According to UNHCR, more than seven million Syrians remain displaced inside the country.
Published On 24 Sep 202524 Sep 2025
Share
The United Nations has said that one million Syrian refugees have returned to their country since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad last December, while warning that funding for humanitarian operations is falling.
“In just nine months, one million Syrians have returned to their country following the fall of the Bashar al-Assad government on 8 December 2024,” the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said in a statement on Tuesday.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
The agency added that 1.8 million people displaced within Syria during its nearly 14 years of civil war had also returned to their areas of origin.
Nearly half of Syria’s pre-war population of 13 million was displaced by the conflict that began after the Assad regime’s crackdown on peaceful antigovernment protests as part of the Arab Spring protests in 2011.
Challenges for returnees
While describing the mass returns as “a sign of the great hope and high expectations Syrians have following the political transition in the country,” UNHCR said many of those heading back are struggling to rebuild their lives.
“Destroyed homes and infrastructure, weak and damaged basic services, a lack of job opportunities, and volatile security are challenging people’s determination to return and recover,” the agency said.
According to UNHCR, more than seven million Syrians remain displaced inside the country and more than 4.5 million are still abroad. It urged greater investment in stabilisation efforts and increased support for vulnerable families.
Call for humanitarian support
“The international community, private sector, and Syrians in the diaspora must come together and intensify their efforts to support recovery and ensure that the voluntary return of those displaced by conflict is sustainable and dignified and they are not forced to flee again,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
A recent UNHCR survey found that 80 percent of Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq want to return home one day, with 18 percent saying they hope to do so within the next year.
“They have endured a lot of suffering in the past 14 years and the most vulnerable among them still need protection and assistance,” Grandi said. “Sustained support to hosting countries like Jordan, Lebanon and Türkiye is equally critical to ensure returns are voluntary, safe and dignified.”
UNHCR warned that funds for humanitarian operations are dwindling. Inside Syria, only 24 percent of the required funding is available, while for the wider regional Syria response, just 30 percent of the requested funds have been provided.
“This is not the time to cut back support for the Syrian people and their push for a better Syria for them and the region,” the agency said.
DENVER — Kyle Freeland pitched six solid innings, Blaine Crim homered and drove in two runs, and the Colorado Rockies beat the Angels 3-1 on Sunday in their final home game of a miserable season.
Victor Vodnik got three outs for his 10th save as the Rockies improved to 43-113 with six games remaining, ensuring they won’t tie the 1962 New York Mets for the most losses in one season by a National League team since 1900. Those expansion Mets finished 40-120-1.
Mike Trout doubled leading off the game after hitting his 400th career home run Saturday night. He scored the only run for the Angels (70-86), who went 1-9 on their last road trip of the year.
Trout scored on Jo Adell’s single in the first but Freeland (5-16) was in control after that. He retired 13 of 14 batters before Taylor Ward’s leadoff single in the sixth. The left-hander issued his only walk one out later but ended his day by getting Logan O’Hoppe to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Angels starter Caden Dana (0-3) didn’t allow a hit through three innings, but three walks in the second allowed the Rockies to tie it on Kyle Karros’ sacrifice fly.
Crim’s leadoff homer in the fourth gave Colorado the lead, and Freeland and the bullpen made it stand up.
Crim added an RBI groundout in the eighth.
Key moment: The Angels had runners on first and third with one out in the first, but Freeland struck out O’Hoppe and Christian Moore to keep the damage at one run. Freeland had seven strikeouts.
Key stats: Colorado finished 25-56 at Coors Field, the most home losses in franchise history. The previous high was 46 in 2012.
Up next: The Angels host Kansas City on Tuesday to begin their final homestand. They had not announced a scheduled starter yet.
A third of the People’s Assembly of Syria seats will be appointed directly by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Published On 21 Sep 202521 Sep 2025
Share
Syria will elect a new People’s Assembly on October 5, the first parliament to be chosen since the fall of Bashar al-Assad late last year.
The vote for members of the parliament will take place “across all electoral districts”, the state-run SANA news agency reported on Sunday.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
The announcement comes as the new government seeks to rebuild state institutions and gain legitimacy amid regional and international efforts to stabilise the war-battered country.
A third of the assembly’s 210 seats will be appointed directly by President Ahmed al-Sharaa. The rest will be chosen by local committees supervised by the electoral commission. The chamber will be tasked with approving legislation aimed at overhauling decades of state-controlled economic policies and ratifying treaties that could reshape Syria’s foreign policy.
The new parliament is also expected to “lay the groundwork for a broader democratic process” following al-Assad’s removal in December after nearly 14 years of civil war, SANA said. Critics, however, warn that the current system does not adequately represent Syria’s marginalised communities.
Authorities had initially said the vote would take place in September. The electoral commission previously indicated that polling in the provinces of Suwayda, Hasakah and Raqqa would be delayed because of security concerns.
Suwayda witnessed clashes in July between Druze fighters and Sunni Bedouin tribes, while Hasakah and Raqqa remain partly under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
In March, al-Sharaa’s administration issued a constitutional declaration to guide the interim period until the election.
The document preserves a central role for Islamic law as well as guarantees women’s rights and freedom of expression. Opponents have expressed concern that the framework consolidates too much power in the hands of Syria’s leadership.
Al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda commander whose Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group played a key role in al-Assad’s fall, has also turned to regional diplomacy to bolster his government and Syria’s security.
He told local media that security talks with Israel are a “necessity”, stressing that any agreement must respect Syria’s territorial integrity and end Israeli violations of its airspace.
Half-full duffle bags littered the floor of the Dodger clubhouse Sunday morning while a neat line of suitcases stood just outside the locker room door.
Sunday’s 3-1 matinee loss to the San Francisco Giants, a game which featured another late-inning bullpen meltdown, was the last chance to see the Dodgers at home during the regular season and 46,601 brought tickets to celebrate the occasion, pushing the team’s attendance over 4 million for the first time.
But the vibe wasn’t so much “good-bye” and it was “we’ll be right back,” since the team and its fans are expected to return to Dodger Stadium to open the National League playoffs next week. Even the retiring Clayton Kershaw made that point when he briefly addressed the crowd before the game.
“Remember, we’ve got another month left,” he said. “So we’ll see you at the end of October.”
That may be a bit ambitious. But barring disaster — never count out the Dodgers’ bullpen — the team is guaranteed at least two more games at home this season. The Dodgers will hit the road Monday for their final six games of the regular season with a magic number of three, meaning any combination of Dodger wins or Padre losses totaling four will give the team its 12th West Division title in 13 years — and the Dodger Stadium playoff dates that go with it.
“Our head right now, to be honest, is on winning this division and going forward,” manager Dave Roberts said. “I just want to win the division and get to the postseason.”
They missed a chance to move a big step closer Sunday when they wasted another brilliant performance from right-hander Emmet Sheehan, who held the Giants to a hit over seven innings, retiring 15 in a row at one point.
Sheehan, who didn’t allow a runner after hitting Andrew Knizner to open the third, matched a career-high with 10 strikeouts. But for the third time in four appearances that wasn’t good enough to get the win after reliever Blake Treinen gave up three eighth-inning runs to turn a 1-0 lead into a 3-1 deficit.
Giants’ starter Trevor McDonald, who was making his first big-league start, was nearly as good before tiring in the seventh. Max Muncy opened the inning with a walk — the only one McDonald allowed — and moved to second on a two-strike single to right by Andy Pages. Michael Conforto then looped the first pitch he saw into shallow left field to score Muncy and end McDonald’s day after 89 pitches.
