Gen

Unto every generation, and fraction thereof, a sitcom is born, in which the young people of the moment state their case, self-mockingly. FX recently gave us a State of New York Youth in “Adults,” and here we are now, closer to home with “I Love L.A.,” premiering Sunday on HBO, the network of “Girls” (your guide to the 20-teens), still the most prestigious slot on linear television.

As a native of this fair city, who will never call downtown “DTLA” — let alone #DTLA — I miss the days when the rest of the country wanted nothing to do with us. (Real conversation from my life: Person: “Where are you from?” Me: “Los Angeles.” Person: “I’m sorry”). I can get a little cranky when it comes to the gentrihipsterfication of the city by succeeding hordes of newly minted Angelenos. (The place-name dropping in “I Love L.A.” includes Canyon Coffee, Courage Bagels, Jumbo’s Clown Room, Crossroads School and Erewhon.) I’m just putting my cards on the table here, as I approach characters whose generational concerns are distinct from mine, even as they belong to a venerable screen tradition, that of Making It in Hollywood, which runs back to the silent era. (The heroine of those pictures, stardom escaping her, would invariably return to the small-town boy who loved her. No more!)

Created by and starring Rachel Sennott (“Bottoms”), “I Love L.A.” takes its title from a Randy Newman song written well before Sennott or any of her co-stars were born. (To tell us where we are, as regards both HBO and the location, the series opens with a sex scene in an earthquake.) As in many such shows, there is a coterie of easily distinguishable friends at its center. Sennott plays Maia, turning 27 and in town for two years, working as an assistant to talent/brand manager Alyssa (the wonderful Leighton Meester, from “Gossip Girl,” that 2007 chronicle of youth manners) and hungry for promotion. Back into her life comes Tallulah (Odessa A’zion, the daughter of Pamela Adlon, whose throatiness she has inherited), a New York City It Girl — does any other city have It Girls in 2025? — whose It-ness has lately gone bust, as has Tallulah herself, now broke and rootless. She is one of those exhausting whirlwind personalities one might take to be on drugs, except that there are people who really do run at that speed, without speed — Holly Go-Heavily.

Also starring in the series are Jordan Firstman, left, True Whitaker and Odessa A’zion.

(Kenny Laubbacher / HBO)

Charlie (Jordan Firstman) is a stylist whose career depends on flattery and performative flamboyance. (“What’s the point of being nice,” he wonders, “if no one that can help me sees it?”) Alani (True Whitaker) is the daughter of a successful film director who has presumably paid for her very nice house, with its view of the Silver Lake Reservoir, and whatever she needs. (She has a title at his company even she admits is fake.) Since she wants for nothing, she’s the least stressful presence here, invested in spiritual folderol in a way that isn’t annoying. Attached to the quartet, but not really of it, is Maia’s supportive boyfriend, Dylan (Josh Hutcherson), a grade-school teacher and the only character I came close to identifying with. Do the kids still call them “normies”? Or did they ever, really?

That I find some of these people more trying than charming doesn’t prevent “I Love L.A.” from being a show I actually quite like. (The ratio of charm to annoyance may be flipped for some viewers, of course; different strokes, as we used to say back in the 1900s.) If anything, it’s a testament to Sennott and company having done their jobs well; the production is tight, the dialogue crisp, the photography rich — nothing here seems the least bit accidental. The cast is on point playing people who in real life they may not resemble at all. (My own, surely naive, much contradicted assumption is that all actors are nice.)

Desperation, in comedy, is pathetic but not tragic; indeed, it’s a pillar of the form. Maia, Tallulah and Charlie are to various degrees ruled by a need to be accepted by the successful and famous in the hope of becoming famous and successful themselves. (Alani is already set, and Dylan is almost a hippie, philosophically.) At the same time, the successful and famous come in for the harshest lampooning, including Elijah Wood, in an against-type scene reminiscent of Ricky Gervais’ “Extras.” On the other hand, Charlie’s unexpected friendship with a Christian singer he mistakes for gay is quite sweet; comedy being what it is, one half-expects the character to be taken down. Miraculously, it never happens. You can take that as a recommendation.

NORFOLK, Va. — New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James is set to make her first court appearance in a mortgage fraud case on Friday, the third adversary of President Trump to face a judge on federal charges in recent weeks.

James was indicted earlier this month on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a 2020 home purchase in Norfolk, Va. The charges came shortly after the official who had been overseeing the investigation was pushed out by the Trump administration and the Republican president publicly called on the Justice Department to take action against James and other political foes.

James, a Democrat who has sued Trump and his administration dozens of times, has denied wrongdoing and decried the indictment as “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.”

The indictment stems from James’ purchase of a modest house in Norfolk, where she has family. During the sale, she signed a standard document called a “second home rider” in which she agreed to keep the property primarily for her “personal use and enjoyment for at least one year,” unless the lender agreed otherwise.

Rather than using the home as a second residence, the indictment alleges, James rented it out to a family of three. According to the indictment, the misrepresentation allowed James to obtain favorable loan terms not available for investment properties.

James drew Trump’s ire when she won a staggering judgment against the president and his companies in a lawsuit alleging he defrauded banks by overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements. An appeals court overturned the fine, which had ballooned to more than $500 million with interest, but upheld a lower court’s finding that Trump had committed fraud.

James’ indictment followed the resignation of Erik Siebert as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia after he resisted Trump administration pressure to bring charges. Siebert was replaced with Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide and former Trump lawyer who had never previously served as a federal prosecutor and presented James’ case to the grand jury herself.

On Thursday, lawyers for James asked for an order prohibiting prosecutors from disclosing to the news media information about the investigation, or materials from the case, outside of court.

The motion followed the revelation from earlier this week that Halligan contacted via an encrypted text messaging platform a reporter from Lawfare, a media organization that covers legal and national security issues, to discuss the James prosecution and complain about coverage of it. The reporter published the exchange that she and Halligan had.

“The exchange was a stunning disclosure of internal government information,” lawyers for James wrote.

They added: “It has been reported that Ms. Halligan has no prosecutorial experience whatsoever. But all federal prosecutors are required to know and follow the rules governing their conduct from their first day on the job, and so any lack of experience cannot excuse their violation.”

