fight

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Monday night that he’s firing Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook, an unprecedented move that would constitute a sharp escalation in his battle to exert greater control over what has long been considered an institution independent from day-to-day politics.

Trump said in a letter posted on his Truth Social platform that he is removing Cook effective immediately because of allegations that she committed mortgage fraud. Bill Pulte, a Trump appointee to the agency that regulates mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, made the accusations last week.

Pulte alleged that Cook had claimed two primary residences — in Ann Arbor, Mich., and Atlanta — in 2021 to get better mortgage terms. Mortgage rates are often higher on second homes or those purchased to rent.

Trump’s move is likely to touch off an extensive legal battle that will probably go to the Supreme Court and could disrupt financial markets, potentially pushing interest rates higher.

The independence of the Fed is considered critical to its ability to fight inflation because it enables it to take unpopular steps such as raising interest rates. If bond investors start to lose faith that the Fed will be able to control inflation, they will demand higher rates to own bonds, pushing up borrowing costs for mortgages, car loans and business loans.

Legal scholars noted that the allegations are likely a pretext for the president to open up another seat on the seven-member board so he can appoint a loyalist to push for his long-stated goal of lower interest rates.

Fed governors vote on the central bank’s interest rate decisions and on issues of financial regulation. Although they are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, they are not like Cabinet secretaries, who serve at the pleasure of the president. They serve 14-year terms that are staggered in an effort to insulate the Fed from political influence.

No president has sought to fire a Fed governor before. In recent decades, presidents of both parties have largely respected Fed independence, though Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson put heavy pressure on the Fed during their presidencies — mostly behind closed doors.

Still, that behind-the-scenes pressure to keep interest rates low, the same goal sought by Trump, has widely been blamed for touching off rampant inflation in the late 1960s and ‘70s.

The announcement came days after Cook said she wouldn’t leave despite Trump previously calling for her to resign. “I have no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet,” Cook said in a previous statement issued by the Fed.

Senate Democrats had expressed support for Cook, who has not been charged with wrongdoing.

Another Fed governor, Adriana Kugler, stepped down unexpectedly Aug. 1, and Trump has nominated one of his economic advisors, Stephen Miran, to fill out the remainder of her term until January.

“The Federal Reserve has tremendous responsibility for setting interest rates and regulating reserve member banks. The American people must have the full confidence in the honesty of the members entrusted with setting policy and overseeing the Federal Reserve,” Trump wrote in a letter addressed to Cook, a copy of which he posted online. “In light of your deceitful and potentially criminal conduct in a financial matter, they cannot and I do not have such confidence in your integrity.”

Trump argued that firing Cook was constitutional, even if doing so will raise questions about control of the Fed as an independent entity.

“The executive power of the United States is vested to me as President and, as President, I have a solemn duty that the laws of the United States are faithfully enacted,” the president wrote in the letter to Cook. “I have determined that faithfully enacting the law requires your immediate removal from office.”

Among the unresolved legal questions are whether Cook could be allowed to remain in her seat while the case plays out. She may have to fight the legal battle herself, as the injured party, rather than the Fed.

In the meantime, Trump’s announcement drew swift rebuke from advocates and former Fed officials who worry that Trump is trying to exert too much power and control over the nation’s central bank.

“The President’s effort to fire a sitting Federal Reserve Governor is part of a concerted effort to transform the financial regulators from independent watchdogs into obedient lapdogs that do as they’re told. This could have real consequences for Americans feeling the squeeze from higher prices,” Rohit Chopra, former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said in a statement.

It is the latest effort by the administration to take control over one of the few remaining independent agencies in Washington. Trump has repeatedly attacked the Fed’s chair, Jerome H. Powell, for not cutting its short-term interest rate, and even threatened to fire him.

Forcing Cook off the Fed’s governing board would provide Trump an opportunity to appoint a loyalist. Trump has said he would appoint only officials who would support cutting rates.

Powell signaled last week that the Fed may cut rates soon even as inflation risks remain moderate. Meanwhile, Trump will be able to replace Powell in May 2026, when Powell’s term expires. However, 12 members of the Fed’s interest-rate-setting committee have a vote on whether to raise or lower interest rates, so even replacing the chair might not guarantee that Fed policy will shift the way Trump wants.

Rugaber and Weissert write for the Associated Press.

“It’s true that no teeth were broken during the fight, but it was a fight like I’ve never seen in all my years in football,” said De Zerbi.

“For the first time in my career, I didn’t know what to say or what to do. I’ve never seen anything like it. I come from the streets, I’m used to fights, but I’ve never seen anything like this.

“The club’s bodyguards were trying to separate them. Normally they’re supposed to protect us from others, not from ourselves.”

While Marseille president Pablo Longoria described the incident as “extremely violent,” Rabiot’s mother Veronique subsequently called the club’s decision to place the midfielder on the transfer list as a “betrayal” and compared his situation to Mason Greenwood joining the club.

But De Zerbi responded: “The mother has forgotten two things. I decided to make him captain… and in one year, I gave her son more attention and affection than I did my own son.

“For Rabiot’s mother to say that we gave Greenwood a second chance, that’s crazy. We’re talking about private life here. It’s not fair to talk about other people. We’re talking about a fight in a workplace.”

England Under-21 international Rowe signed for Marseille from Norwich on an initial loan in August 2024, before making the move permanent this summer. The 22-year-old forward, who has three goals in 31 appearances for the club, has been linked to Bologna.

Former Paris St-Germain player Rabiot joined Marseille last September on a free transfer after five years at Juventus, and has scored 10 times in 32 games.

The 30-year-old, capped 53 times by France, has been linked with Monaco and also Manchester United, who are keen to sign a defensive midfielder.

President Donald Trump and his allies have kicked off a redistricting fight in the United States as the country’s two main political parties angle for advantage in the 2026 midterm elections.

In an effort to maintain control of Congress, Republican leaders in the right-wing stronghold of Texas have pushed to redraw the state’s congressional districts in a way that would net the party as many as five additional seats in the US House of Representatives.

Trump has encouraged the effort, calling it a “big WIN for the Great State of Texas”. The state’s Senate is expected to vote on the new district plans as early as Thursday evening.

But that effort has prompted a backlash. The Democratic-leaning state of California responded in kind by passing a plan on Thursday to abandon nonpartisan redistricting and create new congressional maps that could bring the Democrats five more seats, negating the effort in Texas.

Party leaders in other states, including Missouri and Florida, have also indicated they may seek to rejigger their districts to pick up more seats.

The standoff points to larger questions about how to ensure fair representation in Congress and how Trump has sought to exert wide-reaching control over the country’s political system.

With Trump’s approval rating slipping to about 40 percent, Republicans risk losing their narrow, 219-person majority in the 435-seat House of Representatives in the midterm races.

So what is redistricting? And what could it mean for upcoming elections? We answer those questions and more in this quick explainer.

What is redistricting?

Simply put, the practice of redistricting refers to drawing the boundaries of an election district.

Ideally, districts should be designed as an accurate and proportionate reflection of the area’s population. Maps are generally updated every 10 years, in accordance with the latest population census.

But political parties can take steps to shape districts to their benefit, in a process sometimes referred to as gerrymandering.

That involves finding creative ways to maximise the number of seats a party can win by carving districts based on demographics and voting trends, to increase the electoral weight of certain groups and minimise the influence of others.

“Politicians can look at information about the partisan and demographic breakdown of an area and stack the decks in their favour,” said Thad Kousser, a professor of political science at the University of California at San Diego.

This practice has a long and fraught history in the US, especially in states with histories of segregation and discrimination, where maps were often drawn to dilute representation for minority voters.

What is happening in Texas?

While redistricting is far from new, Texas has been in the spotlight recently for a particularly overt partisan effort.

Part of the controversy stems from the involvement of President Trump, who prompted Texas Republicans to redraw maps.

In June and July, reports began to emerge that the White House was holding calls with Texas state leaders to tee up a redistricting battle, in preparation for the 2026 midterms.

Despite early concerns that the effort could backfire, Republican lawmakers in the state quickly put the plan in motion.

Speaking by phone to CNBC on August 5, Trump seemed to suggest that the makeup of the US Congress should reflect his success in the 2024 presidential race.

“We should have many more seats in Congress,” Trump said. “I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats.”

The state’s House of Representatives passed a new election map on Wednesday, and the Texas Senate is expected to do the same in the next few days. The new maps would carve out five additional districts in areas where Trump performed strongly during the last election.

How did Texas Democrats respond?

Texas Democrats condemned the redistricting as a partisan power grab and tried to prevent a vote on the new congressional map.

In early August, they left the state in a bid to deny the Texas legislature the quorum it needed to move the plan forward.

But as a minority voting bloc in the firmly Republican state legislature, the Democrats ultimately failed to stop the redistricting scheme.

While away, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the absent Democrats’ arrest, and the Republicans in the state House echoed that effort with a vote to issue arrest warrants. Abbott also threatened the Democrats with criminal charges, including for bribery, if they solicited funds during their absence.

What’s more, the Texas Democrats faced a series of reported bomb threats at their Illinois hotels. Eventually, after two weeks, they returned to their home state, allowing the vote to proceed.

Democratic leaders have said that, while they did not stop the redistricting push, they drew attention to the issue and are preparing to challenge the new maps in court.

Do both parties gerrymander?

Yes, both parties have engaged in gerrymandering, and the practice has been employed throughout US history in varying contexts.

In recent years, however, the practice has been more commonly associated with right-leaning states.

Princeton University’s Gerrymandering Project found that states with the most severe gerrymandering tend to be Republican-led states in the southern US, where the practice has historically been employed to dilute the influence of Black voters.

The project also found that a handful of states, such as Oregon, Illinois and Nevada, have partisan election maps that heavily favour Democrats.

Some Democrats previously criticised gerrymandering as anti-democratic and pushed for changes to ensure that redistricting is nonpartisan.

“Public servants should earn the votes of the people that they hope to represent. What Republicans are trying to do in Texas is to have politicians choose their voters,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries recently told reporters.

But as Trump seeks to increase his party’s advantage, some Democratic leaders have urged the party to change its approach and “fight fire with fire” through more explicitly partisan tactics.

Is gerrymandering legal?

Courts have, on occasion, struck down gerrymandered congressional maps on the basis that they violate the US Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause by disadvantaging racial minorities and other demographics.

But the Supreme Court has ruled it will not intervene in questions of partisan gerrymandering, though state courts can.