The Dodgers could get no more with pinch-hitter Tommy Edman lining into a double play to end the inning and that proved costly when Treinen (1-7) came out of the bullpen to give up three consecutive hits, the last a run-scoring double from pinch-hitter Patrick Bailey.
Three batters later Willy Adames drew a bases-loaded walk to give the Giants the lead, an advantage they extended to 3-1 on Matt Chapman’s soft grounder to short.
The Dodgers went quietly after that, with a pair of Giant relievers holding them to just a hit over the two innings.
That spoiled the day for a sun-splashed crowd that made history by pushing the Dodgers’ home attendance to a franchise-record 4,012,470. The Dodgers, who averaged 49,537 fans a game in 2025, have led the majors in attendance the last 12 years — excluding 2020, when the pandemic forced teams to play behind closed doors. But the most they had drawn in a season previously was 3,974,309 in 2019.
The Dodgers are the fifth team to top 4 million in a season, joining the Blue Jays, Rockies, Mets and Yankees, but the first to do so since 2008, when both New York teams did it. Colorado holds the major league record having sold 4,483,350 tickets during it inaugural season in 1993, when it played at an 80,000-seat football stadium.
“Like every season it’s been up and down, an emotional year. And for these fans to show up every day, it’s incredible,” Roberts said. “There’s a reason why I feel that we have the best fans in sports, and the numbers speak to it.”
The Dodgers rewarded that loyalty, with their 52 wins at home this season leading the majors. What they weren’t able to do was clinch the division title in front of their fans.
But if they can do that on the road this week, they’ll be right back home for at least two more games at Dodger Stadium in the playoffs.
Notes
Right-handers Blake Stewart and Roki Sasaki both pitched scoreless innings in relief for Triple A Oklahoma City in their final rehab appearances before the postseason roster is set. Stewart struck out one and gave up a hit, throwing nine of his 15 pitches for strikes. Sasaki did not allow a runner, striking out one of the three batters he faced and getting strikes on five of his eight pitches.
DENVER — Brenton Doyle had a tying two-run single and scored the go-ahead run on Ezequiel Tovar‘s sacrifice fly in a four-run sixth inning as the Colorado Rockies beat the Angels 7-6 on Friday night.
Tyler Freeman had three hits including a double and Hunter Goodman had an RBI triple for Colorado, which snapped a five-game losing streak and improved to 3-14 in September.
Goodman’s first-inning triple brought Freeman across to start the scoring, and Blaine Crim brought in another on a sacrifice fly.
Christian Moore and Denzer Guzman both went deep in the second inning to bring the Angels ahead 3-2, but Freeman’s second hit of the game brought the tying run across for Colorado.
The Rockies bullpen combined for four innings of one-hit ball in relief of starter Bradley Blalock (2-5), who allowed eight hits and six earned runs while striking out four. Victor Vodnik earned his ninth save of the year.
Mitch Farris (1-2) took the loss in his fourth career start, allowing eight hits and seven runs with five strikeouts.
Key moment: After the Angels had a three-run fifth inning, the Rockies immediately answered with four runs, including two sacrifice flies.
Key stat: Hunter Goodwin’s 61 extra-base hits are the most in a single season by a Rockies primary catcher in franchise history. He is the third Rockies player since 2022 to have 60 or more extra-base hits in a season, joining Tovar (75, 2024) and C.J. Cron (60, 2022).
Up next: Angels RHP Kyle Hendricks (7-10, 5.01) faces Rockies RHP Germán Márquez (3-14, 6.73) in the second game of the three-game series.
MILWAUKEE — Christian Yelich went two for four and reached 100 RBIs for the season as the Milwaukee Brewers defeated the Angels 5-2 on Thursday night.
Yelich doubled home Brice Turang as part of the Brewers’ three-run outburst in the seventh inning that broke a 2-2 tie. This marks Yelich’s first 100-RBI season since 2018, when he had 110 and was named the NL MVP.
The Brewers completed a three-game sweep and reduced their magic number for clinching the NL Central to four. The Angels have lost seven straight.
Milwaukee’s Quinn Priester struck out eight of the first nine batters he faced and didn’t allow a baserunner until the fifth inning, when Jo Adell drew a leadoff walk and Luis Rengifo homered. Those were the only runs allowed by Priester, who struck out 10 and gave up three hits and two walks in 5⅔ innings.
Priester has won a Brewers-record 12 straight decisions. He left this game with Milwaukee trailing 2-1, but the Brewers rallied after his departure.
Milwaukee tied it in the sixth when Caleb Durbin greeted José Fermín with a two-out single that scored Yelich.
Jackson Chourio led off the seventh with a ground-rule double off Luis García (2-2) and scored the go-ahead run on Turang’s single. After Yelich doubled home Turang, William Contreras came home on Andrew Vaughn’s sacrifice fly.
Aaron Ashby (4-2) struck out three in 1⅓ scoreless innings to get the win. Jared Koenig worked the ninth for his second save in four opportunities.
Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi allowed two runs over 5⅔ innings.
Key moments: With runners on third and second, Milwaukee’s Blake Perkins made a diving catch of Chris Taylor’s drive to the center-field warning track in the seventh to keep the score tied 2-2. The Angels had runners on the corners with one out in the eighth, but Abner Uribe struck out Rengifo and Yoán Moncada to end the threat.
Key stat: The Brewers have won the last 19 games that Priester pitched, a stretch that includes 16 starts and three games in which he followed an opener.
Up next: The Angels head to Colorado. Friday’s scheduled starters are Mitch Farris (1-1, 4.80 ERA) for the Angels and Bradley Blalock (1-5, 9.00) for the Rockies.
MILWAUKEE — All-Star Freddy Peralta gave up two hits, struck out 10 and won his NL-leading 17th game, Christian Yelich hit his 29th homer and drove in three runs and the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Angels 9-2 on Tuesday night.
The Angels’ defeat ensured their 10th consecutive losing season, a franchise record. Their playoff drought is at 11 years.
Peralta (17-6) extended his career-high in wins and tied the New York Yankees Max Fried for tops in the majors in victories. Peralta also tied the franchise record set by Zach Davies in 2017.
Peralta gave up one run and two hits over six innings and walked two. The only hiccups were Carter Kieboom’s bloop single and Denzer Guzman’s first career home run.
Peralta had plenty of support in his 31st start of the season.
Yelich did the heavy lifting, but Sal Frelick hit a sacrifice fly, Caleb Durbin, Andrew Vaughn and Jackson Chourio each drove in a run and William Contreras singled home two more.
Christian Moore added a solo shot off Grant Anderson in the seventh.
Angels starter Caden Dana (0-2) allowed five runs on eight hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Kieboom made his Angels debut at first base, returning to the majors for the first time since Oct. 1, 2023, while with Washington.
The Angels selected Kieboom’s contract before the game and placed shortstop Zach Neto (left hand strain) on the 10-day injured list.
Key moment
Yelich hit his 29th home run of the season, a two-run shot in the fourth. He had an RBI double in the first.
Key stat
Peralta struck out the side in the first, second and sixth and tallied at least 10 strikeouts for the 15th time in his career and first this season.
Up next
José Soriano (10-10, 4.13 ERA) starts for the Angels against Brandon Woodruff (6-2, 3.32) and the Brewers.
The dinosaurs are coming this holiday season. The South Coast Botanic Garden in Palos Verdes Estates will host “Dinosaurs Around the World,” bringing 13 lifelike animatronic figures to the green space.
Running Nov. 1 to Jan. 31, the exhibit will feature a broad array of reptiles, ranging from the 6-foot-long Australovenator to a nearly 30-foot-long Tyrannosaurus rex. Guests can see the dinosaurs on two walking trails. One is a short loop designed primarily for young children, which will feature a little more than half of the dinosaurs, while the other is a full jaunt around the garden.