The motion also asks that the government be required to preserve all communications with representatives of the media as well as to prevent the deletion of any records or communications related to the investigation and the prosecution of the case.

Separately on Thursday, defense lawyers said they intended to challenge Halligan’s appointment, a step also taken this week by attorneys for former FBI Director James Comey in a different case filed by Halligan. Comey has been charged with lying to Congress in a criminal case filed days after Trump appeared to urge his attorney general to prosecute him, and he has pleaded not guilty.

A third Trump adversary, former national security adviser John Bolton, pleaded not guilty last week to charges against him of emailing classified information to family members and keeping top secret documents at his Maryland home.

The Justice Department has also been investigating mortgage fraud allegations against Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California, whom Trump has called to be prosecuted over allegations related to a property in Maryland. In a separate mortgage investigation, authorities have been probing allegations against Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook, who is challenging a Trump administration effort to remove her from her job. Schiff and Cook have denied wrongdoing.

Finely and Richer write for the Associated Press. Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press reporter Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.

In 2011, Facebook and Twitter were seen as radical new tools for uprisings like the Arab Spring. Fast forward to 2025, and today’s activists operate on a whole different level. From Nepal to Madagascar, Al Jazeera’s Linh Nguyen looks at how young people, in particular Gen Z, are protesting.

State of emergency to be declared in capital as protests that led to last week’s ouster of former president intensify.

Peru’s new president, Jose Jeri, is refusing to resign amid Gen Z antigovernment protests, inflamed by the death of a popular rapper, as crime grips the nation.

The government said late on Thursday that a state of emergency would be declared in the capital, Lima, as the prosecutor’s office announced it was investigating the previous day’s killing of 32-year-old protester and hip-hop singer Eduardo Ruiz in a mass demonstration.

Peru’s police chief, General Oscar Arriola, said that Luis Magallanes, a member of the force, was believed to have fired the bullet and had subsequently been detained and dismissed from his job. Arriola added that Magallanes was being treated in hospital after being physically assaulted.

Ruiz was the first person to die in the protests, which began a month ago with calls for better pensions and wages for young people and later became a lightning rod for broader frustrations with crime and corruption, culminating in the ouster of former President Dina Boluarte last week.

On Wednesday, thousands massed around the country, with hundreds clashing with police outside Congress in Lima, as they called on recently appointed Jeri, the seventh president in less than a decade, to resign.

“My responsibility is to maintain the stability of the country; that is my responsibility and my commitment,” Jeri told the local media after visiting Peru’s parliament, where he said he would request powers to combat crime.

Jeri expressed regret over Ruiz’s death in a post on X, saying the death would be “objectively” investigated. He blamed violence on “delinquents who infiltrated a peaceful demonstration to sow chaos”.

“The full force of the law will be on them,” he wrote.

Reporting from Lima, Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez said that Ruiz’s death had “added another layer to the ongoing political crisis” in the country and had “angered even more Peruvians who are frustrated with the corruption, with the insecurity in the country”.

“He was peacefully hanging out with his friends. Unfortunately, the bullet hit his chest. We want justice for him,” activist Milagros Samillan told Al Jazeera.

The prosecutor’s office wrote on X that it had ordered the removal of Ruíz’s body from a Lima hospital and the “collection of audiovisual and ballistic evidence in the area where the incident occurred, in the context of serious human rights violations”.

Newly appointed interior minister, Vicente Tiburcio, said that 89 police and 22 civilians had been injured during Wednesday’s protest and 11 people were detained.

A QUARTER of Gen X and Boomers want to go interrailing across Europe – after missing out on travelling during their teens and 20s.

A poll of 2,000 adults who have holidayed revealed scenic rail journeys are a huge draw for 46 per cent of these generations – despite the trip more commonly linked with backpacking students.

Over a third (37 per cent) want the chance to tick off multiple countries in one go, while the sense of adventure appeals to 22 per cent.

Another 31 per cent like the idea of not having the hassle of dealing with flights or airports, and 30 per cent want flexibility to travel at their own place.

In fact, many want to venture further off the beaten track to hidden gems such as Lucca in Italy, Zermatt in Switzerland, and San Sebastián, Spain’s culinary capital.

Adrija Biswas, head of HSBC UK’s Global Money account, which allows customers to convert, spend and send multiple currencies worldwide and commissioned the research, said: “It’s never too late to chase new experiences – and rail travel is proving the perfect way for older generations to finally live out the adventures they may have missed in their youth.

RAIL GOOD

My trip on the very famous & posh UK train that’s launching new route to 3 cities

ISLE-DEAL

I visited the Italian island that’s prettier and cheaper than its neighbour

“Europe has an endless number of incredible sights to see, and doing so from a rail carriage berth is such an exciting way of doing it.

“From coastal pathways to wooded wonderlands, through some of the most famous cities in the world, a rail trip around Europe is a surefire way to make lifetime memories.

“The global money account has been designed to support just that – borderless travel with a card that is as flexible as your travel itinerary.”

Across all respondents, nearly a third (32 per cent) would consider going on a multi-destination trip this year, ranging from multiple stops across Europe to far-flung, long-haul destinations.

With 55 per cent citing a variety of scenery – from beaches to mountains – as a top reason, and 47 per cent excited by different cultures and cuisines.

But 34 per cent said having to pack and unpack multiple times might put them off, and 32 per cent would fret over the potential for travel delays or missed connections.

Just under four in 10 (39 per cent) respondents believe travel habits have changed across generations, and 20 per cent think European travel is a ‘rite of passage’ for younger people.

When asked what those polled, via OnePoll, want from a holiday, 47 per cent always aim to see famous landmarks, and 46 per cent want to experience other cultures.

In addition, 38 per cent use the time to bond with their partner, while 37 per cent always hope to meet new people on their travels.

Adrija Biswas, from HSBC UK, added: “Far from being the preserve of the young, it’s great to see older adults also exploring what Europe has to offer.

“It’s incredible to think how much there is, relatively, on the UK’s doorstep that so many people haven’t taken the time to experience.

“Modern technology can also make the trip much easier, from being able to move and access money more simply across different currencies using the global money account, to language translation.

“If it’s something you’ve been thinking about, whether you’re in your 20s or your 60s, you’re sure to make memories to treasure forever.”