How is California responding?

Following the developments in Texas, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced his state would begin its own redistricting effort meant to add five congressional seats to the Democrats’ tally in the US House of Representatives.

California, the largest state by population, is considered solidly left-leaning: Nearly 47 percent of registered voters identified as Democrats in 2023, compared with 24 percent for Republicans.

On Thursday, the state’s legislature voted largely along party lines to forward the redistricting plan to Newsom’s desk for a signature.

“It’s the fact that this has been so baldly political and driven by demands from Trump that has allowed Democrats to take the gloves off,” said Kousser, the political science professor.

Newsom has depicted his actions as an unfortunate but necessary response to the Texas Republicans.

He said he will shelve California’s redistricting plans if Texas agrees to do the same, but he argues that Democrat-led states cannot “unilaterally disarm” and allow partisan redistricting to disadvantage them in Congress.

“Other blue states need to stand up,” Newsom said as he announced his plan. “We need to be firm.”

Former Democratic President Barack Obama said that, while his “preference” is to do away with gerrymandering, Newsom was taking a “responsible approach” by countering the Republicans.

Are other states considering redistricting plans?

Yes. The Republican-led state of Ohio announced redistricting plans, and Republican leaders in Florida, Indiana and Missouri have also suggested they will follow suit.

Meanwhile, officials in the Democrat-led state of Illinois are also mulling changes to the map-drawing process. New York’s Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul also said that her state may pursue redistricting if Texas moves forward with its plan.

How could this affect future elections?

It is unclear how much this redistricting battle will tip the scales for either party, particularly as Democrats consider steps to negate Republican gains.

But experts say there are generally more Republican-led states where redistricting might be viable

The primary objective is to gain an advantage in anticipation of the 2026 midterms, when control of Congress is up for grabs.

While each state receives exactly two senators, the number of representatives in the House varies depending on each state’s population size. All 435 seats in the House will be up for grabs in the midterms, and each congressional district is responsible for selecting the winner for one of those seats.

Trump last month called Texas the greatest prize – “the biggest one” – in the redistricting battle.

On Thursday, he framed the five seats Republicans hope to gain there as integral to his platform: “On our way to FIVE more Congressional seats and saving your Rights, your Freedoms, and your Country, itself. Texas never lets us down.”

But halfway through Trump’s first term in office, the Republicans lost their majority in the House during the midterm elections. That loss gave Democrats greater power to stymie Trump’s legislative priorities.

“Trump is urging his allies to redraw districts as a way to insulate him and his political party from possible backlash in the midterms,” said Kousser.

Isn’t California doing the same thing as Texas?

Newsom has attempted to assuage concerns about California’s redistricting scheme by contrasting his plan with the one in Texas.

He says that California’s new map will go before voters in November for approval, unlike in Texas, and will only go into effect if Republican-led states do the same.

Still, his efforts would require sidelining a nonpartisan redistricting panel previously approved by California voters.

But Kousser says that Trump’s push for greater sway over the country’s political system may induce more Democrats to adopt partisan redistricting for themselves.

“Newsom was explicit that there is a way to back down from this arms race,” he said. “But he’s also saying that, if Republicans don’t back away from this, Democrats will use these means as well.”

As global plastic treaty talks end in failure, with no agreement, all is not lost in the global momentum to cut plastic pollution. United States lawmakers recently introduced the Microplastics Safety Act, for example, mandating the Department of Health and Human Services to study microplastics exposure and health impacts. The bill reflects growing concern in Congress about the plastics health crisis and the broad bipartisan support to address it.

However, given that plastic production, use, and hence exposure, continue to increase every year, we should not wait idly for the US report’s findings or more failed global plastic treaty talks. There is enough evidence to take action now. Below, we highlight three areas that can help reduce everyone’s exposure to microplastics: culture, business and policy.

In culture, there are many default behaviours that we can rethink and re-norm. What if we saw more people bringing their own metal or wooden cutlery to the next barbecue, more shoppers bringing home whole fruit instead of plastic-wrapped pre-cut, and more kids and employees bringing their own refillable water bottles and coffee mugs to school and work? The more we see it normalised, the more we’ll do it. That’s how social norming works.

And having Hollywood in on this would certainly help. Two years ago, Citywide, a feature film shot in Philadelphia was Hollywood’s first zero-waste film, which is a great start. More of this is welcome, including walking the talk within movie, television and advertising scenes by swapping in refillable and reusable containers where single-use plastics would otherwise be the default or showcasing repeat outfits on characters to decentre environmentally harmful fast fashion, much of which is made from plastic.

In business, thankfully, some local grocers allow shoppers to go plastic-free. More grocers should make this shift because consumers want it. Providing staples like cereal, oats, nuts and beans in bulk bins and letting shoppers bring their own containers is a good start. Buying in bulk tends to be more affordable but unfortunately, few stores offer that option, especially stores that target shoppers with lower incomes. Even shoppers with higher incomes lack options: Whole Foods, for example, has bulk bins but in most of its locations requires customers to use the provided plastic containers or bags, which defeats the purpose.

More low-hanging fruit for grocers: try using the milk bottle approach. In some grocery stores, milk is still available in glass bottles, which is good, albeit it comes with a steep deposit. Let’s extend that model of returnable containers to other products, and at a more affordable rate. Take yoghurt, for example. Stores could have an option to buy it in returnable glass containers, since the current plastic containers aren’t recyclable. This is not a fantasy but a possibility: a newly opened grocery store in France offers all of their items plastic-free.

For restaurants, more and more businesses across the US are supporting the use of returnable containers and cities like the District of Columbia offer grants to help ditch disposables. This is exactly what we need more of. People want the option to bring their own containers or use a returnable container so that they can have take-out without risking their health and the environment with exposure to plastic. Let’s give the people what they want.

Policy is arguably the hardest of the three paths to tackle since culture and business track more closely and immediately with consumer demand. To be clear, most Americans, in a bipartisan way, are sick of single-use plastics, which is why plastic bag bans are popping up across the US, and state capitals are seeing more legislative proposals to hold producers of plastic responsible for the life cycle of plastic. What makes policy the more difficult space is the petrochemical lobby that often stands in the way, keeping policymakers mum about the human health and environmental impacts while encouraging industry subsidies: the US has spent $9bn in tax subsidies on the construction of new plastics factories over the past 12 years.

Given the health and environmental harms associated with plastics production, the obvious policy fix is to make the producers responsible for the pollution, forcing them to clean up in places locally like Beaver Creek, Pennsylvania, where the local economy suffered after an ethane cracker plant started operating there. And then to clean up globally for the harm done, since governments are left with the tab of $32bn while the public is left with the costs of health impacts from endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in plastic.

The industry, meanwhile, is fighting tooth and nail to keep selling its harmful products, misleading the public into thinking recycling is an effective solution to plastic waste. It’s not, of course, which is why California is suing ExxonMobil for deception about plastics recycling. Meanwhile, the industry continues to interfere with United Nations global plastics treaty negotiations.

It’s time we diverted those billions of dollars that taxpayers spend subsidising deadly plastics production and, instead, develop products, companies and systems that make the low-plastic life the default option for everyone. That’s the healthier future we want to live in.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul will face off against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis in an exhibition bout at State Farm Arena on November 14.

Jake Paul will fight the unbeaten Gervonta Davis on November 14, at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia, in an exhibition bout that will be streamed live on Netflix, promoters said on Wednesday.

Davis has been the WBA lightweight champion since Devin Haney vacated the belt in 2023, but the American’s title will not be on the line against YouTuber-turned-boxer Paul due to the size difference between the two boxers.

Paul, a cruiserweight, weighed in at 199.4 pounds (90.45kg) ahead of his win over Mexican Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in June, while Davis fought Lamont Roach at 133.8 pounds (60.7kg) in March.

No details have been provided on the weight limit for the fight.

“Yes, he’s one of the top pound-for-pound boxers in the world, but my motto is, anyone, anytime, anyplace, against all odds. And I like my odds,” Paul wrote on X.

Davis is undefeated in 31 fights as a professional, winning 30 and drawing one, while Paul has a record of 12 wins and one defeat.

Before Wednesday’s announcement, Paul had been tipped to fight Anthony Joshua, a former two-time unified heavyweight world champion and Olympic gold medallist, and the sides had been holding discussions.

Paul’s most famous boxing match was against former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, which took place on November 15, 2024.

https://t.co/HUb2Bsw2cG

— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) August 20, 2025

Al-Mawasi, Gaza Strip – Sweat streams down Tareq Abu Youssef’s face as he struggles through his gym workout on makeshift bodybuilding equipment, each movement more laboured than it should be.

The 23-year-old Palestinian deliberately keeps his training sessions minimal, a painful reduction from the intensive routines he once loved – but in a territory where nearly everyone is starving, maintaining muscle mass has become an act of survival and resistance.

“I have dropped 14 kilograms, from 72kg to 58kg (159lb to 128lb), since March,” Abu Youssef said, referring to when Israel tightened its siege by closing border crossings and severely restricting food deliveries. “But if eating has become an abnormality in Gaza, working out for bodybuilders like us is one rare way to maintain normalcy,” he tells Al Jazeera.

His story reflects a broader humanitarian catastrophe: Across Gaza’s 365 square kilometres, 2.1 million Palestinians face what aid agencies describe as deliberate, weaponised hunger.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that virtually the entire population faces “catastrophic” levels of food insecurity, with northern Gaza experiencing famine conditions. Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, has documented severe acute malnutrition cases throughout the Strip, describing the crisis as “man-made” and deliberately imposed. The World Food Programme warns that without immediate intervention, famine will spread across all of Gaza, while millions of tonnes of aid are parked at Israel-locked border crossings.

Even when aid trucks manage to enter through Israel’s heavily restricted crossings, distribution of food and other essential items remains nearly impossible due to ongoing military operations and widespread destruction of infrastructure.

During Abu Youssef’s extended rest breaks in between machines – now five times longer than before Gaza’s famine began – he runs his hands over his chest, arms, and shoulders, feeling the devastating muscle loss that mirrors the physical deterioration of an entire population.

“Starvation has completely affected my ability to practice my favourite sport of bodybuilding,” Abu Youssef says in a tent gym in al-Mawasi, located in Gaza’s overcrowded southern “safe zone”. “I now come to train one day, sometimes two days, a week. Before the war, it was five to six days. I’ve also reduced my training time to less than half an hour, which is less than half the required time.”