All the dinosaurs will move, some will roar and none will bite.
The South Coast Botanic Garden host 13 animatronic dinosaurs this winter, including a Neovenator.
(Imagine Exhibitions)
On weekends, South Coast will run a separately ticketed, eight-passenger tram dubbed the “Pangaea Express” that will include a tour of the exhibit with dinosaur and garden facts. The goal, in part, is to highlight the so-called “living fossils” of the South Coast Botanic Gardens.
“Specifically, we have a Dawn Redwood that we’re going to be talking about a bit,” says Claire Griswold, the garden’s learning and engagement manager. “We have a really great collection of Ginkgo trees as well, and Sago palm cycads.” A living fossil is a term for a species that was once known only from its fossil record and was later discovered in living form, apparently preserving the physical features from long-gone ancestors.
“Dinosaurs Around the World” is a touring exhibit from creative experiential firm Imagine Exhibitions. It was developed in conjunction with paleontologist Gregory M. Erickson, currently a member of the faculty of Florida State University.
Griswold hopes the exhibit is a way to marry some of the wonder and technology of a theme park with the natural awe of an 87-acre botanical garden.
‘Dinosaurs Around the World’
“Whether or not you learn something, you still get to have a great experience in nature and do something outside of the ordinary,” Griswold says. “And what’s more fun than dinosaurs, really?”
The Los Angeles area is blessed with numerous gardens that will host seasonal events this fall and winter. Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge, for instance, will be bringing back its Halloween-focused Carved, while the Huntington in San Marino will host its otherworldly-focused Strange Science for a weekend in late October.
Philadelphia has already clinched a playoff berth. The Dodgers’ magic number for matching that is five after Monday’s 6–5 extra-inning loss to the Phillies.
So the chances are high the teams will meet again in the postseason, which makes this week’s series at Dodger Stadium a great opportunity to do a little scouting.
“We try to gather as much information as we can,” infielder Miguel Rojas said. “They’re doing the same thing.”
That’s not the main objective though. Because if the Dodgers are closing in a playoff berth, they aren’t there yet. And they have even more work to do after Monday’s game, which ended with Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto’s 10th-inning sacrifice fly scoring ghost runner Harrison Bader with the winning run.
“With where we’re at, I’m trying to win every game,” said manager Dave Roberts, whose team fought back from deficits three times before falling. “And where it falls out is where it falls out.”
Where the Dodgers are is 2 1/2 games in front of idle San Diego in the National League West. Their magic number for clinching an 11th division title in 12 seasons is 10 with less than two weeks left in the regular season.
But the Dodgers also entered the Phillies series with their eyes on the No. 2 seed in the postseason tournament, a spot Philadelphia holds and one that brings with it a bye in the first round. It’s a break Roberts’ battered roster could use.
But it’s one that became more elusive when Monday’s win pushed the Phillies’ lead to 5½ games in the race for No. 2, a deficit the Dodgers have just 12 games to make up.
“It’s really hard to not face these games down the stretch like a playoff game,” Rojas said. “We’ve been doing this for almost two weeks now. That’s the way that we have to look at it if we want to be prepared for October.”
Left-hander Jack Dreyer agreed.
“Obviously it’s fun to think about the playoffs,” he said. “But right now, we’re just focused on this series and do[ing] whatever we can to perform for this series.”
That doesn’t mean players won’t remember how individual matchups unfold during this series or the next one against the San Francisco Giants, another potential playoff opponent.
“There are absolutely things that you can kind of pick up on and try to use in the future,” Dreyer said. “Every time that you’re playing guys, you can kind of deposit those memories into your brain for the future. Because you’re bound to face the same guys over and over again.”
One memory Dreyer won’t soon forget is the 2-0 fastball he threw to Weston Wilson in the seventh, a pitch Wilson, the Phillies’ ninth-place hitter, drove 417 feet to dead center for a go-ahead home run.
Two matchups Roberts did want to see Monday was left-hander Anthony Banda facing the Phillies’ two left-handed sluggers, Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. So he sent the reliever out to open the game.
That didn’t work out well, with Schwarber driving a 2-2 pitch into the second row of the right-centerfield bleachers for his league-best 53rd homer of the year. It was the first homer Banda had allowed since Aug. 4.
Banda then walked Harper before leaving in favor of right-hander Emmet Sheehan, who didn’t give up another hit until Otto Kemp opened the seventh with a ground-rule double to left.
That led Roberts to pull Sheehan for Dreyer, who gave up an RBI single to Bryson Stott followed by Wilson’s two-run homer, which gave the Phillies a 4-3 lead.
Dodgers relief pitcher Emmet Sheehan throws to the plate during the first inning of a loss to the Philadelphia Phillies Monday at Dodger Stadium.
(Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press)
The Dodgers got their first run in the third, when Andy Pages led off with a double into the left-field corner, moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a Mookie Betts fly ball just short of the warning track in center.
Two innings later, Max Muncy put the Dodgers in front with a leadoff home run to right, his first since returning from the injured list a week ago. Betts made it 3-1 with another sacrifice fly to center later in the inning, giving him 18 RBIs in September and his 77 for the season, two better than his total last year.
Betts added to that in seventh, tying the game with a two-out homer, his 19th of the season, matching his total from last season.
Harper answered in eighth, putting the Phillies back in front, only to have Pages even things again with one out in the ninth with his 25th homer of the season off Phillies closer Jhoan Durán, sending the game to extra innings.
The game ended with Muncy grounding out with the bases loaded against Philadelphia right-hander David Robertson.
Stewart reports for rehab assignment
Reliever Brock Stewart, the Dodgers’ most-celebrated acquisition at the trade deadline, left Monday to join Oklahoma City for a two-game rehab assignment. Stewart, on the injured list since Aug. 12 with right shoulder inflammation, is expected to pitch Tuesday and Thursday in Triple A before returning to Dodger Stadium.
“If all goes well, then we have a conversation over the weekend,” Roberts said of Stewart’s availability. “We’ve just got to make sure he’s healthy. If he’s right, then it could be very additive.”
Dodgers honor Betts’ philanthropy
For the second straight year Betts has been chosen as the Dodgers’ nominee for the Roberto Clemente Award, baseball’s most prestigious off-the-field prize, in recognition for his wide-ranging charity work.
In January, Betts’ 5050 Foundation donated more than $30,000 of Nike clothing to victims of the Southern California wildfires. A few weeks later, in partnership with the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF), he donated more than $160,000 to the Brotherhood Crusade to help fight hunger and homelessness in Los Angeles.
Also this season the 5050 Foundation partnered with the Obama Foundation at Hyde Park Academy to donate youth sports equipment and other supplies while also funding the Mookie Betts Metro Baseball Tournament in Nashville.
With the Taliban barring women from college in her native Afghanistan, Bahara Saghari set her sights on pursuing higher education in the United States.
Saghari, 21, practiced English up to eight hours per day for several years, eventually winning an offer to study business administration at a private liberal arts college in Illinois. She was hoping to arrive this fall, but her plans were derailed again, this time by President Trump’s travel ban.
“You think that finally you are going to your dream, and then something came up and like, everything’s just gone,” Saghari said.
Thousands of students are among the people affected by the Trump administration’s travel ban and restrictions on citizens from 19 countries, including many who now feel stranded after investing considerable time and money to come to the U.S.
Some would-be international students are not showing up on American campuses this fall despite offers of admission because of logjams with visa applications, which the Trump administration slowed this summer while it rolled out additional vetting. Others have had second thoughts because of the administration’s wider immigration crackdown and the abrupt termination of some students’ legal status.