A poll of 2,000 adults found that scenic rail journeys are a huge draw for 46% of these generations – despite the trip more commonly linked with backpacking students

A quarter of Gen X and Boomers are keen to go on an interrailing journey across Europe – a trip usually associated with younger backpackers – after missing out on such adventures in their younger years. The survey of 2,000 adults revealed that scenic rail journeys are becoming a major attraction for 46% of people in these age groups.

Over a third are eager to visit multiple countries in one trip, while the thrill of adventure appeals to 22%. In fact, many are looking to explore lesser-known destinations like Lucca in Italy, Zermatt in Switzerland, and San Sebastián, Spain’s foodie paradise.

The poll also suggests convenience is another reason many older people are considering interrailing. A. A third like the idea of avoiding the hassle of dealing with flights or airports, and another 30% crave the flexibility to travel at their own pace.

Adrija Biswas, head of HSBC UK’s Global Money account, which allows customers to convert, spend and send multiple currencies worldwide and commissioned the research, said: “It’s never too late to chase new experiences – and rail travel is proving the perfect way for older generations to finally live out the adventures they may have missed in their youth.”

“Europe has an endless number of incredible sights to see, and doing so from a rail carriage berth is such an exciting way of doing it.

“From coastal pathways to wooded wonderlands, through some of the most famous cities in the world, a rail trip around Europe is a surefire way to make lifetime memories.

“The global money account has been designed to support just that – borderless travel with a card that is as flexible as your travel itinerary.”

Across all respondents, nearly a third (32%) would consider going on a multi-destination trip this year, ranging from multiple stops across Europe to far-flung, long-haul destinations. With 55% citing a variety of scenery – from beaches to mountains – as a top reason, and 47% excited by different cultures and cuisines.

But 34% said having to pack and unpack multiple times might put them off, and 32% would fret over the potential for travel delays or missed connections.

According to the poll conducted by OnePoll, when it comes to holiday expectations, 47% of respondents aim to visit famous landmarks, while 46% are keen to immerse themselves in different cultures.

Moreover, 38% use their holidays as an opportunity to strengthen their relationship with their partner, and 37% look forward to meeting new people during their travels.

Adrija Biswas added:“Far from being the preserve of the young, it’s great to see older adults also exploring what Europe has to offer. It’s incredible to think how much there is, relatively, on the UK’s doorstep that so many people haven’t taken the time to experience.

“Modern technology can also make the trip much easier, from being able to move and access money more simply across different currencies using the global money account, to language translation.

“If it’s something you’ve been thinking about, whether you’re in your 20s or your 60s, you’re sure to make memories to treasure forever.”

The top 10 European hotspots people would like to visit by train:

1. Lucca, Italy
2. Zermatt, Switzerland
3. Lecce, Italy
4. Bolzano, Italy
5. San Sebastián, Spain
6. Braga, Portugal
7. Annecy, France
8. Ronda, Spain
9. Lake Bled, Slovenia
10. Nafplion, Greece

Oct. 13 (UPI) — Madagascar’s president has fled the country, according to reports, after thousands of protesters converged on the capital Monday to demand his resignation.

President Andry Rajoelina had been scheduled to address the island nation, which is located off Africa’s southeastern coast, when his office reported a group of soldiers had joined protesters in a threat to seize state television.

While Rajoelina’s whereabouts are unknown, his office said he would be making a speech Monday night. The president has dual French-Malagasy citizenship and was reported to have left the country in a French military aircraft, according to his staff.

Rajoelina, 51, said in a statement Sunday that he wanted to “inform the nation and the international community that an attempt to seize power illegally and by force” had been “initiated.”

On Saturday, Rajoelina’s new prime minister Gen. Ruphin Fortunat Zafisambo said the government was “fully ready to listen and engage in dialogue with all factions — youth, unions or the military.”

Monday’s coup attempt follows two weeks of protests, mostly led by young adults, called Gen Z Mada over alleged corruption, power and water shortages, as well as inflation and unemployment in Madagascar’s capital of Antananarivo.

At least 22 people have been killed and 100 injured since the start of the unrest in September, according to the United Nations. Since Madagascar declared its independence from France in 1960, it has seen several leaders toppled in coups.

“As long as Rajoelina remains in power, we will continue the struggle,” Gen Z Mada wrote in a statement earlier this month. Madagascar’s president responded to the unrest by appointing Zafisambo as prime minister in an effort to stop the anti-government protests.

SACRAMENTO — U.S. Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III announced today that he will resign at the end of July or in early August.

He told a news conference that an independent prosecutor investigating his personal financial affairs had found no grounds for legal action against him and therefore he could leave the Reagan Administration with a clear name.

“I have stated that I would not resign under a cloud or until I was completely vindicated,” Meese said, adding that the filing of a report by independent counsel James McKay–rather than an indictment–”fully vindicates me.”

Meese’s tenure at the Justice Department has been marked by repeated controversy surrounding his conduct and marred by resignations by senior personnel.

Won’t Be ‘Hounded’

Explaining why he had now decided to resign, Meese, who has always maintained his innocence, declared, “to allow myself to be hounded out of office by false accusations or allegations, unjust political attacks and media clamor would undermine the integrity of our system of justice which I have championed. . . . “

He said: “I have informed the President that I will be leaving the Administration towards the end of July or early in August.”

Earlier today, McKay ended his investigation of Meese without bringing criminal charges, but filed a report that raised questions about Meese’s ethics.

Sources close to the nearly 14-month-old probe said the secret report, totaling more than 800 pages, referred certain matters on Meese’s ethical behavior to the Justice Department for further review.

The department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, the agency’s internal ethics unit, is expected to review whether Meese violated federal ethics rules that prohibit actions that create the appearance of impropriety.

Allegations Detailed

McKay, who previously said he had insufficient evidence to indict Meese on most key matters under scrutiny, detailed in the report his probe into various conflict-of-interest charges against the attorney general.

It was filed under seal with a special panel of three federal appeals court judges. After Meese’s defense attorneys comment on the report, the judges will decide when to release it.

Meese, the nation’s top law enforcement officer who had President Reagan’s continued support throughout the inquiry, has denied any wrongdoing.

Most of McKay’s investigation centered on action Meese took as a government official that benefited his longtime friend and former lawyer, E. Robert Wallach, and on assistance that Wallach extended to Meese.