Where he once bench-pressed 90-100kg (200-220lb), Abu Youssef now barely manages 40kg (90lb) – a decline that would be concerning for any athlete but devastating in a context where such physical deterioration is becoming the norm across an entire society.

A gym among the refugees

The makeshift facility where Abu Youssef trains exists inside a tent in al-Mawasi, now home to roughly one million displaced Palestinians living in overcrowded, unsanitary conditions. Here, amid sprawling refugee camps, coach Adly al-Assar has created an unlikely sanctuary, using equipment salvaged from his destroyed gym in Khan Younis.

Al-Assar, a 55-year-old international powerlifting champion who won six gold medals at Arab championships in 2020-2021, managed to rescue just 10 pieces of equipment from the more than 30 destroyed when Israeli forces bombed his original facility. The tent gym covers barely 60 square metres (650 sq ft), its plastic sheeting stretched over two uneven levels of ground, surrounded by refugee tents and sparse trees.

“During this imposed famine, everything changed,” al-Assar explains, his own body weight having dropped 11kg from 78kg to 67kg. “Athletes lost 10-15 kilograms and lost their ability to lift weights. My shoulder muscle was 40 centimetres, now it’s less than 35, and all other muscles suffered the same loss.”

Before the current crisis, his gym welcomed over 200 athletes daily across all ages. Now, barely 10 percent can manage to train, and only once or twice weekly.

One of those regular visitors to his makeshift gym is Ali al-Azraq, 20, displaced from central Gaza during the war’s early weeks. His weight plummeted from 79kg to 68kg – almost entirely muscle loss. His bench press capacity dropped from 100kg to just 30kg, back lifts from 150kg to 60kg, and shoulder work from 45kg to barely 15kg.

“The biggest part of the loss happened during the current starvation period, which began months ago and intensified in the last month,” al-Azraq says. “I actually find nothing to eat except rarely a piece of bread, rice, or pasta in tiny quantities that keep me alive. But we completely lack all essential nutrients and important proteins – meat, chicken, healthy oils, eggs, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and others.”

The unemployed young man had hoped to compete in official Palestinian arm-wrestling championships before advancing internationally. Instead, he describes the current starvation as “the harshest thing we’re experiencing as Gazans, but athletes like us are most affected because we need large quantities of specific, not ordinary food”.

Training through trauma

Yet for these athletes, the tent gym represents more than physical training – it’s psychological survival. Khaled Al-Bahabsa, 29, who returned to training two months ago after being injured in Israeli shelling on April 19, still carries shrapnel in his chest and body.

“Sports give life and psychological comfort. We were closer to the dead even though we were alive,” al-Bahabsa says. “But when I returned to practice my [gym] training, I felt closer to the living than the dead, and the nightmares of genocide and hunger retreated a little.”

He was stunned to discover the gym among the tents and trees. “I considered that I got my passion that war conditions forced me to give up. Bodybuilding isn’t just a sport – for me and many of its players, enthusiasts, and lovers – it’s life.”

Twenty-two months of relentless bombardment by the Israeli military has killed more than 62,000 people, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health, demolished expansive parts of the besieged territory, and displaced the sweeping majority of its people. Those alive are trying to survive dire humanitarian conditions in the near-absolute absence of food.

Al-Assar has adapted his training methods for famine conditions, strictly instructing athletes to minimise workouts and avoid overexertion. Rest periods between sets now extend to five minutes instead of the usual 30 seconds to one minute. Training sessions are capped at 30 minutes, and athletes lift no more than half their pre-famine weights.

“The recommendations are strict to shorten training duration and increase rest periods,” al-Assar warns. “We’re living a deadly starvation crisis, and training might stop altogether if circumstances continue this way.”

On a daily basis, athletes experience complications including collapse, fainting, and inability to move, the coach told Al Jazeera. “We’re in real famine with nothing to eat. We get zero nutrition from all essential and beneficial foods – no animal protein, no healthy oils, nothing. We get a tiny amount that wouldn’t satisfy a three-year-old of plant protein from lentils, while other foods are completely absent.”

But the bodybuilders keep working out anyway.

Even when Israeli air attacks landed just metres from the gym, athletes continued showing up. “I’m hungry all the time and calculate my one training day per week – how will I manage my food afterward?” says Abu Youssef, a street vendor who once aspired to compete in a Gaza-wide bodybuilding championship that was scheduled for two weeks after the war began in October 2023.

Youssef, who was excited at the opportunity to compete and was in full training for the championship, had his dream destroyed when the war “turned everything upside down”. Now, the few loaves of bread he manages to buy from his weekly earnings barely fill him up.

“Despite that, I didn’t lose hope and train again to regain my abilities, even if limited and slow, but the famine thwarts all these attempts,” he says.

For al-Bahabsa, displaced from Rafah with his family, simply reaching the training site represents hope for restoring life generally, not just physical fitness.

“We aspire to live like the rest of the world’s peoples. We want only peace and life and hate the war and Israeli occupation that exterminates and starves us. It’s our right to practice sports, participate in international competitions, reach advanced levels, and represent Palestine,” he said.

The tent gym, despite its limitations, serves as what al-Assar calls a challenge to “the reality of genocide, destruction, and displacement”.

As he puts it: “The idea here is deeper than just training. We’re searching for the life we want to live with safety and tranquility. Gaza and its people will continue their lives no matter the genocide against them. Sports is one aspect of this life.”

This piece was published in collaboration with Egab.

Jake Paul will take on WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis in an exhibition fight in Atlanta, Georgia on 14 November.

Davis’ title will not be on the line because of the huge gulf in weight between the two men.

Paul weighed 200lbs for his last bout with Davis currently campaigning at 135lb.

Youtuber-turned-boxer Paul found fame on the Disney Channel and then as an influencer before stepping into the world of boxing and has a record of 12 wins and one defeat as a professional.

“Yes, he is one of the top pound-for-pound boxers in the world, but my motto is anyone, anytime, anyplace, against all odds,” Paul wrote on X, external.

Paul added “first David, then Goliath” in what could be seen as a reference to reports he was in talks over a fight with British heavyweight Anthony Joshua.

Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn, who promotes Joshua, recently told BBC Sport that Paul could likely be next for the two-time heavyweight champion when he returns from injury in 2026.

American Davis is undefeated in 31 fights as a professional, winning 30 and drawing one, with 28 of his victories coming by knockout.

AUSTIN, Texas — Both parties expected Republicans to win an early round Wednesday in a growing national redistricting battle by pushing a congressional map creating five new potential GOP seats past its biggest obstacle in the Texas Legislature.

The Republican-controlled Texas House planned to vote on a redistricting plan that resulted from prodding by President Trump, eager to stave off a midterm defeat that would deprive his party of control of the House of Representatives. Texas Democratic lawmakers delayed a vote for 15 days by leaving the state in protest, depriving the House of enough members to do business.

Some Democrats returned Monday, only to be assigned round-the-clock police escorts to ensure their attendance at Wednesday’s session. Seven who refused were confined to the House floor, where they protested on a livestream Tuesday night, led by Rep. Nicole Collier, who represents a minority-majority district in Fort Worth. Her staff removed a pillow, blanket and bag of personal effects early Wednesday.

As lawmakers trickled into the chamber, several Democrats gave Collier a hug, said “Thank you,” and took photos with her. In a social media post Tuesday night, Collier put a call from 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on her cellphone’s speaker. Harris told Collier that, “We are all in that room with you.”

“We are making a difference,” she said after the call. “People are watching and they are ready to hold this government accountable.”

House approval of the map would send it to the Senate for a vote as early as Thursday. Passage there also is expected, and not enough Democrats walked out previously to prevent the chamber from working. Democrats said they’re preparing to challenge the new map in court.

Furious national Democrats have vowed payback for the Texas map, with California’s legislature poised to approve new maps adding more Democratic-friendly seats later this week. The map would still need to be approved by that state’s voters in November.

Normally, states redraw maps once a decade with new census figures. But Trump is lobbying other conservative-controlled states like Indiana and Missouri to also try to squeeze new GOP-friendly seats out of their maps as his party prepares for a difficult midterm election next year.

Democrats are energized by the fight in Texas

As House session was about to begin, about two dozen demonstrators supporting Democrats sang “Fighting for Democracy, we shall not be moved” outside the chamber. GOP House Speaker Dustin Burrows announced that the public gallery will be cleared if there are disruptions. The public gallery was mostly empty as the session was gaveled in.

But the 100 members required to do business were present. About 200 people have gathered in the Capitol’s rotunda for a rally supporting Democrats, holding signs saying “End Gerrymandering — Save Democracy,” “Defend the Constitution” and “Fascism is here.”

Texas Democrats spent the day before the vote continuing to draw attention to the extraordinary lengths the Republicans who run the legislature were going to ensure it takes place.

Collier started it when she refused to sign what Democrats called the “permission slip” required by Burrows to leave the House chamber, a half-page form allowing Department of Public Safety troopers to follow them. Collier spent Monday night and Tuesday on the House floor, where she set up a livestream while her Democratic colleagues outside had plainclothes officers following them to their offices and homes.

Dallas-area Rep. Linda Garcia said she drove three hours home from Austin with an officer following her. When she went grocery shopping, he went down every aisle with her, pretending to shop, she said. As she spoke to The Associated Press by phone, two unmarked cars with officers inside were parked outside her home.

“It’s a weird feeling,” she said. “The only way to explain the entire process is: It’s like I’m in a movie.”

Dallas-area Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez joined the protest inside the House chamber and called it a “slumber party for democracy,” and she said Democrats were holding strategy sessions on the floor.

“We are not criminals,” Houston Rep. Penny Morales Shaw said before also joining Collier.

Collier said having officers shadow her was an attack on her dignity and an attempt to control her movements.

Republican leader says Collier ‘is well within her rights’

Burrows brushed off Collier’s protest, saying he was focused on important issues, such as providing property tax relief and responding to last month’s deadly floods. His statement Tuesday morning did not mention redistricting, and his office did not immediately respond to other Democrats joining Collier.

“Rep. Collier’s choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules,” Burrows said.

Under those rules, until Wednesday’s vote, the chamber’s doors were locked, and no member could leave “without the written permission of the speaker.”

Republicans issued civil arrest warrants to bring the Democrats back after they left the state Aug. 3, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott asked the state Supreme Court to oust Rep. Gene Wu of Houston — the House minority leader — and several other Democrats from office. The lawmakers also face a fine of $500 for every day they were absent.