But none face bigger obstacles than the students hit with travel bans. Last year, the State Department issued more than 5,700 F-1 and J-1 visas — which are used by foreign students and researchers — to people in the 19 ban-affected countries between May and September. Citizens of Iran and Myanmar were issued more than half of the approved visas.
U.S. still the first choice for many
Pouya Karami, a 17-year-old student from Shiraz, Iran, focused his college search entirely on the U.S. No other country offers the same research opportunities in science, he said. He was planning to study polymer chemistry this fall at Pittsburg State University in Kansas, but he had to shelve those plans because of the travel ban.
Karami deferred admission until next year and is holding out hope. He is still preparing for his embassy interview and reaching out to U.S. politicians to reconsider the travel ban’s restrictions on students.
“I’m doing everything I can about it,” he said.
The full travel ban affects citizens from 12 countries spanning Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean. It blocks most people from obtaining new visas, although some citizens from the banned countries are exempt, such as green card holders, dual citizens and some athletes. Seven other countries have tighter restrictions that also apply to student visas.
When Trump announced the travel ban in June, he cited high visa overstay rates and national security threats from unstable or adversarial foreign governments as reasons for putting countries on the list. He has called some of the countries’ screening processes “deficient” and said he plans to keep the ban in place until “identified inadequacies” are addressed.
‘This kind of breaks my heart’
In Myanmar, the family of one 18-year-old student made his education their top priority, saving paychecks for him to go abroad for college. They risked their stability so he could have the chance to live a better life, said the student, who asked to be identified by only his nickname, Gu Gu, because he is worried about being targeted by the Myanmar or U.S. government for expressing criticism.
When he shared a screenshot of his acceptance letter to the University of South Florida in a family group chat, it exploded with celebratory emojis, Gu Gu said. He had been waiting for visa appointments to be announced when, one night, his mother woke him to ask about news of a U.S. travel ban. In an instant, his plans to study at USF this fall were ruined.
Many students his age in Myanmar have been drafted into the military or joined resistance groups since the military ousted the elected civilian government in 2021. While a civil war rages, he had been looking forward to simple freedoms in the U.S. like walking to school by himself or playing sports again.
“I was all in for U.S., so this kind of breaks my heart,” said Gu Gu, who was unable to defer his acceptance.
Students forced to look elsewhere
Saghari, the Afghan student, postponed her July visa interview appointment in Pakistan to August after learning of the travel ban, but ultimately canceled it. Knox College denied her request to defer her admission.
She later applied to schools in Europe but encountered issues with the admissions process. A German university told Saghari she would need to take another English proficiency test because an earlier score had expired, but taking the test the first time was already a challenge in Afghanistan’s political climate.
She has been accepted to a Polish university on condition she pay her tuition up front. She said her application is under review as the school validates her high school degree.
Amir, a 28-year-old Iranian graduate who declined to provide his last name for fear of being targeted, wasn’t able to travel to the U.S. to take a position as a visiting scholar. Instead, he has continued to work as a researcher in Tehran, saying it was difficult to focus after missing out on a fully funded opportunity to conduct research at the University of Pennsylvania.
His professor at Penn postponed his research appointment until next year, but Amir said it feels like “a shot in the dark.”
He’s been looking at research opportunities in Europe, which would require more time spent on applications and potentially learning a new language. He still would prefer to be in U.S., he said, but he isn’t optimistic that the country’s foreign policy is going to change.
“You lose this idealistic view of the world. Like you think, if I work hard, if I’m talented, if I contribute, I have a place somewhere else, basically somewhere you want to be,” he said. “And then you learn that, no, maybe people don’t want you there. That’s kind of hard to deal with it.”
Seminera writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Todd Feathers contributed to this report.
New York — It was a quiet, while not quite silent, morning for the“Table of Silence Project” Thursday, on the plaza of Lincoln Center and in front of David Geffen Hall, home of the New York Philharmonic. Commemorating the 24th anniversary of 9/11, white-robed members of the Buglisi Dance Theatre circled the plaza, a few with megaphones for chants, an occasional violin joining in, mellowing even the sounds of background traffic roaring down busy Broadway.
On this solemn but beautiful New York day and after more than two years in waiting, Gustavo Dudamel took charge, at least in practice, of the New York Philharmonic. Six decades ago, during the Leonard Bernstein era, America’s oldest and most celebrated orchestra had the city’s (and much of the nation’s) full attention in a way it hasn’t since. Could that happen again?
When Dudamelannounced in early February 2023 that he would leave the Los Angeles Philharmonic to become music and artistic director of the New York Philharmonic in the fall of 2026, he became instant celebrity news here. A New York Philharmonic player gives Dudamel a cheesecake, and the New York Times writes a story.
This season Dudamel gains his first official title: music and artistic director designate. But the orchestra is basically his baby now. His photo is plastered on the orchestra’s posters and publicity. And on Thursday night, Dudamel, for the first time, opened the New York Philharmonic’s new season. After two weeks this month, he will have a sizable presence later winter and in spring, while also closing out his last L.A. Phil season with major programs.
Dudamel arrived in New York on Tuesday, having spent two weeks conducting the Simon Bolivar Orchestra of Venezuela, his homeland orchestra, to open Coldplay’s concerts at Glastonbury in England, just as the newly named U.S. Department of War immediately began to live up to its name by sending warships to Dudamel’s native Venezuela and threatening regime change.
But here in New York, Dudamel paid tribute to a new city in his life with Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Charles Ives’ Symphony No. 2. In 1945, Bartók, having fled Nazi-invaded Hungary, wrote his final piano concerto in a New York apartment on 57th Street, a block west of Carnegie Hall. Bernstein led the New York Philharmonic premiere of Ives’ Second — the first great American symphony — at Carnegie, then the New York Philharmonic’s home, six years later.
Still, the first orchestral sounds that emanated from the Dudamel designated directorship turned out to be barely heard, while not silent, percussion stirrings. Following a season-opening tradition he began when he became music director of the L.A. Phil, Dudamel began the program with a world premiere.
For this, he directed New Yorkers’ attention westward. In “of light and stone,” Leilehua Lanzilotti sets the sonic stage for an evocation of Hawaii, where she resides, before statehood. She makes references to King Kalakaua, Queen Lili’uokalani and other Hawaiian nobility few in a mainland audience are likely to know. There are fragments of Hawaiian song, a dance of the wind.
Nothing settles in this four-part, 15-minute song of a land, a score that falls somewhere between history lesson and color-field sonic landscape. A whisp of a canorous clarinet or a rumbling rattle is all it takes for a kind of instant transport to a far-off time and place. New York Philharmonic audiences can be cool, but they’ve demonstratively taken to Dudamel at Geffen, and an ethereal performance appeared to open ears.
The young Korean pianist, Yunchan Lim, who became instantly hot after winning the Van Cliburn competition three years ago, was soloist in Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto. Lim will be a soloist with Dudamel and the L.A. Phil this season as well as give a solo recital in Walt Disney Concert Hall. He is an exceptional pianist. He too opens ears and can transport a listener to a distant land. And Lim’s case is far more distant or far less knowable than Hawaii.
Lim’s Bartók exists in a world of the pianist’s own. Every phrase is for him an oddity, as if he had found some weird object in an imaginary world and was figuring out what he might do with it. His tools were rhythm, accents and dynamics, each a quirky new toy. The New York Philharmonic produced beauty and excitement, but Lim went his own way that wasn’t quite imaginative enough to improve on Bartók. Here we go again with an exceptional young soloist being pushed into the limelight too soon.