Wallach has been indicted on charges of attempting to illegally influence Meese and other government officials in helping win lucrative government contracts for the scandal-plagued Wedtech Corp., a defense contractor.

The most serious charge against Meese involved his role in a failed Iraqi oil pipeline deal that allegedly called for payoffs of as much as $700 million over 10 years to Israel and the Israeli Labor Party.

Meese received a secret 1985 memo from Wallach, who represented one of the project’s promoters, outlining the alleged payoff plan in return for an Israeli commitment not to attack the pipeline.

Meese then helped set up a meeting between a top White House national security adviser and former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres to discuss the project.

Telephone Contacts Probed

McKay also investigated Meese’s meetings with regional Bell Telephone company executives while holding $14,000 in phone stock.

William French Smith, Ronald Reagan’s personal lawyer and a key adviser who placed his conservative stamp on federal policy during his term as U.S. attorney general, died Monday in Los Angeles.

Smith, 73, died with his family at his bedside at the Kenneth Norris Jr. Cancer Center at County-USC Medical Center, where he had been admitted Oct. 2, a hospital spokeswoman said.

A corporate attorney and senior partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Los Angeles’ largest law firm, Smith was an original member of the “kitchen cabinet” that helped guide Reagan from Hollywood to Sacramento and the White House.

As attorney general, Smith “brought talent, wisdom and the highest integrity to the Department of Justice,” Reagan said Monday. “Our nation was indeed fortunate to have a person of his excellence and patriotism in the cabinet. And we were made better as a country because of Bill’s work.

“More than a colleague, Bill was a valued and trusted friend and adviser. I often sought his wise counsel throughout my years in public life, and I was fortunate to have him at my side.”

As attorney general from 1981-85, Smith was a key architect of the Reagan Administration’s conservative shift on issues affecting domestic policy, including civil rights. While acknowledging that the Administration had been accused of “abandoning the federal civil rights effort,” he maintained that the Justice Department under his leadership vigorously enforced civil rights laws.

But more than half the lawyers in the Justice Department’s civil rights division signed a letter of protest after Smith reversed an 11-year-old policy that gave the Internal Revenue Service the power to deny tax exemptions to private schools.

Smith “served the United States with great distinction,” Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh said.

U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth Starr, Smith’s former law partner and his chief of staff in the Justice Department, said Smith was “an immensely gifted lawyer with marvelous sound and wise judgment (who was) unfailingly kind and thoughtful. He was always willing to listen to people, to hear people out.

“It was one of the ironies of his tenure that it was characterized by such far-reaching and profound change in the direction of the federal legal system . . . done in a quintessentially quiet, prudent and lawyerlike fashion.”

After meeting Reagan in 1963, Smith became the future President’s personal lawyer, confidant and business adviser. He has been credited with engineering Reagan’s rise to wealth at a time when the former actor’s primary income was royalties from movies.

Smith, drug store magnate Justin Dart, auto dealer Holmes Tuttle and oil, entertainment and real estate entrepreneur Jack Wrather were among the group of California millionaires known as the “kitchen cabinet.”

They rallied to Reagan after hearing him give a nationally broadcast speech in support of Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential candidacy. The group persuaded Reagan to run for California governor in 1966, and remained his most important political advisers and fund-raisers. Tuttle once remarked that during Reagan’s eight years in Sacramento, the group “never made a move” without first asking: “Has this been cleared with Bill Smith?”

Born Aug. 26, 1917, in Wilton, N.H., Smith was a direct descendant of Uriah Oakes, the fourth president of Harvard College. His father, who died when Smith was 6, was president of the Mexican Telephone and Telegraph Co., whose headquarters were in Boston.

Smith graduated summa cum laude from UC Berkeley in 1939 and earned his law degree at Harvard in 1942. After World War II duty as an officer in the Naval Reserve, Smith broke away from his New England roots and settled in California. He had decided, he said, that his life “wasn’t going to be dictated to by my ancestors.”

He joined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in 1946 and eventually headed its labor department, where he represented the firms blue-chip corporate clients in collective bargaining negotiations.

In 1968, Reagan appointed Smith to the University of California Board of Regents, where he reflected the then-governor’s hard-line views toward Vietnam War protesters. He opposed demands that the university discontinue nuclear weapons research, and he resisted efforts to force the university to divest itself of stock in countries doing business in South Africa.

Fred Dutton, a former official in the John F. Kennedy Administration who served as a UC regent with Smith, said the former attorney general’s philosophy “is that a small central establishment of a few people who have proven successful should run the rest of our lives.”

But other liberals on the board credited Smith with being free of ideological rigidity and willing to listen to all sides of any argument.

Once at the helm in the Justice Department, Smith systematically set about dismantling policies that had been in place for a generation.

In 1981, he summarized the direction in which he was taking the department:

“We have firmly enforced the law that forbids federal employees from striking. We have opposed the distortion of the meaning of equal protection by courts that mandate counterproductive busing and quotas. We have helped to select appointees to the federal bench who understand the meaning of judicial restraint.”

One of those appointees–one he took great pride in recruiting–is Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Smith was president of the California Chamber of Commerce from 1974 to 1975. He was a director of Pacific Telephone & Telegraph of San Francisco, Crocker National Bank and Crocker National Corp., Pacific Mutual Life Insurance of Los Angeles, Pacific Lighting Corp., Jorgensen Steel Corp. and Pullman Inc. of Chicago.

Smith’s first marriage ended in divorce. In 1964 he married his second wife, Jean Webb. In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Stephanie Smith Lorenzen; three sons, William, Scott and Gregory; a stepson, G. William Vaughan Jr.; a stepdaughter, Merry Vaughan Dunn, and seven grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete.

GEN Z are killing off terms like ‘grub,’ ‘sarnie,’ and ‘pop’ – in favour of ‘scran,’ ‘sub,’ and ‘soda.’

A poll of 2,000 adults has revealed how younger adults are driving a generational shift in food language – from breakfast to dinner.

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Using ‘tea’ to refer to the evening meal, ‘nosh’ to talk about food generally, and ‘cuppa’ for a hot drink are also out of favour among under-29s, along with ‘squash.’

While the term ‘sandwich’ is also in decline, with younger adults adopting American-inspired terms such as ‘hoagie’ and ‘hero’ Instead.