Democrats outside the Capitol reported different levels of monitoring and some said the officers watching them were friendly. But Austin Rep. Sheryl Cole said in a social media post that when she went on her morning walk Tuesday, the officer following her lost her on the trail, got angry and threatened to arrest her.

Garcia said the officer who tailed her home also came in the grocery store when she went shopping with her 9-year-old son.

“I would imagine that this is the way it feels when you’re potentially shoplifting and someone is assessing whether you’re going to steal,” she said.

Vertuno and Riccardi write for the Associated Press. Riccardi reported from Denver. John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., and Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, La., contributed to this report.

The strawberry delivery driver was making his last drop-off in Little Tokyo, unloading nearly a dozen boxes onto the sidewalk outside the Japanese American National Museum.

Inside the building, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his allies were holding a news conference about a Democratic Party plan to fight back against President Trump’s efforts to maintain control of the U.S. House of Representatives through redistricting in Texas.

Angel Rodrigo Minguela Palacios knew nothing of the powerful men’s clash as he stacked cardboard boxes filled with ripe, red fruit Thursday morning. He also didn’t know that dozens of Border Patrol agents were massing nearby.

Angel Rodrigo Minguela Palacios at his 48th birthday celebration this year.

(Courtesy of the family)

Minguela was caught between the two spectacles. His life was about to be upended.

In the days that followed, Newsom accused the Trump administration of trying to intimidate the president’s political opponents by sending the immigration agents. Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin has said the agents were “focused on enforcing the law” not on Newsom.

Newsom has since submitted a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records from the administration about why agents arrived at the museum as he was announcing his latest skirmish with the president.

For Minguela, who has been in the country for close to a decade, that day felt a lot more personal. He was arrested by Border Patrol agents and now faces deportation back to Mexico. Speaking from behind a plexiglass window at the “B-18” federal detention center in downtown L.A. on Monday, Minguela stressed that he is not a criminal.

“One comes here to work, not commit crimes,” said Minguela, who wore the same red T-shirt and jeans he’d been arrested in four days prior.

When asked last week whether the person arrested outside the news conference had a criminal record, a Homeland Security spokesperson said the agency would share a criminal rap sheet when it was available. After four follow-up emails from a reporter, McLaughlin on Saturday said agents had arrested “two illegal aliens” in the vicinity of Newsom’s news conference — including “an alleged Tren de Aragua gang member and narcotics trafficker.”

Asked twice to clarify whether the alleged gang member and narcotics trafficker were the same person, Homeland Security officials did not respond. But when presented with Minguela’s biographical information Monday, the department said he had been arrested because he overstayed his visa — a civil, not criminal, offense.

Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino told Fox News on Aug. 15 that operations were based on intelligence about the alleged Tren de Aragua gang member. They arrested that man two blocks away from Newsom’s news conference.

Angel Rodrigo Minguela Palacios took this image of a federal agent looking at his identification outside the Japanese American National Museum on Aug. 14.

(Angel Rodrigo Minguela Palacios)

Two law enforcement sources who asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to speak with the media told The Times they had received word from federal authorities that Little Tokyo had been targeted because of its proximity to the Newsom event.

For those who know Minguela, it felt like mala suerte — bad luck.

As Martha Franco, one of Minguela’s employers, put it, “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

::

Like every other weekday, Minguela rose before the sun to start his 2 a.m. delivery route Thursday. He had around eight places to hit.

He’d worked for the same produce company for around eight years and never missed a day.

That day, Minguela left his partner and their three children — ages 15, 12 and 7 — asleep in their home, hours before the kids would head off for their first day of school. His partner, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, had worked the night before as a cashier at a liquor store. She did not get off work until about 12:30 a.m. She brought him coffee as he started his day.

Shortly before 6 a.m., Minguela called his partner to wake her up so she could take the kids to school. Throughout the morning, they checked in with each other on how the day was progressing.

She called to warn him about immigration agents at Slauson and Miles avenues in Huntington Park. Over the last couple of months, as immigration raids became a part of daily life, the couple’s world had slowly shrunk.

Minguela had overstayed a tourist visa after fleeing the Mexican state of Coahuila in 2015 because of violence he faced there, his partner said. She said he had worked servicing ATMs there, was kidnapped twice and at one point was stabbed by people intent on stealing the money. After his employers cut staff, she said, he lost his job, helping drive his decision to leave.

Because he was undocumented, he rarely went out, leaving the house only for work and errands. Minguela began wondering whether it was even safe for him to pick up the kids from school, his partner said. He planned ahead, made copies of his keys and left money for his family in the event that he was grabbed by immigration agents.

That morning, he reassured his partner he was fine. He was heading to his last stop at a tea room in Little Tokyo.

“Ten mucho cuidado,” his partner told him.

Be very careful.

::

The Border Patrol agents descended on 1st Street in Little Tokyo about 11:30 a.m., just as Newsom’s news conference got underway.

They were decked out in camouflage and helmets, their faces obscured by black masks. One wore an American flag neck gaiter. They were armed, some with AR-15-style weapons.

Nearby, Minguela was busy unloading several boxes of strawberries and a box of apples. He didn’t notice the agents until they were close behind him. Then, he ducked back inside the van.

A video shared with The Times shows at least eight Border Patrol agents as they passed the van, its side door wide-open. They did not stop. Then, one appeared to double back and peek inside.

Minguela said he feels he was targeted based on his physical appearance.

When the agent began asking him questions, Minguela said he pulled a red “know your rights” card out of his wallet and handed it to the agent.

“This is of no use to me,” he said the agent told him. Another agent soon joined them.

Minguela told them he didn’t have to talk. But they kept asking questions, he said. What was his nationality? What was his name? Did he have papers?

“They demanded I show them some kind of identification,” he said. “Insisting, insisting.”

The agents were armed, and Minguela said he grew scared. Believing he had no choice, Minguela said, he gave one of the agents his California driver’s license.

Minguela tried to call his partner twice, but she was at a doctor’s appointment and couldn’t answer. At 11:22 a.m., he sent her three WhatsApp messages:

“Amor ya me agarró la migra..no te preocupes.”

“Todo va a estar bien.”

“Diosito nos va a ayudar mucho.”

Federal agents produced a show of force outside the Japanese American National Museum, where Gov. Gavin Newsom was holding a redistricting news conference on Aug. 14.

(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

Immigration had gotten him, he said, but everything would be fine. God would help them, he assured her.

Minguela sent her a picture of an agent holding his license and seemingly plugging the information from it into a phone. Then, the agent arrested him.

Video captured Minguela, hands cuffed behind his back, as the agent linked an arm through his. He walked Minguela away from the van, toward Bovino.

After conferring with colleagues, the agent walked Minguela back toward his delivery van. Bovino patted the agent on the back and said, “Well done.”

At about the same time, one of Minguela’s employers, Isaias Franco, received a call from Little Tokyo warning him about the immigration activity. He immediately called Minguela, whose cell number is saved in his phone under “paisa,” countryman. Both hail from the Mexican city of Torreón.

No answer.

Franco texted him, trying to tell him what was unfolding.

By that time, though, Minguela was already in handcuffs.

::

Hours before visitation began at the detention center in downtown L.A. on Monday, families began lining up along a driveway where “B-18” was stamped in black on a concrete wall.

Someone had scrawled on the ground in chalk: “Abolish ICE” and “Viva La Raza.” Another message read, “Civil disobedience becomes a duty when the state becomes lawless and corrupt.”

By 11:30 a.m., 18 people were waiting for visitation to start at 1 p.m. In less than an hour, that number had ballooned to 33.

Three siblings there to visit their uncle who had been arrested at a car wash in Long Beach the day before. A woman whose uncle was taken from a Home Depot in Pasadena. Two sisters whose loved one had been arrested at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in.

They carried bags of medication and sweaters for detained loved ones, because they’d heard it was cold inside. Each person hoped to get in before visitation ended at 4 p.m., although it seemed increasingly unlikely for those at the back of the line.

Martha and Isaias, Minguela’s employers, were among the hopeful. It was their third attempt to see him. The day of Minguela’s arrest, they got there too late.

The next day, they arrived earlier and were in luck. On the advice of others in line, they brought a jacket to keep Minguela warm.

In the years they’ve employed Minguela, they’ve only ever seen his serious, professional side. But during the five minutes they got to visit with him Friday, he spent most of it in tears, hardly able to speak.

The couple assured him they would help however they could.

They returned on Monday, this time bringing a blue Ralph Lauren shirt and a pair of black New Balance socks so he could change clothing. Isaias and the couple’s son, Carlos, had both come, despite starting their workday at 2 a.m.

“We’re going to be with him until the end,” Martha said. “He’s part of our family. He’s one of us.”

As the hours wore on, people in line squatted or sat on the concrete to rest their aching legs. Martha flitted around, advising people to bring sweaters for loved ones and letting them know the officers allowed in only one item of clothing for each detained person.

By the start of visitation, 44 people were in line. Martha was No. 19. Families exited red-eyed, tears dripping down their cheeks after getting only a few minutes with their loved ones.

Angel Rodrigo Minguela Palacios several years ago, with his son.

(Courtesy of the family)

About 3 p.m., after waiting three and a half hours, the Francos handed the officer their passports and identification, before finally making it inside. They had to turn off their phones. They could give Minguela only the T-shirt. The officer said no to the socks, a prohibited second item of clothing.

Minguela beamed when he saw the Francos, who greeted him through the plexiglass window. He was trying to maintain his spirits, but said he felt “impotente.” Powerless.

The Francos told him not to sign anything.

“Vamos a estar con usted,” Isaias told Minguela, letting him know they would be with him. He and Carlos fist bumped Minguela through the Plexiglass.

“Échale ganas,” Isaias added, keep going.

::

Minguela’s children have hardly stopped crying since his arrest.

During the eight years he and his partner have been together, he’s helped raise her two children and their 7-year-old son, who is autistic.

Minguela’s lawyer, Alex Galvez, said the hope is that his client will be released on bond, as he initially entered the country lawfully and is the primary breadwinner for the family. The lawyer said he believes Minguela was arrested in defiance of a federal judge’s order that immigration authorities cannot racially profile people or use roving patrols to target immigrants.

“It was a political opportunity. He was one of the two guys picked up right during Newsom’s press conference,” Galvez said. “They had to show something for it.”