The New York Philharmonic owns Ives’ Second. Written in the first decade of the 20th century, the symphony offered a whole new way of thinking about American and European music and it sat dormant for some four decades before Bernstein premiered it. But that 1951 performance had a huge effect on how to transform folk music, popular music, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony and what-not, twisted, transformed and tacked together. Bernstein later recorded it twice with the New York Philharmonic. The first time full of beans that revived it for good. The second time in 1987 as a glorious spiritual exercise. Hearing that performance live left me in a state of rapture.
Dudamel has made a specialty of the symphony himself, conducting it with the Vienna Philharmonic, recording it with the L.A. Phil and now going to the source. His performance Thursday night did not try to follow in Bernstein’s footsteps or necessarily Dudamel’s own. The performance flowed with exquisite lyricism and mustered a thrilling finale.
In Vienna, Dudamel was more robust. At Disney, Dudamel found exceptional expression in every little detail. That was the Dudamel that we last saw at the Hollywood Bowl this summer when he conducted Mahler’s First more vividly than ever.
That is not, quite yet, the Dudamel for New York. Here his Ives seemed to be laying the groundwork, letting his new orchestra show him what it can do before he begins, as he surely will, digging deeper.
It took a once controversial effort for Bernstein to transform an uptight virtuosic New York Philharmonic into a tight but electric one. Now it’s Dudamel’s turn for transmogrification, and he’s made a promising beginning.
Commercial content notice: Taking one of the offers featured in this article may result in a payment to The Sun. You should be aware brands pay fees to appear in the highest placements on the page. 18+. T&Cs apply. gambleaware.org.
Remember to gamble responsibly
A responsible gambler is someone who:
Establishes time and monetary limits before playing
Only gambles with money they can afford to lose
Never chases their losses
Doesn’t gamble if they’re upset, angry or depressed
Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone shattered his pelvis and detached his sacrum after a recent fall from a 20-foot ladder at his farmhouse in Connecticut.
The “Saturday Night Live” alum recounted the incident from his hospital bed during Tuesday’s episode of the “Lonely Island & Seth Meyers” podcast.
“There’s a barn, and the back half of the barn has a big white wall. And I was like, ‘Oh, this is great. We can do a big mural,’” the comedian said to his co-hosts Meyers, Akiva Schaffer and Andy Samberg. “The mural would be very, very large at the top. The apex of this barn is like 25 feet.”
Taccone said that he borrowed ladders, including one that his neighbor described as “bad.” As in, “you shouldn’t use this ladder. Like, it doesn’t have a footing thing. And I was like, ‘No, it’s really good.‘”
Taccone was using the ladder to hang lights around the barn to highlight the mural when he fell 20 feet onto his butt.
“I literally have enough time as I’m falling to be like, ‘I’m going to die,’” he said.
The accident was on Aug. 31, his daughter’s fifth birthday, according to Us Weekly. “It wasn’t the coolest way to start the day,” Taccone said.
Two days post-surgery, Taccone said the doctors expect him to walk again within three to six months.
“It’s been a really scary week, and we’re glad that you didn’t hit your head and that you’re not dead,” Schaffer said.
There was only one question left: How long do the hosts have before they can poke fun at the accident?
“I mean, don’t you think it should be instantaneous?” Taccone quipped.
Taccone’s film “Over Your Dead Body,” which he directed, was recently acquired by IFC in May, according to Deadline. The theatrical release date is yet to be determined.
From Jack Harris: It was a pivotal moment, in a pivotal game, in what’s become a pivotal week for the Dodgers in the National League West standings.
Which, rather predictably given their recently floundering form, meant they found a new way to mess it all up.
In the top of the second inning on Wednesday night at PNC Park, the Dodgers appeared to be in optimal position.
Despite trailing by a run against a team in last place, the Dodgers had the Pittsburgh Pirates on the ropes, loading the bases with no outs for a chance to take the lead.
The task, at that point, was simple.
Get the ball in play. Manufacture some early scoring. And, at the very least, set a positive tone for a night in which the NL West lead could grow.
“That’s a situation where you get shorter with your swing, use the big part of the field and you’ve got to drive in a run,” manager Dave Roberts said.
That approach, however, never materialized.
Over the rest of an inexplicable 3-0 loss to the Pirates, what happened next would instead loom large.
Get the latest on L.A.’s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
ANGELS
Jo Adell homered and drove in every run for the Angels in their 4-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night.
Adell hit a go-ahead homer in the sixth inning for the second consecutive game. His three-run shot to center field on the first pitch he saw from reliever John Schreiber gave the Angels a 3-2 lead in this one.
Yoán Moncada, aboard on a single when Adell went deep, doubled off Lucas Erceg (6-4) in the eighth before scoring on Adell’s two-out single for a 4-3 advantage. Adell’s 33 homers and 90 RBIs are career highs.
There, I’ve written it, I can’t believe I’ve written it, but I’ve written it, right here, first paragraph, in fanboy-living color.
The Rams are going to the Super Bowl.
Las Vegas has them at 9½ wins. Bet the over. Bet it big. They will win 11 games and a weakened NFC West and a soft NFC and then…
The Rams are going to the Super Bowl.
Don’t succumb to the fears about Matthew Stafford’s back. Don’t listen to the worries about the fragile offensive line. Embrace the ascending young defense. Love the bolstered receiving corps. Trust the brilliant coach.
The perception nationally of Justin Herbert isn’t as charitable. The consensus is that Herbert doesn’t belong in the top tier of NFL quarterbacks alongside the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Josh Allen or Joe Burrow.
If anything, Herbert might be viewed as being closer to Jared Goff or Brock Purdy than Mahomes or Jackson.
As overwhelming as his athletic gifts are, as many jaw-dropping passes as he’s completed, Herbert still hasn’t won a playoff game for the Chargers.
From Ben Bolch: The most densely packed section inside the Rose Bowl on Saturday was filled with fans wearing the colors of the visiting team.
Swathed in red and white, they crammed into one corner of the century-old stadium for what amounted to a nightlong celebration.
By late in the third quarter, the only suspense remaining in UCLA’s 43-10 blowout loss to Utah was waiting for the announced attendance. Reporters in the press box were given a figure of 35,032, which seemed inflated given so many empty seats below them.
It was.
The scan count, a tally of people actually inside the facility, was 27,785, according to athletic officials.
In recent seasons, UCLA’s announced attendance was sometimes more than double the scan count, according to figures obtained by The Times through a public records request.
For UCLA’s home opener against Bowling Green on a sweltering September day in 2022, the announced attendance was 27,143, a record low for the team since moving to the Rose Bowl before the 1982 season.
The actual attendance was much lower. UCLA’s scan count, which represented people who entered the stadium (including the aforementioned non-ticketed and credentialed individuals) was 12,383 — 14,760 fewer than the announced attendance.
From Steve Henson: The Clippers forcefully denied allegations detailed in a podcast published on Wednesday that a discredited global tree-planting company paid Kawhi Leonard $28 million to pad the star forward’s contract and skirt the NBA salary cap. However, the NBA told The Times that it will start an investigation.
Investigative journalist Pablo Torre of the Athletic said during “Pablo Finds Out” that he reviewed numerous documents and conducted interviews with former employees of Aspiration Partners, the sustainability services firm that recently declared bankruptcy. Co-founder Joseph Sanberg agreed to plead guilty Aug. 21 to a scheme to defraud investors and lenders of more than $248 million.
During Aspiration’s bankruptcy proceedings, documents emerged citing KL2 Aspire as a creditor owed $7 million, one of four yearly payments of that amount agreed upon in a 2022 contract. KL2 is a limited liability company that names Leonard — whose jersey number is 2 — as its manager.