A spokesperson for McDonald’s UK&I, which commissioned the research to mark the launch of its new RSPCA assured pork patty Sausage Sandwich on the Saver Menu, said: “Language is constantly evolving, and food slang is no exception.”

The study also found the biggest influence on Gen Z’s food language is their family, which holds greater sway than the local area they grew up in and social media, which came second and third respectively.

Interestingly, more than any other age group, 49% of Gen Z also believe they use a greater number of regional food words than other generations do.

With nearly half (49%) claiming to use them ‘very often’ or ‘often.’

Across all ages, the main barriers to using regional slang include not hearing it enough in conversation (28%) or believing others won’t understand (17%).

However, 40% are curious to know what unfamiliar regional food terms mean, with 18% looking them up online.

Overall, the research, carried out through OnePoll, found 70% believe regional food terms – whether they relate to breakfast, lunch, dinner, or specific foods or drinks – should be preserved as part of cultural heritage, even if they are declining in popularity.

One of the biggest regional variations was what people call a bread roll.

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While the term was number one for all regions, ‘cob’ is popular among those living in the West and East Midlands (21% and 42%).

And ‘Barm’ is commonplace in the North West (26%), with Fam‘teacake’ frequently used in Yorkshire and Humber (18%).

The spokesperson for McDonald’s added: “Our Sausage Sandwich is already sparking its own naming debates – burger or sandwich.”

Although the research suggests a strong preference – when shown an image of this menu item, 76% of those polled described it as a ‘burger,’ with just 24% opting for ‘sandwich.’

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WASHINGTON — A grand jury has indicted New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James on a fraud charge in the latest Justice Department case against a perceived enemy of President Trump, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press on Thursday.

James was indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia on one count after a mortgage fraud investigation, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter.

James’ office had no immediate comment Thursday.

The indictment, two weeks after a separate criminal case charging former FBI Director James Comey with lying to Congress, is the latest indication of the Trump administration’s norm-busting determination to use the law enforcement powers of the Justice Department to pursue the president’s political foes and public figures who once investigated him.

The James case remained under seal Thursday, making it impossible to assess what evidence prosecutors have. But as was the case with the Comey charges, the prosecution followed a strikingly unconventional case.

The Trump administration two weeks ago pushed out Erik Siebert, the veteran prosecutor who had overseen the investigation for months but had resisted pressure to file a case, and replaced him with Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide who was once Trump’s personal lawyer but who has never worked as a federal prosecutor.

Halligan presented the case to the grand jury herself, as she did in the case against Comey, according to the person familiar with the matter.

Trump has been advocating charging James for months, posting on social media without citing any evidence that she’s “guilty as hell” and telling reporters at the White House, “It looks to me like she’s really guilty of something, but I really don’t know.”

James, a second-term Democrat, has denied wrongdoing. She has said that she made an error while filling out a form related to a home purchase but quickly rectified it and didn’t deceive the lender.

Her lawyer has accused the Justice Department of concocting a bogus criminal case to settle Trump’s personal vendetta against James, who last year won a staggering judgment against Trump and his companies in a lawsuit alleging he lied to banks and others about the value of his assets.

The Justice Department has also been investigating mortgage-related allegations against Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook, using the probe to demand her ouster, and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), whose lawyer called the allegations against him “transparently false, stale, and long debunked.”

But James is a particularly personal target. As attorney general, she sued the Republican president and his administration dozens of times and oversaw a lawsuit accusing him of defrauding banks by dramatically overstating the value of his real estate holdings on financial statements.

An appeals court overturned the fine, which had ballooned to more than $500 million with interest, but upheld a lower court’s finding that Trump had committed fraud.

Richer, Sisak and Tucker write for the Associated Press.

Some 8% of adults surveyed said they use the technology to give them ideas for where to go on holiday, up from 4% a year earlier, a poll suggests

Double the number of people are turning to artificial intelligence (AI) for holiday planning inspiration compared to last year, fresh research reveals.

Travel industry body Abta, which commissioned the study, branded the technology a “creative co-pilot” that holidaymakers can utilise to research, plan and book their getaways. Around 8% of participants in a survey of 2,001 UK adults carried out in July admitted they use AI to spark ideas for their holiday destinations.

This marks a rise from 4% twelve months ago. Abta’s director of communications Graeme Buck suggested there is “a potential for this acceleration” to persist, stating: “I wouldn’t be surprised if that 8% becomes 16% next year.”

The most recent findings showed that those aged 25-34 are most inclined to harness the technology for holiday brainstorming, with 18% of participants in this age bracket confirming they do so.

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Milo Boyd

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This was followed by 35 to 44 year olds (14%). Among those 65 and over, the proportion dropped to merely 1%.

AI travel applications encompass services including chatbots and resources for translation and itinerary creation.

More than two in five (43%) survey participants indicated they would feel somewhat confident using AI to organise a holiday, though this fell to 38% when it came to actually making reservations.

Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2, addressed travel industry leaders at Abta’s annual convention in Calvia, Spain, stating that technology like AI will “continue to become a bigger part of what customers do before they book”.

He added: “We’re all going to have to work harder to justify the margin that we want to earn by demonstrating superior knowledge of the product and providing that anticipation and excitement.”

Neil Swanson, UK managing director of Tui, forecasted that AI will “completely transform” the travel industry, but many customers will still prefer to book their trips through human travel agents.

He said: “That is not going away anytime soon, in my view, because of that group of customers who value that. They use the technology a lot of those customers, but they still want to go in and look someone in the eye when they’re booking something. They value that trust element.”

Abta CEO Mark Tanzer said: “The challenge is to harness the potential which AI has to support our businesses, while continuing to celebrate and champion the value of the personal touch and expertise which comes with booking with a travel agent or tour operator.”

Curfews imposed. Soldiers on the streets. A prime minister forced to resign. After a social media blackout and years of corruption charges, the protests turned violent, leaving dozens dead.

Nepal’s army is now in talks with demonstrators to decide on an interim leader after KP Sharma Oli stepped down during the unrest. Why are so many young people angry — and what comes next for Nepal?