Just days before his arrest, Minguela’s family had celebrated his 48th birthday. His partner made him his favorite dish, shrimp ceviche.

Her birthday was Tuesday. The family had planned to go on a rare outing for a dinner of enchiladas de mole.

But they spent the day without him. There was no celebration.

The children asked their mother, as they have every day for nearly a week: When is papá coming home?

Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.

The number of political prisoners in Venezuela reached its highest point following protests against Nicolas Maduro’s controversial re-election in July 2024. Alfredo Romero, a lawyer and the executive director of Foro Penal, brings hope to detainees and their families by providing pro bono legal and humanitarian assistance.

Prisoners face charges such as incitement to hatred, terrorism, and conspiracy. They’re often denied communication and access to legal defence. With a rebellious spirit rooted in his youth as a punk rocker and driven by a desire for social change, Alfredo must reinvent the ways in which Foro Penal works to free those unjustly imprisoned.

Venezuela’s Fight for Justice is a documentary film by Luis Del Valle.

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Democrats ended a two-week walkout Monday that stalled Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts as part of a national partisan brawl over President Trump’s desire to reshape U.S. House maps to his advantage.

Their return to the Texas Capitol will allow the Republican-run Legislature to proceed as California Democrats separately advance a countereffort to redraw their congressional boundaries in retaliation. The tit-for-tat puts the nation’s two most populous states at the center of an expanding fight over control of Congress ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The battle also has rallied Democrats nationally after infighting and frustrations among the party’s voters since Republicans took control of the White House and Capitol Hill in January.

Dozens of state House Democrats left the state Aug. 3 to deny their Republican-majority colleagues the attendance necessary to vote on redrawn maps intended to send five more Texas Republicans to Washington.

After spending nearly two weeks in Illinois and elsewhere, they declared victory when Republicans adjourned their first special session Friday and Democrats around the country rallied in opposition to the Trump-led gerrymandering effort. They pointed specifically to California’s release of proposed maps intended to increase Democrats’ U.S. House advantage by five seats, in effect neutralizing any Republican gains in Texas.

Many of the absent Democrats left Chicago early Monday and landed hours later at a private airfield in Austin, where several boarded a large charter bus to the Capitol. Once inside, they were greeted by cheering supporters. And for the first time since Trump’s redistricting push accelerated into a national issue, the Texas House floor was near full capacity when lawmakers convened briefly Monday afternoon.

Republican House Speaker Dustin Burrows did not mention redistricting on the floor Monday but promised swift action on the Legislature’s agenda.

“The majority has the right to prevail. The minority has the right to be heard,” the speaker said. “We are done waiting.”

Democrats cheered at the Austin statehouse

Cheering supporters greeted returning lawmakers inside the Capitol before the House convened for a brief session.

“We killed the corrupt special session, withstood unprecedented surveillance and intimidation, and rallied Democrats nationwide to join this existential fight for fair representation — reshaping the entire 2026 landscape,” Texas House Minority Leader Gene Wu said in a written statement.

Wu has promised Democrats would challenge the new designs in court.

The House did not take up any bills Monday and was not scheduled to return until Wednesday.

Trump has pressured other Republican-run states to consider redistricting as well, while Democratic governors in multiple statehouses have indicated they would follow California’s lead in response. Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom has said that his state will hold a Nov. 4 special referendum on the redrawn districts.

The president wants to shore up Republicans’ narrow House majority and avoid a repeat of the 2018 midterms during his first presidency. Democrats regained House control then and used their majority to stymie his agenda and twice impeach him.

On a national level, the partisan makeup of existing district lines puts Democrats within three seats of a majority. Of the 435 total House seats, only several dozen districts are competitive. So even slight changes in a few states could affect which party wins control.

Texas’ governor jumped to the president’s aid

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott added redistricting to an initial special session agenda that included a number of issues, but most notably a package of bills responding to devastating floods that killed more than 130 people last month.

Abbott has blamed Democrats’ absence for delaying action on those measures. Democrats have countered that Abbott’s capitulation to Trump is responsible for the delay because he insisted on in effect linking the hyper-partisan matter to the nonpartisan flood relief.

Redistricting typically occurs once at the beginning of each decade to coincide with the census. Many states, including Texas, give legislators the power to draw maps. California is among those that empower independent commissions with the task, giving Newsom an additional hurdle in his bid to match or exceed whatever partisan moves Texas makes.

Abbott, Burrows and other Republicans tried various threats and legal maneuvers to pressure Democrats’ return, including issuing civil warrants for absent lawmakers’ arrest. As long as they were out of state, those lawmakers remained beyond the reach of Texas authorities.

The Democrats who came back to the chamber Monday did so without being detained by law enforcement. However, plainclothes officers escorted them from the chamber after Monday’s session. And Burrows’ office said Texas Department of Public Safety officers will follow the Democratic returnees around the clock to ensure that they return again.

Additionally, the lawmakers who left face fines of up to $500 for each legislative day they missed. Burrows has insisted Democratic lawmakers also will pick up the tab for state troopers and others who attempted to corral them during the walkout.

California lawmakers were scheduled to convene later Monday.

Barrow and Figueroa write for the Associated Press. Barrow reported from Atlanta.

EXCLUSIVE: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau stars as William, Duke of Normandy, in upcoming BBC series King & Conqueror.

Most will recognise Nikolaj Coster-Waldau for his role of Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones but for his latest venture, he’s transformed into William, Duke of Normandy – or as many will know him, William the Conqueror.

The Danish actor will go head to head against James Norton in the BBC historical drama which follows the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

King and Conqueror also marks the first time Nikolaj has directed. And funnily enough, his directorial debut saw him choreograph a scene which sees the leading actor fight bare-chested.

Speaking of filming the fight, which fans will get the chance to see in episode five, he recalled: “That was tough. I was spending a lot of time planning that because we only had so much time to do it.

“The stunt team was incredible. The trick, or the challenge, when you do something like that, of course, because everyone’s bare-chested, you can’t hide anything. You know you’re going to hurt yourself when you do these things, so we had to be very careful.”

Heaping praise on the stunt team, which included UFC and MMA fighters, Nikolaj shared: “These guys insane. The Icelandic guys, they’re brilliant. I mean, there’s one scene, the guy I’m fighting – he’s in fights in the the big stuff – which is why I wanted to be the guy choking him out.

“There’s this big, big guy – at one point, he lifts up James [Norton] – early in the fight, he takes one of the other stunt guys and he throws him against this wagon.

“And that was planned but what wasn’t planned was that he’s thrown him so hard that he went through the wagon and he like completely crashed the whole thing. The sound you hear, it’s literally a guy being thrown through. But they just took it.”

He went on to share that during filming, everyone got so involved, one member of the team was knocked out.

“We had rehearsals where there was a guy knocked out. I mean they go so close, right? And it was a mistake both of them. I mean you should always be able to hold your fist but the other guy, he instead like holding the distance, he kind of moved forward right as he was swinging.

“And they were also you know MMA fighters. So his tooth went out, blood out. And then the other guy, of course, because he hit the tooth, broke [his knuckle], he had to have stitches in his hand as well.”

King and Conqueror is the story of a clash that defined the future of a country for a thousand years.

The synopsis reads: “Harold of Wessex and William of Normandy were two men destined to meet at the Battle of Hastings in 1066; two allies with no design on the English throne, who found themselves forced by circumstance and personal obsession into a war for possession of its crown.”

King and Conqueror airs Sunday 24 August on BBC One at 9pm.

Deep in the badlands of defeat, Democrats have soul-searched about what went wrong last November, tinkered with a thousand-plus thinkpieces and desperately cast for a strategy to reboot their stalled-out party.

Amid the noise, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has recently championed an unlikely game plan: Forget the high road, fight fire with fire and embrace the very tactics that virtue-minded Democrats have long decried.

Could the dark art of political gerrymandering be the thing that saves democracy from Trump’s increasingly authoritarian impulses? That’s essentially the pitch Newsom is making to California voters with his audacious new special election campaign.

As Texas Democrats dig in to block a Republican-led redistricting push and Trump muscles to consolidate power wherever he can, Newsom wants to redraw California’s own congressional districts to favor Democrats.

His goal: counter Trump’s drive for more GOP House seats with a power play of his own.

It’s a boundary-pushing gamble that will undoubtedly supercharge Newsom’s political star in the short-term. The long-game glory could be even grander, but only if he pulls it off. A ballot-box flop would be brutal for both Newsom and his party.

The charismatic California governor is termed out of office in 2026 and has made no secret of his 2028 presidential ambitions.

But the distinct scent of his home state will be hard to completely slough off in parts of the country where California is synonymous with loony lefties, business-killing regulation and an out-of-control homelessness crisis. To say nothing of Newsom’s ill-fated dinner at an elite Napa restaurant in violation of COVID-19 protocols — a misstep that energized a failed recall attempt and still haunts the governor’s national reputation.

The redistricting gambit is the kind of big play that could redefine how voters across the country see Newsom.

The strategy could be a boon for Newsom’s 2028 ambitions during a moment when Democrats are hungry for leaders, said Democratic strategist Steven Maviglio. But it’s also a massive roll of the dice for both Newsom and the state he leads.

“It’s great politics for him if this passes,” Maviglio said. “If it fails, he’s dead in the water.”

The path forward — which could determine control of Congress in 2026 — is hardly a straight shot.

The “Election Rigging Response Act,” as Newsom has named his ballot measure, would temporarily scrap the congressional districts enacted by the state’s voter-approved independent redistricting commission.

Under the proposal, Democrats could pick up five seats currently held by Republicans while bolstering vulnerable Democratic incumbent Reps. Adam Gray, Josh Harder, George Whitesides, Derek Tran and Dave Min, which would save the party millions of dollars in costly reelection fights.

But first the Democratic-led state Legislature must vote to place the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot and then it must be approved by voters.

If passed, the initiative would have a “trigger,” meaning the redrawn map would not take effect unless Texas or another GOP-led state moved forward with its own gerrymandering effort.

“I think what Governor Newsom and other Democrats are doing here is exactly the right thing we need to do,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin said Thursday.

“We’re not bringing a pencil to a knife fight. We’re going to bring a bazooka to a knife fight, right? This is not your grandfather’s Democratic Party,” Martin said, adding that they shouldn’t be the only ones playing by a set of rules that no longer exist.