From Kevin Baxter: Angel City winger Alyssa Thompson left for London on Wednesday afternoon as negotiations continued on a transfer that would send her from the NWSL to Chelsea of the Women’s Super League. But she might be running out of time since the WSL transfer window closes at 3 p.m. PDT Thursday, less than 24 hours after she boarded her flight.
“She wants to go to Chelsea and made it very clear she wants to leave,” said a person close to Thompson, who would speak only on condition of anonymity for fear of disrupting the delicate negotiations. “The rest is out of our hands.”
Thompson’s agent, Takumi Jeannin, declined to speak about the negotiations on the record while Angel City did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Rhyne Howard scored 19 points, Brionna Jones had 16 points and 13 rebounds for her 12th double-double of the season, and the Atlanta Dream beat the Sparks 86-75 on Wednesday night to move into sole possession of second place in the WNBA standings.
Atlanta (27-14), which has won five of its last six games, moved a half-game ahead of Las Vegas (26-14) and Phoenix (26-14) with three regular-season games remaining.
1920 — Man o War wins the 1 5/8-mile Lawrence Realization Stakes at Belmont Park by 100 lengths, the largest winning margin in modern racing history. His time of 2:40 4/5 shatters the world record by 6 4/5 seconds for his fifth record performance of the year.
1932 — Olin Dutra defeats Frank Walsh in the final round 4 and 3 to win the PGA Championship.
1951 — Frank Sedgman becomes the first Australian to win the men’s singles title in the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association championships, beating Victor Seixas in three sets. Sixteen-year-old Maureen Connolly wins the first of three consecutive women’s titles, beating Shirley Fry in three sets.
1966 — The Houston Oilers holds the Denver Broncos to no first downs in a 45-7 rout.
1983 — Greg LeMond wins UCI World Road Race Championship in Altenrhein, Switzerland; first American cyclist to take the title.
1983 — Lynn Dickey of Green Bay completes 27 of 31 passes, including 18 straight, for 333 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Packers in a 41-38 overtime victory over Houston.
1992 — Jimmy Connors loses to Ivan Lendl 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 in his record 115th and final U.S. Open singles match.
1994 — Fu Mingxia of China becomes the first woman to win consecutive highboard world diving titles, beating countrywoman Chi Bin in Rome.
1994 — Dan Marino of the Miami Dolphins becomes the second quarterback with 300 touchdown passes by throwing for five scores in a 39-35 victory over New England. Dan Marino passes for 473 yards and Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe passes for 421 yards and four touchdowns. It’s second time two opposing quarterbacks each pass for 400 yards and four touchdowns in the same game.
2002 — Argentina defeats the U.S. 87-80 in the world basketball championships at Indianapolis. It’s the first loss for a U.S. team in 59 games since the Americans began sending NBA players to international tournaments in 1992.
2005 — 20-year-old Kyle Busch becomes youngest driver to win a NASCAR Cup Series race when he out duels Greg Biffle in the Sony HD 500 at California Speedway.
2006 — Tiger Woods matches the lowest final round of his career (8-under 63) in the Deutsche Bank C’ship at Norton, MA to win for the 5th straight time and 7th time this PGA Tour season.
2010 — DeMarco Murray’s career-best 218 yards rushing leads Oklahoma to a 31-24 victory for the Sooners’ 800th win.
2010 — Andy Dalton becomes TCU’s winningest quarterback, running for two touchdowns and throwing for another in the No. 6 Horned Frogs’ 30-21 victory over Oregon State. His 30th win moves him past Sammy Baugh, who had held the mark since the mid-1930s.
2017 — Madison Keys eliminates Elina Svitolina in three sets to give the U.S. four women in the U.S. Open quarterfinals for the first time in 15 years. Keys joins Americans Venus Williams, CoCo Vandeweghe and Sloane Stephens.
THIS DAY IN BASEBALL HISTORY
1916 — Longtime pitching rivals Christy Mathewson and Mordecai Brown closed their careers, by special arrangement, in the same game. Mathewson won the game 10-8.
1923 — Sam Jones of the New York Yankees pitched a 2-0 no-hitter against Philadelphia Athletics without striking out a batter. New York’s Babe Ruth had the only strikeout of the game.
1927 — Lloyd and Paul Waner became the first brothers to hit home runs in the same game, leading Pittsburgh to an 8-4 win over Cincinnati. Both homers came off Dolf Luque in the fifth inning, the only time in major league history brothers did it in one inning. Lloyd led off the inning with his second home run of the season, and a batter later Paul hit his ninth of the year. Both were bounce home runs, allowed until the 1931; now ground-rule doubles.
1928 — The Boston Braves started a grueling string in which they played nine straight doubleheaders, a major league record.
1941 — The New York Yankees clinched the pennant on the earliest date in baseball history with a 6-3 victory over Boston.
1966 — The Dodgers became the first team in major league history to draw more than 2 million at home and on the road when they beat the Reds 8-6 before 18,670 fans in Cincinnati.
1974 — Don Wilson of the Houston Astros was replaced by a pinch-hitter after pitching eight no-hit innings against Cincinnati. Mike Cosgrove pitched the ninth inning and gave up a leadoff single to Tony Perez for the only hit in the Reds’ 2-1 victory.
1985 — Gary Carter hit two solo homers to tie a major league record and singled in another run to lead the New York Mets to a 9-2 victory over San Diego. Carter’s feat followed a three-homer performance the night before as he became the 11th player in major league history to hit five home runs in two games.
1993 — Jim Abbott threw the New York Yankees’ first no-hitter in 10 years, leading them to a 4-0 victory over the Cleveland Indians.
1995 — Robin Ventura became the eighth player in major league history — and the first in 25 years — to hit two grand slams in one game as the Chicago White Sox beat Texas 14-3.
1998 — The New York Yankees reached 100 wins on the earliest date in major league history — five days before the 1906 Chicago Cubs and 1954 Cleveland Indians — with an 11-6 victory over the Chicago White Sox. The ’06 Cubs set the major league record for fewest games to reach 100 victories (132).
2002 — The Oakland Athletics set an AL record by winning their 20th straight game. They somehow blew an 11-run lead before pinch-hitter Scott Hatteberg homered in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat Kansas City 12-11. Oakland broke a three-way tie for the longest winning streak in AL history with the 1906 Chicago White Sox and the 1947 New York Yankees.
2017 — J.D. Martinez tied a major league record by hitting four home runs and the Arizona Diamondbacks routed the Dodgers 13-0 for their 11th straight victory. Martinez became the 18th player in major league history to hit four homers in a game, and the 16th in the modern era.
Compiled by the Associated Press
Until next time…
That concludes today’s newsletter. If you have any feedback, ideas for improvement or things you’d like to see, email me at [email protected]. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
ATLANTA — Rhyne Howard scored 19 points, Brionna Jones had 16 points and 13 rebounds for her 12th double-double of the season, and the Atlanta Dream beat the Sparks 86-75 on Wednesday night to move into sole possession of second place in the WNBA standings.
Atlanta (27-14), which has won five of its last six games, moved a half-game ahead of Las Vegas (26-14) and Phoenix (26-14) with three regular-season games remaining.
The Dream play the Sparks again Friday, followed by a two-game series with Connecticut to end the season. The Sparks have four games remaining, two at home.
Dearica Hamby had 21 points, nine rebounds and four assists for the Sparks. Kelsey Plum had 18 points and seven assists, and Rickea Jackson scored 15.
Naz Hillmon added 15 points and Maya Caldwell scored 14 for Atlanta. Jordin Canada recorded her first double-double this season with 10 points and 10 assists.