Presenter: Stefanie Dekker

Guests:
Birat Bijay Ojha – Writer
Sahana Bajracharya – Journalist
Subina Shrestha – Journalist and filmmaker

Kathmandu, Nepal – Pabit Tandukar was shouting slogans against Nepal’s government outside the country’s parliament building in the capital Kathmandu when he felt sharp pain cutting through his leg.

The 22-year-old university student was taken to the trauma centre of Kathamandu’s Bir Hospital on Monday, where doctors confirmed he had been hit by a live copper bullet.

“We were there for a peaceful protest. They were initially firing tear gas at us and we were pushing back. Suddenly, I was shot,” Tandukar told Al Jazeera.

At least 19 protesters were killed, and hundreds – like Tandukar – were injured after security forces fired live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas shells at youth agitators on Monday, after what began as a peaceful protest descended into violent clashes with law enforcement officers.

The killings have pushed Nepal into a political crisis. Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak resigned from the position on Monday evening, claiming moral responsibility, and on Tuesday, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli resigned.

But the thousands of young people who hit the streets of Kathmandu and other cities in Nepal on Monday, as part of what the organisers have called a Gen-Z movement, are demanding more – a dissolution of parliament and new elections.

The protests have erupted amid growing criticism of alleged corruption, and anger over perceptions that the families of the country’s ruling elite – including leading politicians – live lives of relative luxury while Nepalis struggle with a per capita income of less than $1,400 a year.

Then, the government last week banned 26 social media platforms, including Facebook, YouTube and X, after they missed a September 3 deadline to register with the country’s authorities under a controversial new law. That ban further raised anger against the government among young, digitally native Nepalis, though the government said it was trying to stop the use of fake online identities to spread rumours, commit cybercrimes, and disturb social harmony.

By Tuesday, though, that simmering anger and the protests it led to had exploded into even more violence, with the killings of civilians by security forces becoming the lightning rod galvanising youth, who returned to the streets for a second day in a row.

“The government should not have fired bullets at students,” Tandukar said.

‘This one is for KP Oli’

Joining the protest near parliament on Monday, Megraj Giri* aimed a stone at a CCTV placed on the northern wall of the legislature building in New Baneshwor, in the heart of Kathmandu.

The government had imposed a curfew – which was extended on Tuesday – but Giri was defiant. “This one is for KP Oli,” he shouted, referring to the prime minister, as his missile shattered the camera.

That’s not how the organisers of the protest had imagined things would turn out.

“We planned a peaceful protest with cultural events and fun,” said Anil Baniya of Hami Nepal [translated as We Nepal], one of the organisers, speaking to Al Jazeera.

“During the first few hours, it went as planned, until some external forces and political party cadres joined in the protest and agitated the armed forces and pelted stones.”

Organisers have not named specific parties or external agents whom they blame for instigating the violence. But it was when some protesters began to climb the walls of the parliament complex to enter that security forces fired back, Baniya said.

Some of the protesters who were hit were schoolchildren still in their uniforms – it is unclear whether they were among any of the 19 who were killed.

The Kathmandu District Administration Office imposed curfew in that part of the city, and Nepal deployed its army. Armed forces also entered the Civil Service Hospital near Parliament to capture protesters, and shot tear gas, causing chaos in the facility. Toshima Karki, a doctor turned member of parliament, was at the hospital helping the injured when she witnessed the attack.

“No matter what, the government should not have used bullets. They murdered young people,” added Baniya.

Until late on Monday night, videos also emerged showing armed police officers carrying out search operations in houses near the protest area.

Among those killed was Sulov Raj Shrestha, who was studying civil engineering in Kathmandu.

“He was always smiling and had a friendly behaviour,” Sudhoj Jung Kunwar, a friend of Shrestha, recalled, speaking to Al Jazeera. “I just found out; he had his GRE exams today.”

Kathmandu Engineering College, where Shrestha studied, posted on Facebook: “We mourn, we protest, we condemn……  Sulov…..your nation has failed you…”

Political analyst Krishna Khanal blames “sheer negligence” on the part of the government for the killings.

“The young people should have been handled well; even if they crossed the parliament building, there were other ways to control them,” Khanal told Al Jazeera.

The UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International have both condemned the killings and called for transparent investigations into the events of Monday.

Speaking to the press late Monday night, Prithvi Subba Gurung, Nepal’s communications and information technology minister, announced the social media ban was being lifted.

But while the ban might be over, it is the killings on Monday that have now emerged as the principal issue inflaming passions on Nepal’s streets.

‘We demand mass resignation’

While the social media ban drew global attention, many protesters said their grievances run much deeper.

“We need to kick these old leaders out of power. We are tired of the same old faces,” said 27-year-old Yugant Ghimire, an artificial intelligence engineer who took part in Monday’s protest.

“The government is on a power trip, there is rampant corruption, no one is accountable,” Ghimire told Al Jazeera.

The movement has found support from sections of the political class, including Balen Shah, the mayor of Kathmandu, who is also a popular rapper.

Posting on social media on Sunday, Shah wrote, “Tomorrow, in this spontaneous rally, no party, leader, worker, lawmaker, or activist will use it for their own interest. I will not attend due to the age limit, but it is important to understand their message. I give my full support.”

Meanwhile, before Monday’s protest, Oli was largely dismissive of the movement. “Just by saying Gen Z, one is free to do anything, just by saying you don’t like it,” Oli said to an audience of his party cadres on Sunday.

That approach appears to have backfired on the government. On Tuesday, as the government imposed an indefinite curfew in Kathmandu, protesters defied those restrictions to set the homes of several politicians on fire.

Organisers of the protests have now released a set of “non-negotiable demands” which include the dissolution of the parliament, mass resignation of parliamentarians, immediate suspension of officials who issued the order to fire on protesters, and new elections.

Protest leader Baniya said the movement would continue “indefinitely until our demands are met”.

“We now have more of a duty to live up to the expectations of our friends who were murdered by the state,” said Baniya. “We need to topple this government, we demand mass resignation and we want them out. This is our country.”

Want to get Generation Alpha into movie theaters? Look to video games.

Kids still like to go to the movies, according to a high-profile new research report. But the franchises they care about are not the traditional Hollywood popcorn fare.

Seven of the top 10 entertainment franchises that the youngest generation of moviegoers cares about are video game properties, according to a recent study by National Research Group (NRG).