For Democrats like Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), who appeared alongside Newsom to kick off the effort, there is “some heartbreak” to temporarily shelving their commitment to independent redistricting. But she and others were clear-eyed about the need to stop a president “willing to rig the election midstream,” she said.

Friedman said she was hearing overwhelmingly positive reactions to the proposal from all kinds of Democratic groups on the ground.

“The response that I get is, ‘Finally, we’re fighting. We have a way to fight back that’s tangible,’” Friedman recounted.

Still, despite the state’s Democratic voter registration advantage, victory for the ballot measure will hardly be assured. California voters have twice rallied for independent redistricting at the ballot box in the last two decades and many may struggle to abandon those beliefs.

A POLITICO-Citrin Center-Possibility Lab poll found that voters prefer keeping an independent panel in place to draw district lines by a nearly two-to-one margin, and that independent redistricting is broadly popular in the state.

(Newsom’s press office argued that the poll was poorly worded, since it asked about getting rid of the independent commission altogether and permanently returning line-drawing power to the legislators, rather than just temporarily scrapping their work for several cycles until the independent commission next draws new lines.)

California voters should not expect to see a special election campaign focused on the minutia of reconfiguring the state’s congressional districts, however.

While many opponents will likely attack the change as undercutting the will of California voters, who overwhelmingly supported weeding politics out of the redistricting process, bank on Newsom casting the campaign as a referendum on Trump and his devious effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress.

Newsom employed a similar strategy when he demolished the Republican-led recall campaign against him in 2021, which the governor portrayed as a “life and death” battle against “Trumpism” and far-right anti-vaccine and antiabortion activists. Among California’s Democratic-heavy electorate, that message proved to be extremely effective.

“Wake up, America,” Newsom said Thursday at a Los Angeles rally launching the campaign for the redistricting measure. “Wake up to what Donald Trump is doing. Wake up to his assault. Wake up to the assault on institutions and knowledge and history. Wake up to his war on science, public health, his war against the American people.”

Kevin Liao, a Democratic strategist who has worked on national and statewide campaigns, said his D.C. and California-based political group chats had been blowing up in recent days with texts about the moment Newsom was creating for himself.

Much of Liao’s group chat fodder has involved the output of Newsom’s digital team, which has elevated trolling to an art form on its official @GovPressOffice account on the social media site X.

The missives have largely mimicked the president’s own social media patois, with hyperbole, petty insults and a heavy reliance on the “caps lock” key.

“DONALD IS FINISHED — HE IS NO LONGER ‘HOT.’ FIRST THE HANDS (SO TINY) AND NOW ME — GAVIN C. NEWSOM — HAVE TAKEN AWAY HIS ‘STEP,’ ” one of the posts read last week, dutifully reposted by the governor himself.

Some messages have also ended with Newsom’s initials (a riff on Trump’s signature “DJT” signoff) and sprinkled in key Trumpian callbacks, like the phrase “Liberation Day,” or a doctored Time Magazine cover with Newsom’s smiling mien. The account has garnered 150,000 new followers since the beginning of the month.

Shortly after Trump took office in January, Newsom walked a fine line between criticizing the president and his policies and being more diplomatic, especially after the California wildfires — in hopes of appealing to any semblance of compassion and presidential responsibility Trump possessed.

Newsom had spent the first months of the new administration trying to reshape the California-vs.-Trump narrative that dominated the president’s first term and move away from his party’s prior “resistance” brand.

Those conciliatory overtures coincided with Newsom’s embrace of a more ecumenical posture, hosting MAGA leaders on his podcast and taking a position on transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports that contradicted the Democratic orthodoxy.

Newsom insisted that he engaged in those conversations to better understand political views that diverged from his own, especially after Trump’s victory in November. However, there was the unmistakable whiff of an ambitious politician trying to broaden his national appeal by inching away from his reputation as a West Coast liberal.

Newsom’s reluctance to readopt the Trump resistance mantle ended after the president sent California National Guard troops into Los Angeles amid immigration sweeps and ensuing protests in June. Those actions revealed Trump’s unchecked vindictiveness and abject lack of morals and honor, Newsom said.

Of late, Newsom has defended the juvenile tone of his press aides’ posts mocking Trump’s own all-caps screeds, and questioned why critics would excoriate his parody and not the president’s own unhinged social media utterances.

“If you’ve got issues with what I’m putting out, you sure as hell should have concerns about what he’s putting out as president,” Newsom said last week. “So to the extent it’s gotten some attention, I’m pleased.”

In an attention-deficit economy where standing out is half the battle, the posts sparkle with unapologetic swagger. And they make clear that Newsom is in on the joke.

“To a certain set of folks who operated under the old rules, this could be seen as, ‘Wow, this is really outlandish.’ But I think they are making the calculation that Democrats want folks that are going to play under this new set of rules that Trump has established,” Liao said.

At a moment when the Democratic party is still occupied with post-defeat recriminations and what’s-next vision boarding, Newsom has emerged from the bog with something resembling a plan.

And he’s betting the house on his deep-blue state’s willingness to fight fire with fire.

Times staff writers Seema Mehta and Laura Nelson contributed to this report.

Aug. 16 (UPI) — Demonstrations are taking place Saturday in 34 states to protest congressional redistricting efforts in Texas that have caused state House Democrats to flee the state to prevent the measure.

Well over 150 rallies are being organized by the movement “Fight the Trump Takeover,” as part of a national day of action.

Protesters are demonstrating against the move by Texas state Republicans and Governor Gregg Abott’s push to redraw the district lines mid-decade at the urging of President Donald Trump.

The re-drawn maps could add five Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives if the Republican proposal passes.

State House Democrats left Texas last week, heading to Blue states like Illinois to prevent a vote from taking place on the issue.

Abbott this week called a second special session of the state’s House of Representatives, after Democrats suddenly left Texas to stymie the vote.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., said if Abbott pushes ahead with Trump’s request, his state will respond by redrawing its districts to establish more Democratic seats in Congress.

Typically, congressional redistricting is done at the end of a decade in conjunction with a new census.

“Texas House Democrats are blocking a redistricting vote in the Texas House right now to Stop the Trump Takeover. But Trump has made it clear that he’s not stopping at Texas. He’s targeting Missouri, Ohio, Florida and every state he can twist to help him steal Congress. States like Florida and New York are already fighting back,” the protest organizers’ website states.

Newsom has been a vocal supporter of the Texas state Democratic caucus.

“Califorina coming on board gives us more options,” said Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu told reporters in an interview Friday.

“If California passes a trigger bill, then there will be real incentive for Texas to not pass its [redistricting] bill.”

In June, millions of people attended hundreds of “No Kings” protests across the United States, demonstrating against Trump’s large-scale military parade in Washington, D.C., to celebrate the U.S. Army and his 79th birthday.

ATLANTA — Fight! Fight! Fight!

It’s not just Donald Trump’s mantra anymore. As the Republican president pushes states to redraw their congressional districts to the GOP’s advantage, Democrats have shown they are willing to go beyond words of outrage and use whatever power they do have to win.

Democrats in the Texas Legislature started it off by delaying, for now, Republican efforts to expand the GOP majority in the state’s delegation and help preserve party control of the U.S. House through new districts in time for the 2026 midterm elections.

Then multiple Democratic governors promised new districts in their own states to neutralize potential Republican gains in Washington. Their counter has been buoyed by national fundraising, media blitzes and public demonstrations, including rallies scheduled around the country Saturday.

“For everyone that’s been asking, ‘Where are the Democrats?’ Well, here they are,” said U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, one of several Democrats who could be ousted under her state’s new maps. “For everyone who’s been asking, ‘Where is the fight?’ Well, here it is.”

There is no guarantee Democrats can prevent the Republican-powered redistricting, just as Democrats on Capitol Hill have not been able to stop Trump’s moves. But it’s a notable turn for a party that, as its leaders have long asserted, has honored conventional rules and bypassed bare-knuckled political tactics.

So far, progressive and establishment Democrats are aligned, uniting what has often been a fragmented opposition since Republicans led by Trump took control of the federal government with their election sweep in November. Leaders on the left say the approach gives them a more effective way to confront him. They can challenge his redistricting ploy with tangible moves as they also counter the Republicans’ tax and spending law and press the case that he is shredding American democracy.

“We’ve been imploring Democrats where they have power on the state and local level to flex that power,” said Maurice Mitchell, who leads the left-leaning Working Families Party. “There’s been this overwrought talk about fighters and largely performative actions to suggest that they’re in the fight.”

This time, he said, Democrats are “taking real risks in protecting all of our rights” against “an authoritarian president who only understands the fight.”

Pairing fiery talk with action

Texas made sense for Republicans as the place to start a redistricting scuffle. They dominate the Statehouse, and Gov. Greg Abbott is a Trump loyalist.

But when the president’s allies announced a new political map intended to send five more Republicans to the U.S. House, state Democratic representatives fled Texas, denying the GOP the numbers to conduct business in the Legislature and approve the reworked districts.

Those legislators surfaced in Illinois, New York, California and elsewhere, joined by governors, senators, state party chairs, other states’ legislators and activists. All promised action. The response was almost Trumpian.

Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Kathy Hochul of New York welcomed Texas Democrats and pledged retaliatory redistricting. Pritzker mocked Abbott as a lackey who says “yes, sir” to Trump orders. Hochul dismissed Texas Republicans as “lawbreaking cowboys.” Newsom’s press office directed all-caps social media posts at Trump, mimicking the president’s frequent sign-off: “THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER.”

U.S. Rep. Al Green, another Texas Democrat who could lose his seat, called Trump “egomaniacal.” Yet many Democrats also claimed moral high ground, comparing their cause to the civil rights movement.

Texas state Rep. Ramon Romero Jr. invoked another Texas Democrat, President Lyndon Johnson, who was “willing to stand up and fight” for civil rights laws in the 1960s. Then, with Texas bravado, Romero reached further into history: “We’re asking for help, maybe just as they did back in the days of the Alamo.”

‘Whatever it takes’

A recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found that about 15% of Democrats’ own voters described the party using words like “weak” or “apathetic.” An additional 10% called it “ineffective” or “disorganized.”

Beto O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman and onetime Democratic presidential candidate who is raising money to support Texas Democrats, has encouraged Democratic-run statehouses to redraw districts now rather than wait for GOP states to act. On Friday, California Democrats released a plan that could give the party an additional five U.S. House seats. It would require voter approval in a November election.