The Sparks scored the opening 10 points of the game as Atlanta missed its first seven field goals. But the Dream closed the quarter on a 12-3 run to take a 26-24 lead after one. Atlanta started the second quarter on a 15-3 run to build a 41-27 lead.
Atlanta led 53-41 at the break behind Howard’s 12 points and three three-pointers. The Dream led by at least eight points the entire second half.
Indonesian President Prabowo’s free meals programme hit by more mass illness as protests against government rock country.
Published On 3 Sep 20253 Sep 2025
An investigation has been launched after some 400 children became ill after eating free school meals in Indonesia’s western Bengkulu province, in the worst case of mass food poisoning linked to President Prabowo Subianto’s flagship food programme to help pregnant women and children.
Authorities will launch an investigation into the cause of the illness, Bengkulu Province ‘s Vice Governor Mian said.
“We will temporarily suspend operations at this kitchen while we investigate where the weaknesses lie,” said Mian, who goes by a single name.
“This is the domain of the BGN [National Nutrition Agency] investigation team and the authorities,” he said.
Dadan Hindayana, chief of the National Nutrition Agency, which runs the programme, told the Reuters news agency the kitchen in question had only recently started operating, asking staff to evaluate services while waiting for results of tests on the food.
Since its launch, Prabowo’s free school meals programme has been rapidly expanded to reach more than 20 million recipients, and authorities plan to reach 83 million recipients by year-end, budgeting a total cost of 171 trillion rupiah ($10.52bn) for the programme this year.
The president launched the programme in January, but the initiative had already been marred by food poisoning that affected hundreds of people.
Airlangga Hartarto, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for economic affairs, inspects the trial of a free lunch programme for students at a junior high school in Tangerang, on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, on February 29, 2024 [Stefanno Sulaiman/Reuters]
Last month, 365 people fell ill from free school meals in Central Java. According to local media reports, laboratory results indicated that the outbreak was a result of poor sanitation.
In the latest mass illness in Bengkulu, children aged from about 4 to 12 were rushed to a local hospital complaining of stomach pain beginning last Thursday, according to a video handout from the local government.
On Wednesday, Prabowo was seen attending a military parade hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, to mark 80 years since Japan’s defeat at the end of World War II, according to China’s CCTV.
Despite the ongoing street protests at home over his government’s handling of the economy, Prabowo decided he would travel to China, after briefly reconsidering his trip amid the mass unrest.
The Jakarta Post reported on Wednesday that some 10 people are now thought to have died in protests over the weekend, with 20 people missing and 500 injured, according to reports from civic organisations and officials.
In Geneva on Monday, the United Nations called for investigations into the alleged use of disproportionate force by Indonesia’s security forces against demonstrators.
“We are following closely the spate of violence in Indonesia in the context of nationwide protests over parliamentary allowances, austerity measures, and alleged use of unnecessary or disproportionate force by security forces,” UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said.
“We stress the importance of dialogue to address the public’s concerns,” she said in a statement.
Choreographer and California Hall of Fame inductee Alonzo King brings his San Francisco-based contemporary ballet company to Long Beach for an evening of dance immersed in the spiritually rooted, avant-garde jazz stylings of Alice Coltrane, including her seminal album “Journey in Satchidananda.” In addition to this tribute to one of America’s only jazz harpists, the company will present a fresh take on Maurice Ravel’s suite of Mother Goose fairy tales, “Ma mère l’Oye,” which was originally written as a piano duet in 1910.
Where: Carpenter Performing Arts Center When: Nov. 8, 8 p.m. Price: Starting at $38.75
When the 2025 cloudburst hit Buner, a district located in northern Pakistan, villagers described how torrents of water came down upon their dwellings with such fury as never before seen. Entire settlements vanished behind walls of mud and rock. Survivors stood amidst the rubble of their houses, blaming fate, blaming climate change, and waiting for relief from the provincial government. But the mountains behind them spoke a different tale. Its slopes, stripped of forests and scarred by marble quarries, had long been preparing for this disaster.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is a province in northern Pakistan where the marble industry has grown very fast. By 2023, more than 6,000 marble factories were working in that province. These factories were mostly found in the Buner, Mardan, Swabi, Malakand, and Mansehra areas and also in the industrial belt on Warsak Road up to Mohmand and Bajaur. In just one city area alone, there were 350 units that Peshawar hosted. Yet alongside this economic boom came a quieter tragedy: about 1,091 units reportedly ran without environmental clearance from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Only 133 factories held the required no-objection certificates (NOCs). The rest continued to blast mountains, dump slurry, and strip forests unchecked.
The ecological costs have been devastating. Global Forest Watch figures demonstrate that Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lost an average of 4,690 hectares in tree cover per year between 2020 and 2024. Swat’s forest cover, which at one time was 30 percent in 1947, has now decreased to just about 15 percent in 2025. Deforestation led by marble quarry expansion and firewood extraction that caters to the needs of the urbanizing population results in barren slopes replacing natural watersheds. Mountain blasting destroys soil structure, leading to erosion and reducing the water absorption capacity of the land, thereby ensuring flash floods accompanied by landslides with every spell of heavy rain. The Buner flood was not a natural calamity, but rather it was the net result of years of environmental neglect by the PTI government.
Villagers, whose words seldom reach the ears of policymakers, tell of dry streams, washed-away topsoil, and lost animal corridors that happen when the forest disappears. Farmers watch their yields decline while factory owners argue the industry brings jobs and export earnings Pakistan needs. Yet the floods that now strike with greater intensity destroy far more than they ever build.
Here, the climate debate takes a dangerous turn. Pakistan is right to point out that it happens to be among the top five most climate-vulnerable countries while contributing less than one percent to global carbon emissions. But local actions—unregulated mining, illegal riverbed construction, and deforestation—weigh heavily in magnifying the impacts of a changing climate. Extreme weather may be global, yet the scale of destruction in places like Swat and Buner reflects local choices as much as global injustice.
What makes this tragedy sharper is the economic paradox at its core. The marble industry contributes almost $1.5 billion every year to the economy of Pakistan, and it is this region that supplies a major portion of exports from the country. But this same industry depletes those very ecosystems on which agriculture, tourism, and rural livelihoods depend. When floods destroy the crops, roads, and houses, the damage is more than what profits could be made out of marble extraction, hence leaving the communities in a cycle that has economic gains disappearing with ecological losses.
The provincial government’s unwillingness to act sits at the heart of the crisis, permitting unregulated factories to function as environmental grey zones. The provincial EPA remains underfunded and politically sidelined. Deforestation bans exist on paper but are rarely enforced. Mining royalties swell provincial coffers, while watershed restoration receives scant attention. More than one thousand illegal factories are operating without NOCs, and only a few face closure orders. The trade-off between short-term revenue and long-term ecological survival remains tilted towards profit.
The paradox is striking. The provincial government continues to blame the Global North for carbon emissions yet does not want to place regulations on companies that are destroying its own watersheds. International climate finance and disaster relief from Islamabad come after every flood, but the mountains continue to be stripped, the diggings continue expanding, and the risks multiply.
This does not have to be the case. If NOCs are strictly enforced, if mining companies undertake mandatory watershed restoration, and if provincial climate adaptation plans are integrated with industrial licensing, the trajectory can be altered. When mountain quarrying was regulated in Turkey and Nepal, mining was allowed to proceed, but only under conditions of ecological stewardship, which is only possible under strong governance.
Until then, the people of Buner, Swat, and Malakand pay. With every flood deadlier than the last, every disaster is met with a cycle of blame and appeals for relief. Yes, climate change is a global issue, but in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it’s as much about local negligence as it is about distant smokestacks. Without governance reforms, no amount of international aid can stop those mountains from crumbling when the next storm comes.