The top five titles that Gen Alpha kids, generally considered to be those ages 12 and under, say they talk most about were Roblox, “Minecraft,” “Fortnite,” “Grand Theft Auto” and “Pokémon,” all of which originated from the world of video games. The highest-ranked non-video game property was Marvel and Walt Disney Co.’s “The Avengers,” at No. 6.

Studios have started to catch on. Spring’s “A Minecraft Movie,” based on the popular game where users build and explore different worlds, was such a huge success. The film, adapted by Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment for the big screen, grossed $955 million at the global box office, according to Comscore. Young fans packed the theater, cheering during scenes important to gamers.

“Gaming is a deeply important part of Gen Alpha culture because it provides an essential venue for socialization,” said Fergus Navaratnam-Blair, NRG’s vice president of trends and futures. “Social gaming platforms like Roblox and Fortnite give them the opportunity to spend time with their friends, build communities, and develop a sense of their own identity.”

That could present a shift in the way theaters and studios cater to Gen Alpha, a key demographic born 2013 onward, to their future survival. Compared with millennials and Gen X, a higher percentage of Gen Alpha members (38%) said they would see a movie in a theater instead of waiting for it to come to a streaming service if their friends were talking about it, NRG said.

Nearly 60% of Gen Alpha members said they enjoy watching movies in theaters more than at home, according to NRG, which surveyed more than 6,000 U.S. moviegoers in May and June of this year. The majority of kids surveyed ages 6-to-12 said the reason why they go to the theater is to spend time with friends and family and “to make seeing the movie feel like a special event,” according to NRG.

“We are seeing the signs within this demographic that they do really value the experience of watching movies in theaters,” Navaratnam-Blair said. “The fact that they have grown up surrounded by phones, tablets, other sorts of devices, if anything, that seems to have made them more appreciative of the opportunities that they do get to switch up from all of that.”

Stories that resonate with Gen Alpha can come from franchises they are already familiar with, like “Minecraft,” or ones such as “Wicked” that inspire them to create fan fiction or show off their fandom by dressing up like the characters, he said.

Already, studios are marketing their films to reach younger consumers on platforms they frequent including Roblox and TikTok.

Movie theaters can help cater to Gen Alpha by making the viewing an experience, such as selling food that is matched to what characters are eating on screen, Navaratnam-Blair said.

Younger audiences also can still be attracted to seeing a movie in a theater if it’s a special event that happens after the title has started streaming. For example, many people attended sing-along showings of the popular animated film “KPop Demon Hunters” in theaters even after streaming it first on Netflix. The sing-along version of the film was the No. 1 movie domestically during the weekend it was briefly in theaters, with an estimated $18 million in ticket sales.

“This is a generation that does offer hope for the future of theatrical moviegoing,” Navaratnam-Blair said. “We just need to understand what it is they’re looking for, that experience, and play into it in a way that gives them what they’re looking for out of that.”

Boeing has provided a new rendering for its F/A-XX proposal, and it’s remarkably similar to concept artwork that has already been released for its F-47, selected for the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) ‘fighter’ initiative. While it’s important not to read too much into declassified conceptual renderings of either of those aircraft, based on the artwork, the new art does, at least, correspond with Boeing’s previous hints that the F/A-XX and F-47 would incorporate significant commonality.

The new rendering of the F/A-XX proposal from Boeing was first shown at the Tailhook Symposium last week. The rendering was subsequently published by Aviation Week and is also seen at the top of this story. An F-47 rendering, for comparison, is seen below.

As we reported only earlier this week, Navy Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, commonly referred to as the service’s “Air Boss,” is still “eagerly awaiting” a decision on the F/A-XX down-select, despite the uncertainty now swirling around that program.

Like previous F-47 depictions, the new Boeing F/A-XX rendering obscures the aircraft in clouds but adds a Navy flattop below, befitting its role as a carrier-based tactical jet. The tail surfaces of the aircraft are fully concealed in clouds. Meanwhile, the aircraft’s ‘bubble’ canopy appears to be very similar to that presented in F-47 renderings. While the radome appears to be smaller and shorter than the notably wide one shown on the Air Force jet, this might be due to the viewing angle. Based on the angle of the wing leading-edge extension, it seems that the F/A-XX concept may well also include canard foreplanes.

As we discussed in an in-depth feature on the topic, canards were a surprising feature of the F-47 renderings that appeared once Boeing had been announced as the winner of the Air Force’s NGAD fighter program. In the F-47 renderings, the details of the canards are also deliberately obscured, but are clearly present.

Above all, canards are a feature that’s not immediately associated with an aircraft optimized for low observability (stealth), range, payload, and speed. Instead, this is a feature that’s normally included on tactical fighters on the basis of maneuverability.

First off, we should note that the new F/A-XX rendering might not include canards, and the degree to which the rendering may reflect the final Boeing design proposal remains open to question. There may also be some counter-intelligence work at play in the F/A-XX rendering, as well as those of the F-47, by pushing concept art that alludes to a prominent feature that the aircraft actually doesn’t have.

However, canards would be of particular benefit for a carrier-based aircraft like the F/A-XX. In this case, the foreplanes enhance low-speed maneuverability, which is especially important during carrier approaches and landings.

Since the tail is entirely hidden in the new F/A-XX rendering, we can’t comment with any degree of authority on this area. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that it’s widely assumed that the F-47 is a tailless design. Previous 6th generation naval fighter renderings from Boeing have also shown a tailless design. Such a configuration would help optimize stealth, although it would sacrifice some maneuverability. To mitigate this, Boeing may have opted to use thrust vectoring and/or canards for its F-47 and F/A-XX proposals.

Otherwise, based on what we already know about the F-47 and F/A-XX, the two aircraft are expected to offer somewhat different capabilities, over and above the carrier compatibility of the Navy jet. According to Aviation Week, the F-47 is presumed to use an all-new adaptive powerplant, the F/A-XX will use a derivative engine, Navy officials have said.

While the Navy previously said that the F/A-XX would be optimized for extended range and survivability, more recent comments suggest its range may only be 25 percent greater than existing tactical jets. This may also be dictated, in part, by the constraints of carrier operations.