“Maximize Democratic Party advantage,” O’Rourke said at a recent rally. “You may say to yourself, ‘Well, those aren’t the rules.’ There are no refs in this game. F— the rules. … Whatever it takes.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin acknowledged the shift.

“This is not the Democratic Party of your grandfather, which would bring a pencil to a knife fight,” he said.

Andrew O’Neill, an executive at the progressive group Indivisible, contrasted that response with the record-long speeches by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and the Democratic leader of the House, New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, in eviscerating Trump and his package of tax breaks and spending cuts. The left “had its hair on fire” cheering those moments, O’Neill recalled, but were “left even more frustrated in the aftermath.”

Trump still secured tax cuts for the wealthy, accelerated deportations and cut safety net programs, just as some of his controversial nominees were confirmed over vocal Democratic opposition.

“Now,” O’Neill said, “there is some marriage of the rhetoric we’ve been seeing since Trump’s inauguration with some actual action.”

O’Neill looked back wistfully to the decision by Senate Democrats not to eliminate the filibuster “when our side had the trifecta,” so a simple majority could pass major legislation. Democratic President Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, O’Neill said, was too timid in prosecuting Trump and top associates over the Capitol riot and insurrection.

In 2016, Democratic President Obama opted against hardball as the Senate’s Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, refused to consider Obama’s nomination of Garland to the Supreme Court. McConnell’s maneuver gave one additional Supreme Court appointee to the next president — Trump.

“These unspoken rules of propriety, especially on the Democratic side, have created the conditions” that enabled Trump, said Mitchell of the Working Families Party.

Fighting on all fronts

Even on redistricting, Democrats would have to ignore their previous good-government efforts and bypass independent commissions that draw boundaries in several states, including California.

Party leaders and activists rationalize that the broader fights tie together piecemeal skirmishes that may not, by themselves, sway voters.

Arguing that Trump diminishes democracy stirs people who already support Democrats, O’Neill said. By contrast, he said, the GOP “power grab” can be connected to unpopular policies that affect voters’ lives.

Rep. Green noted that Trump’s big package bill cleared the Senate “by one vote” and the House by a few, demonstrating why redistricting matters.

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar of Texas said Democrats must make unseemly, short-term power plays so they can later pass legislation that “bans gerrymandering nationwide … bans super PACs [political action committees] and gets rid of that kind of big money and special interest that helped get us to this place.”

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) added that a Democratic majority would wield subpoena power over Trump’s administration.

In the meantime, said Rep. Julie Johnson (D-Texas), voters are grasping a stark reality.

“They say, ‘Well, I don’t know. Politics doesn’t affect me,’” she said of constituents she meets. “I say, ‘Honey, it does. If you don’t do politics, politics will do you.’”

Barrow writes for the Associated Press.

MOSES ITAUMA and Dillian Whyte will go head-to-head in a mammoth heavyweight clash THIS SATURDAY!

Itauma will be aiming to take another huge step towards a world heavyweight title shot with victory over his fellow Brit.

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MOSES ITAUMA VS DILLIAN WHYTE: ALL THE DETAILS YOU NEED AHEAD OF HUGE HEAVYWEIGHT BOUT

WATCH ITAUMA VS WHYTE LIVE ON DAZN

The exciting youngster is ranked No1 by the WBO after he knocked out Mike Balogun in May to take his flawless record to 12-0.

Itauma is the big favourite to beat veteran Whyte, who is almost double his age.

The Bodysnatcher is looking to pull off a huge upset as he looks to revive his career after underwhelming wins against Christian Hammer and Ebenezer Tetteh in 2024.

A win for Whyte could potentially set up a blockbuster rematch with Anthony Joshua or a trilogy bout against Derek Chisora.

But defeat may see the 37-year-old’s time as a top heavyweight come to an end.

SunSport brings you all the details you need ahead of Itamua vs Whyte.

Moses Itauma vs Dillian Whyte – all the info

One of the biggest fights of the year has arrived

The highly-touted Moses Itauma faces the biggest test of his fledgling career as he steps into the ring with Dillian Whyte on Saturday night.

Itauma, 20, has great expectations on his shoulders – he has been compared to Mike Tyson and is expected by many to dominate boxing’s heavyweight division over the next decade.

But the Slovakian-born star – who sits at 12-0 (10KOs) is yet to face a test anywhere close to what Whyte can offer.

The Body Snatcher is now 37 and has not looked great in his last couple of fights, but the former world title challenger knows an upset win would catapult him right back to the top table.

Watch Itauma vs Whyte LIVE on DAZN

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the fight…

INFO

LATEST NEWS

When is Itauma vs Whyte?

• Itauma vs Whyte will take place on Saturday, August 16.
• The main card will get underway at 5.45pm BST.
• The ring-walks for the main event are scheduled for around 10.20pm BST.
• The ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will host.

What TV channel is Itauma vs Whyte on and can it be live streamed?

• Itauma vs Whyte will be broadcast live on DAZN.
• The whole fight card will stream live on DAZN in over 200 countries across the globe via a DAZN subscription.
• If you are not currently a DAZN member, then monthly and annual subscription options are available to watch over 185 fights a year across boxing, bare knuckle boxing, MMA and kickboxing.
• An Annual Super Saver subscription is a one-off payment of £119.99 / $224.99 for 12-months access (£14.99 / $19.99 per month if paying in monthly instalments).
• A Monthly Flexible pass, which can be cancelled at any time, is £24.99 / $29.99 per month.
• Alternatively, SunSport’s live blog will bring you round-by-round updates from the huge card.

Who else is on the card?

Here are all the bouts taking place in Saudi Arabia:

Subject to change

• Moses Itauma vs Dillian Whyte; Heavyweight
• Nick Ball vs Sam Goodman; Featherweight, for the WBA title
• Ray Ford vs Abraham Nova; Super featherweight
• Filip Hrgovic vs David Adeleye; Heavyweight
• Hayato Tsutsumi vs Qais Ashfaq; Super featherweight

CAPTAIN hook Dillian Whyte faces being stripped of his best punch against Moses Itauma – so he will have to come armed with a different weapon.

Whyte takes on red-hot 20-year-old prospect Itauma in the sizzling Saudi heat on Saturday – live on DAZN PPV.

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And astonishingly, it will be on the SECOND time Whyte has ever faced a southpaw opponent in his 34 professional fights so far.

The last time he did was against journeyman Tomas Mrazek at the Camden Centre in Kings Cross – which has a capacity of around 1,000.

Since then, Whyte has earned millions from boxing while challenging for the WBC world title in 2022, losing by knockout to Tyson Fury.

The Body Snatcher – as he is affectionately known for his work to the midsection – has also developed one of the most dangerous left hooks in that time.

But the punch – especially as a counter while catching the opponent’s shot on the gloves – is harder to land on a southpaw due to the angle of stances.

Trainer Mark Tibbs – who had four years and 11 fights with Whyte before their split in 2020 – recognises his former boxer is at risk of being debilitated against leftie Itauma.

Tibbs said on SunSport’s No Glove Lost episode: “Unless Moses is throwing a big hook, catch and whip, Dillian loves doing that, catching the shot and whipping the hook. 

“But, he’s got to get the right hand off as well, in my opinion.” 

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MOSES ITAUMA VS DILLIAN WHYTE: ALL THE DETAILS YOU NEED AHEAD OF HUGE HEAVYWEIGHT BOUT

WATCH ITAUMA VS WHYTE LIVE ON DAZN

CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS

Moses Itauma vs Dillian Whyte – all the info

One of the biggest fights of the year has arrived

The highly-touted Moses Itauma faces the biggest test of his fledgling career as he steps into the ring with Dillian Whyte on Saturday night.

Itauma, 20, has great expectations on his shoulders – he has been compared to Mike Tyson and is expected by many to dominate boxing’s heavyweight division over the next decade.

But the Slovakian-born star – who sits at 12-0 (10KOs) is yet to face a test anywhere close to what Whyte can offer.

The Body Snatcher is now 37 and has not looked great in his last couple of fights, but the former world title challenger knows an upset win would catapult him right back to the top table.

Watch Itauma vs Whyte LIVE on DAZN

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the fight…

INFO

LATEST NEWS

Anthony Yarde – who lost in his two brave light-heavyweight titles challenges to Sergey Kovalev and Artur Beterbeiv – was in agreement.

And he looked to fellow guest on the panel, Derek Chisora, as an example of how Whyte should approach the bout against Itauma.

Yarde, 34, said: “For him to be catching and countering Moses, it has to be fast.

“For him to give Moses trouble or upset Moses, I personally think he’s just got to be a veteran. 

“Derek will now, you drag them down. Even (Chisora’s) last fight against Otto (Wallin) I was thinking, is that Derek? Because he put it on him. 

“Every time it was, bap, bap, bap, let him have it! Take that and see how you like it. It’s calculated.”

With Whyte’s famous left hook potentially being nullified – Tibbs believes the right hand will need to be more deadly than ever before.

He said: “I’d like Dillian to try get his lead foot on the outside the best he can and get his right hand off because he’s fighting the southpaw. 

“But he will have to use that left hand as a bit of a shield and get in mid range as early as possible. 

“They don’t call him The Body Snatcher for nothing, so we’re going to have to get round that body and try and unsettle and not let Moses be pretty. 

“But Moses is fleet-footed, it’s a difficult task but Dillian’s got the experience, I’m sure he’s got the desire and he’s a fighting man. 

“Unless Moses is throwing a big hook, catch and whip, Dillian loves doing that, catching the shot and whipping the hook. 

“But, he’s got to get the right hand off as well, in my opinion.” 

Tibbs – who never cornered Whyte against a southpaw – called on him to try and drag Itauma into a fight the youngster has never experienced before.

The trainer said: “He’s got a difficult task but if I was Dillian, he’s got to do his utmost to edge him back and put him on his heels. Not too many men can fight on their heels. 

“But Moses, like Derek says, is a fresh, fresh lion. He’s a sharp shooter, a great counter puncher, but it’s a cracking match. 

“Moses needs a Dillian Whyte right now to see where he’s at. The fans need to see where he’s at, we need to see where Moses is at. 

“He’s 12 fights in, it’s not a great deal. It’s a cracking match and what makes it a cracking match is Dillian’s mentality – like I’ve said before – and equally Moses’ mentality.”  

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Abuja and Nasarawa, Nigeria – In the neighbourhood of Kado Lifecamp on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital, 29-year-old Eucharia Joseph grips a cooler box and sets out for her day. Inside are oral polio vaccines packed in ice.