Some countries (such as Bhutan and Sri Lanka) in South Asia have recently piloted community-based watershed rehabilitation efforts wherein local bodies keep checks on mining activities, which are accompanied by financial payouts for reforestation. If applied here, it has the potential to transform the current humanitarian recovery response into an upfront investment for risk reduction. This could pressurize provincial authorities of KP to enforce stricter measures and to plan for resilience in the long run.
The provincial government sinks into its political warfare with the center, treading on anti-state rhetoric while there are crises within its own borders. As elites trade barbs and chase power across the hall, ordinary people pay the price of floods and deforestation and unregulated mining.
But for their most intriguing recent draft pick, it’s also the opening day of a different kind of season.
In the 17th round of last month’s MLB draft, the Dodgers took a flier on University of Missouri pitcher Sam Horn, a 6-foot-4 right-hander with a big fastball, a promising slider and an athletic, projectable build.
Like most late-round prospects hoping to become a diamond in the rough, Horn came with questions. He pitched just 15 innings in his college career after undergoing Tommy John surgery as a sophomore. His limited body of work led to a wide range of scouting opinions.
In Horn’s case, however, the biggest unknowns had nothing to do with his potential as a pitcher.
Because, starting Thursday night, he will also be under center as quarterback for Missouri’s football team.
Horn is not only a two-sport athlete, but someone still undecided on whether his future will be on a mound or the gridiron. As a quarterback, he was a four-star recruit in Missouri’s 2022 signing class. And this fall, he has been locked in a battle with Penn State transfer Beau Pribula, jockeying for first-string signal-caller duties at an SEC program coming off a 10-win season.
When Missouri opens its 2025 football schedule Thursday night against Central Arkansas, Pribula will play the first half, and Horn will play the second half. As for the rest of the season, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz has yet to hand either player all the keys to the offense.
“I think both quarterbacks have done an excellent job of doing the things that we’ve asked them to do, and there wasn’t enough separation that I felt like there was a clear-cut starter,” Drinkwitz told reporters this week. “And so the next-best evaluation is in a live football game to see how guys respond, not only to preparation and a game plan, but also respond to a crowd, also respond to being tackled and being hit.”
It’s a QB battle that Dodgers officials have followed with fascination throughout Missouri’s fall camp.
Already, the club has signed Horn to a baseball contract with an almost $500,000 signing bonus (well above the norm for the 525th overall pick).
The question now is whether he ever ends up playing for them.
“We’re pleasantly hoping he does,” Dodgers vice president of baseball operations Billy Gasparino said this week. “We think there’s a whole window of opportunity to get him much better, and quickly.”
Once upon a time, the Dodgers viewed Horn as one of college baseball’s better pitching prospects. Even in a limited sample size as a freshman in 2023, Gasparino said the team evaluated him as having potential future first-round talent.
“He’s a tremendous athlete,” said Gasparino, the longtime point man for the Dodgers’ draft operations. “He has really good arm action. I think that part was very elite.”
By the time Horn actually became draft-eligible this summer, though, uncertainties about his future made his scouting process unique.
All along, Horn signaled to MLB teams that he wanted to play football this fall. As a redshirt junior, he will have another season of eligibility in football next year as well. Gasparino said the narrative around Horn, who is originally from Lawrenceville, Ga., is that “baseball is his first love.”
“But,” Gasparino added, “he definitely seemed split on what he wanted to do going forward.”
This is not the first recent example of the Dodgers drafting a power-conference college quarterback.
Two years ago, they used their final 20th-round selection in the 2023 draft on then-Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, a former two-sport star at St. John Bosco. Uiagalelei, however, never signed with the team. As a highly-touted five-star talent with NFL aspirations, he never made the switch to baseball either, his draft rights with the Dodgers lapsing after he transferred to Florida State for the 2024 football season.
Horn’s situation appears to be different. Unlike Uiagalelei (who never actually pitched collegiately), he spent the last three years on Missouri’s baseball team. And if he doesn’t win the starting quarterback job with the Tigers football squad this fall, his odds of reporting to the Dodgers next spring figure to be much more realistic.
That’s why, as Missouri’s QB battle has unfolded this preseason, Gasparino scoured Missouri recruiting site message boards and local news outlets, looking for any indication of which way the program was leaning.
“The coach is going to give nothing,” Gasparino said jokingly. “So you kind of have to go on the message boards, and to the local writers, to figure out, ‘Alright, who is winning? What is going on?’ It’s been kind of a hard read.”
Leading up to the draft, Horn’s situation also required extra scouting legwork. The Dodgers dusted off his old freshman year and high school evaluations, after he pitched just 10 ⅔ innings in Missouri’s spring baseball season coming off his Tommy John procedure. They also reached out to NFL scouting departments and college football recruiters, “just to figure out how talented he was at football,” Gasparino said.
The Dodgers do have downside protection if Horn ultimately decides to stick with the football, with Gasparino noting that “to actually get his signing bonus, he has to come to us.”
But in the meantime, they’ll be keeping a close eye on Missouri’s football season — starting with Thursday night’s opener in which Horn is slated to see the field.
“Definitely gonna be watching,” Gasparino said. “I mean, I guess first, it’s like, don’t get hurt. But also just hoping that the right answer becomes very clear on what he should do sport-wise … Of course, we’d be disappointed if it’s not baseball. But would hate another year of in-between.”
Execution, intensity, and pacing defined Tuesday’s matchup at Crypto.com Arena, where the Sparks faced the Phoenix Mercury in their third meeting of the season, with the Sparks losing for the third time to the Mercury, 92-84.
Before the game, Sparks coach Lynne Roberts emphasized the importance of focus on both ends of the floor.
“For us offensively, it’s going to come down to pace and being willing to execute,” Roberts said. “You have to execute with intensity and intention.”
While Sparks (17-19) did a good job forcing some turnovers and getting some steals, execution was a little rushed.
With 40.5 seconds left in the third quarter, things got chippy on the court when Rickea Jackson slipped and limped off, sidelined for the remainder of the quarter.
“I am proud of her for trying to go back in, but I could tell she was just laboring a little bit and we had a big stretch coming in and it’s not fair to keep her through,” Roberts said of Jackson playing through what appeared to be an ankle injury.
“She is tough, and I have a feeling she’ll be fine by the time Friday comes around,” Roberts said.
Sparks forward Dearica Hamby’s scoring run early in the second quarter helped the Sparks briefly take the lead. After hitting a jumper to tie the score at 24, Hamby drew a foul and hit one of two free throws to put Los Angeles ahead 25-24. She finished with 25 points and eight rebounds.
But the Sparks couldn’t hold the advantage for long. The Mercury (23-14) led 48-40 at halftime and maintained control throughout.
“We didn’t shoot great from three, I mean that’s where the difference in the game is they (Phoenix) went 11 for 25, we went seven for 24,” Roberts said. “I do feel like we typically shoot it better,”
Satou Sabally paced Phoenix with 19 points and three rebounds. Kahleah Copper added 18 points and three assists, while Alyssa Thomas had a triple-double with 12 points, 16 rebounds and 15 assists.
Tuesday’s matchup was a testament to how physical the WNBA is, especially with playoffs on the line.
“I’m sure it’s because the playoffs are coming, and we’re scrapping for our lives, and they’re playing hard. We’re all playing for something and the intensity is up, and these guys have pride in how they play,” Roberts said
Despite strong performances from Jackson (21 points) and Hamby, the Sparks couldn’t break through against Phoenix’s balance and depth.
The Sparks next play the Indiana Fever on Friday night at Crypto.com Arena.
