Stages. In exchange, Lewis-Martin allegedly received $2,500 and $10,000 in catering services.
Lewis-Martin, Martin II and Jessie Hamilton, deputy commissioner for Real Estate Services, were charged in the third indictment for fast-tracking development projects and steering city contracts in exchange for home renovations.
The final indictment only charges Lewis-Martin. That scheme allegedly saw her obtain approval for a residential renovation project in exchange for thousands of dollars in catering services.
“As charged, Ingrid Lewis-Martin influenced city agency decision making in a wide range of areas, from construction to street design, to serve the interests of co-defendants who paid her bribes,” Commissioner Jocelyn Strauber of the Department of Investigation said in a statement.
Strauber said she has notified relevant agencies and requested their review of permits and design determinations mentioned in the indictments.
Lewis-Martin was initially arrested and charged amid upheaval in Adams’ office last year, as the mayor was under federal investigation that led to him being charged with conspiracy in September.
The charges, however, were dismissed in April after the Justice Department moved to drop the case.
THERE are fears for a Thai princess after the royal palace shared a concerning health update following her three-year-long coma battle.
Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, the eldest daughter of King Vajiralongkorn, is said to have developed a severe infection.
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Thai Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol waves to supporters from inside a car as they arrive at the Grand Palace for a Buddhist ceremonyCredit: EPA
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Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn stands with his familyCredit: AFP
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She is a known fitness enthusiastCredit: Reuters
The 46-year-old, affectionately known as Princess Bha, collapsed in December, 2022, while training her dogs in Nakhon Ratchasima, northeast of Bangkok.
She has been in a coma ever since.
The Bureau of the Royal Household gave the first update on her condition in more than two years on Friday, saying she had suffered a “severe” blood infection.
The palace said in a following update that a team of doctors were closely monitoring her situation.
It read: “The medical team said that she remains in a state of low blood pressure, requiring continuous treatment.
“Doctors are administering medication to stabilise her blood pressure, along with medical equipment and antibiotics to support kidney function and breathing.”
Over the years, some reports have suggested her health condition is far more serious than the palace is letting on.
Princess Bajrakitiyabha was training her dogs at a working dog championship organised by the Thaiarmy when she collapsed.
Paramedics rushed her to a nearby hospital before a helicopter took her to Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn health facility.
Bajrakitiyabha is the daughter of the king’s first wife, Princess Soamsawali.
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She has been part of her father’s inner circle since he came to the throne in 2016 and is a senior officer in the king’s personal guard.
The fitness enthusiast is widely viewed as the most suitable successor for her father, who turned 70 this year.
She has post-graduate law degrees from two US universities and has long called for prison reforms in Thailand.
She was also the Thai ambassador to Austria between 2012 and 2014.
The 73-year-old king, who has seven children from four marriages, has not announced his chosen heir.
Though succession rules in Thailand favour men.
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Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol wave to supporters on arrival at the Grand Palace in BangkokCredit: AFP
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Well-wishers bow in front of an image of Thailand’s Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol at Chulalongkorn Hospital in BangkokCredit: AFP