Joseph’s route takes her through dusty lanes, past tin-roofed homes, mosques and churches. By nightfall, she and her team of six women will have vaccinated hundreds of children. Their mission: To ensure no child is left unprotected from the disease that once crippled thousands across the country.

In 2020, Nigeria was declared free of wild poliovirus by the World Health Organization (WHO) – a landmark achievement for a country once at the centre of global transmission. But the virus hasn’t vanished entirely.

A related strain, known as circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV), still threatens under-immunised communities. Unlike the wild virus, cVDPV emerges when the weakened virus from oral vaccines mutates and spreads via contaminated food or water, for instance, in areas where too few children are vaccinated.

That threat remains. Despite steady progress, Nigeria still reports sporadic outbreaks of cVDPV. As of March this year, the country had reported 10 cases of the mutated strain. Last year, 98 cVDPV2 cases were reported.

With ongoing insecurity in northern Nigeria and pockets of resistance elsewhere, the job of eradicating polio now rests heavily on the shoulders of women like Joseph, who are often the only ones granted access to households due to a confluence of cultural, religious and safety reasons.

“It’s my gift,” Joseph said of her work, as she adjusted her headscarf under the sun. “I go to different localities. I talk to mothers. I sit with them. I know how to convince them. That’s what makes this work possible.”

Women on the front lines

Female health workers like Joseph are the backbone of Nigeria’s polio response.

In rural or conservative communities, male health workers are often not allowed to interact with women and children. While in conflict-affected areas, strange men moving between households may be viewed with suspicion, as many of these areas are battling rebels.

In Borno State – the epicentre of Nigeria’s long-running Boko Haram rebellion and one of the regions hardest hit by polio outbreaks – the stakes are especially high. Male health workers have sometimes been suspected by the community of working with government forces or intelligence services.

In some neighbourhoods, the mistrust and resistance extend to female vaccinators as well.

“Most people in Maiduguri [the state capital] don’t always like the vaccine. They think it prevents them from giving birth,” said Aishatu, who chose not to reveal her last name. The community health worker leads immunisation rounds across several wards in the area.

Such rumours about the effects of vaccines have circulated for years, often fanned by misinformation circulating among community networks, some religious leaders, and occasionally by armed groups such as Boko Haram, which has attacked vaccinators and portrayed immunisation as part of a foreign agenda.

In some cases, religious teachings have been misrepresented, for example, claims that vaccines are forbidden during certain religious festivals or that immunisation interferes with divine will. There have also been conspiracy theories saying vaccines are a Western plot to sterilise children.

Combined with longstanding mistrust of government programmes in some areas, belief in these rumours has made vaccine acceptance a persistent challenge in parts of northern Nigeria, health workers say.

For front-liners like Aishatu, confronting the beliefs has become part of the job. Her strategy is persistence and patience.

“We handle it by trying to increase sensitisation,” she said, referring to the repeated community visits, one-on-one conversations, and informal group talks that female health workers use to counter vaccine myths and build trust among hesitant parents. “We keep talking to the mothers, telling them the truth. Some accept it slowly, some after seeing others take it.”

Aishatu has to balance this work with managing her household responsibilities. But she sees the job as something beyond a paycheck. “The work is a professional one,” she said. “But it also adds so much to life. I know I am helping people and I love it.”

But she also believes more needs to be done to expand the programme’s reach. “More female vaccinators are needed,” she said. “That’s the best approach for the government to use for creating more awareness about [the need and effectiveness of] polio vaccines.”

In areas or situations where male vaccinators face access constraints and restrictions, women doing the work have been more effective. And for some, their demeanour and approach to patients is what also makes a difference.

“Women are very social,” said Esu Danlami Audu, village head of Kado who has seen his village stamp out new polio cases because of efforts by women vaccinators.

“They are able to talk to parents, gain trust, and explain the importance of vaccines in ways men cannot. That is why they have played such an important role in our progress against eradication of poliovirus.”

This access has proven more critical in regions like Borno. According to the WHO, female vaccinators and community health promoters have been instrumental in reaching children in hard-to-access areas, sometimes even risking their lives to do so.

“All over Africa, despite facing life threats at many places, their [women vaccinators’] presence and persistence have helped overcome barriers of trust, cultural norms, and insecurity. This is especially true for conflict-affected areas of northern Nigeria where women are often the only ones allowed into households – especially those with young children – making their role irreplaceable,” said Dr Ndoutabe Modjirom, coordinator of WHO-led polio outbreaks rapid response team for the African region.

Innovation, persistence and economic ripple effect

To further counter these challenges, health workers have also adopted a mix of innovation and local knowledge.

Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping now helps identify missed settlements. Community mobilisers, often local women, monitor newborns and report missed vaccinations. Mobile health units and door-to-door outreach campaigns are routine.

“We go to schools, churches, mosques and markets,” said Aminat Oketi, a vaccinator in Nasarawa State and a mother of six. “Sometimes we vaccinate 150, even 300 children a day. The work is tough. But when I see a child protected, it is worth it.”

Although Oketi earns some money from her work, the job is not well paid. Most vaccinators receive just 12,000 naira (about $8) from the government for a five-day campaign. Transport often eats into their earnings, forcing them to supplement this income with petty trade or hawking goods.

Aishatu supplements her income by running a small beans trading business in Maiduguri to earn an income. “I buy and sell beans,” she said. “I manage it by separating my time to work [as a health worker] and do business.”

While the campaigns has improved public health outcomes, it has also unintentionally created a foundation for economic empowerment among women, many say. Empowered by training and purpose, many of these women have become micro-entrepreneurs and informal community leaders.

Vaccinators like Oketi, who joined the programme four years ago, are not only safeguarding children but also building personal livelihoods.

She runs a small poultry business alongside her health work. “I have a shop where I sell chicken feed and I rear birds too,” she said. Her modest vaccine stipend barely covers transport, but the exposure to community networks and the sense of mission have translated into entrepreneurial confidence.

“When people trust you with their children, they also trust you to provide them with other services,” she said. “My customers come because they know me from the vaccination rounds. It is all connected.”

This is a common trajectory. While some female vaccinators have leveraged their community credibility to start small businesses, others, like Joseph, have set up informal health outreach networks, advising new mothers and coordinating care for sick children.

According to Cristian Munduate, UNICEF’s country representative, this dual role of healthcare provider and entrepreneur reflects a deeper shift. “They are not just women with jobs; they are agents of change,” she said. “Vaccination campaigns have opened a pathway for leadership, agency, and financial independence.”

Helen Bulus, a government health officer in charge of vaccinations in Mararaba town in Nasarawa, reflects on the sense of commitment female health workers share.

“We are mothers too. Women take care of children, not just their own. That’s why they don’t give up [even when there is hardship],” she said.

And as they persevere, their work creates other positive ripples, like contributing to higher school enrolment among girls in some regions, she added. “As mothers become more economically stable, they invest more in their daughters’ futures.”

A global model  – with challenges

While wild polio now remains endemic only in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Nigeria’s experience offers vital lessons. Its fight against polio, led by women, supported by community trust, and bolstered by innovative strategies, has reshaped how public health can be delivered in fragile settings.

The next step, experts say, is sustaining this momentum.

“Routine immunisation must be strengthened,” said Munduate. “And communities must be supported, not just during outbreaks but all year round.”

The polio infrastructure has also transformed Nigeria’s broader healthcare system. Cold chains, data systems, and human networks developed for polio now support routine immunisations, maternal health, and even responses to outbreaks like cholera and COVID-19.

“We have built a legacy platform. Female vaccinators trained for polio are now part of nutrition drives, health education, and emergency response. They have become health champions,” WHO’s Modjirom explained.

Still, hurdles persist. Insecurity continues to hinder access in parts of northern Nigeria. In conservative areas, misinformation remains rife, fed by rumours that vaccines cause infertility or are part of foreign agendas.

Despite gains, health workers say there is little scope for complacency. Experts warn that until every child is reached, the virus remains a threat not just to Nigeria, but to global eradication efforts.

“For each paralytic case, thousands more may be infected,” said Munduate. “That’s why we can’t stop and efforts have to continue.”

The reporting for this story was supported by UN Foundation Polio Press Fellowship

A mixed martial arts fight card to be held next summer at the White House is “absolutely going to happen,” Ultimate Fight Championship Chief Executive Dana White said Tuesday.

White said the UFC will stage the event July 4 to celebrate America’s 250th birthday. He added that he spoke to President Trump on Monday and is scheduled to meet with him and his daughter Ivanka in two weeks to solidify the plan.

Trump mentioned last July 4 during a kickoff of events centered on the country’s 2026 birthday celebration that he wanted to stage a UFC match on the White House South Lawn with 20,000 spectators.

“We have a lot of land there,” said Trump, who has attended several UFC matches and considers White a friend.

Now it has gone from a notion into the planning stages, which is the second thrill of the week for White. On Monday he announced that the UFC has finalized a seven-year streaming agreement with Paramount worth an average of $1.1 billion a year. The deal represents a departure from UFC’s traditional pay-per-view model.

Thirteen marquee UFC events and 30 fight nights will be televised on the Paramount+ streaming platform, with some events also planned to simulcast on CBS. Plans for UFC events in other countries are also on the table, according to Paramount.

“You have the NFL, the NBA, the UFC and soccer globally,” White told the Associated Press. “We’re coming. We’re coming for all of them.”

White, 56, has been the driving force behind the enormous growth of the UFC, which he purchased in 2001 for $2 million. He negotiated broadcast-rights deals with Fox and ESPN, then spearheaded a $4-billion sale in 2016 to TKO Group Holdings, a group led by the Hollywood talent agency WME-IMG. White remained as president and retained a stake in the new company.

The Paramount-UFC deal came on the heels of Skydance and Paramount closing their $8-billion merger — a complicated negotiation that resulted in the creation of an entertainment giant. White said he was impressed with Skydance Chief Executive David Ellison’s vision for UFC and how the plans could be activated now that Ellison is chairman and chief executive of Paramount.

“Live sports continue to be a cornerstone of our broader strategy — driving engagement, subscriber growth, and long-term loyalty,” Ellison said in a statement. “The addition of UFC’s year-round must-watch events to our platforms is a major win.”

The debut Paramount fight card is in the planning stages, with UFC officials meeting this week to arrange bouts. White said it is too early to discuss a main event for the White House card.