There are meanwhile signs that the Air Force might have scaled back its range requirements for the F-47, with the original NGAD fighter having been pitched as a ‘cruiser’ type aircraft with very long endurance suited to Pacific operations. The Air Force now says that the aircraft will possess a combat radius of “1,000+” nautical miles, a significant advance over other fighters currently in the inventory, but not the kind of extended range that many had expected for the Air Force NGAD, especially considering the need to confront advanced enemy air defenses in the decades to come.

The new Boeing F/A-XX rendering appears soon after Northrop Grumman released a rendering for its own submission for the program, something that TWZ was first to report on.

Boeing and Northrop Grumman are understood to be the remaining contenders for F/A-XX.

The Northrop Grumman rendering notably doesn’t include canards, and its overall design appears to be heavily weighted toward stealth, including a flowing, almost organic design, with constantly changing radiused surfaces. Overall, the design has similarities to the passed-over YF-23. You can read more about it here.

Overall, however, Boeing’s new F/A-XX rendering seems to underscore previous affirmations from the company that it would not have a problem building both the Navy and Air Force next-generation fighters.

Earlier this summer, Steve Parker, Boeing Defense and Space CEO, said he didn’t see a problem with his company building both the F-47 and F/A-XX, stating that this had been part of the strategy all along.

Parker’s comments came in response to questions raised by Navy and Pentagon budget officials about the U.S. defense industry’s capacity to produce the two new highly-advanced tactical jets simultaneously.

In particular, Boeing has invested considerable sums in developing a new Advanced Combat Aircraft Assembly Facility in St. Louis, Missouri, which should have the potential to build both aircraft, if the company’s F/A-XX bid is successful. Building the two types in parallel would be made even easier if they were based, at least somewhat, on a core design, with a high degree of commonality.

As we noted earlier this week, the Navy was reportedly close to announcing the winner of the F/A-XX competition in March.

In June, however, the Pentagon announced as part of the rollout of its Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal that it was moving to complete initial development work related to F/A-XX, but then froze the program indefinitely. It reasoned that it wanted to avoid competition for resources that could affect the Air Force’s F-47.

“They [the Navy] haven’t made a decision yet. So that’s what the down-select is. We’re waiting for the decision, and I’m not the decision maker,” Vice Adm. Cheever told TWZ last week.

Overall, there remains uncertainty around the F/A-XX. In recent months, other senior Navy officials have voiced support publicly for pressing forward with the program. Members of Congress have also been making moves to keep F/A-XX moving ahead as planned in the upcoming Fiscal Year 2026 budget.

“The Navy has a validated requirement for carrier-based sixth-generation aircraft, and it is critical that we field that capability as quickly as possible to give our warfighters the capabilities they need to win against a myriad of emerging threats,” Adm. Daryl Caudle, Chief of Naval Operations, the Navy’s top officer, wrote in response to a question about F/A-XX ahead of his confirmation hearing in July.

Not surprisingly, the Navy considers the F/A-XX as critical to ensuring its carrier air wings can continue to project power in the face of ever-growing threats, especially in any future high-end fight, such as one against China in the Pacific.

Ultimately, if the FA-XX program remains in purgatory, and the F-47 program meets its potential and planned timeline, the Navy could end up buying a navalized F-47 derivative with much lower risk and lower development cost. This might parallel the wait-and-see approach the Navy is taking with its Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), compared to the Air Force (and, to a lesser degree, the Marine Corps). The Navy can capitalize on what is proven to work without investing major funds, but at the cost of waiting.

While we can’t say for sure how close Boeing’s new rendering will be to the company’s final F/A-XX submission, its appearance underlines the fact that the company is very much hoping to follow up its Air Force NGAD success with another sixth-generation fighter contract win, this time for the Navy.

Contact the author: [email protected]

SIX in 10 Gen Zers reckon music gigs are overpriced – but are making financial sacrifices so they don’t miss out.

A study of 2,000 adults found 46 per cent of 21- to 24-year-olds believe concerts are out of reach for most people.

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Gen Zers are nonetheless determined to make it work, with 67 per cent having been to at least one gig in the past year – and spending an average of £117 on their priciest ticket.

To cover the cost, nearly one in five young adults (18 per cent) cut back on essentials, while 26 per cent scrapped a subscription – and 15 per cent admitted to spending more on a live music event than on their monthly bills.

The study was commissioned by Greene King, which staged the ‘biggest pub gig ever’ – with Sam Ryder giving a surprise performance at the iconic pub The Anchor on London’s South Bank.

As one of 800 acts in Greene King Untapped – a competition to find the next big music talent – Sam performed a 35-minute set, free for fans to watch.

The BRIT-nominated Eurovision star, who has also been appointed the pub chain’s Head of Gigs, said: “Playing in pubs and smaller venues was where it all started for me, with intimate venues, borrowed PA systems, and a handful of pub-goers who might become fans.

 “Grassroots music is at the heartbeat of the scene and those early gigs shaped who I am as an artist.

“These spaces allow live music to be an experience available to everyone, that’s why they’re so important, and I’m stoked to be a part of the team helping to keep that alive.” 

The study also found that 40 per cent of adults have skipped live music because of high ticket prices – missing an average of three events in the past year.

Half of those surveyed said they’ve wanted to attend a music event but couldn’t because tickets sold out too quickly.

The study also found that 53 per cent believe live music ticket prices are unfair, with 67 per cent saying prices have become unreasonable in recent years.

Meanwhile, 61 per cent claimed they would go to more gigs if tickets cost less.

The research also revealed that 41 per cent feel most alive when attending a gig, while 63 per cent admit the energy of a live performance doesn’t translate the same way digitally.

And 38 per cent have suffered FOMO (a Gen Z term meaning Fear of Missing Out) after seeing concerts on social media they couldn’t attend.

Zoe Bowley, managing director at Greene King Pubs, said: “Pubs have long been the heartland of grassroots music, a place where emerging talent takes root, stars are born, and communities come together. 

“It’s where British people do what they do best: connect, celebrate, and create lasting memories.”

In other news, The Sun recently revealed Oasis are getting big-money offers for more shows almost daily.

Insiders told Bizarre editor Ellie Henman last month the brothers are flooded with bids from across the globe.

This comes after their epic 41-show reunion tour sold out in minutes on 31 August.

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The streets of Tehran are telling a story of chaos: suitcases dragged across pavements, a single mother holding her young son with one hand while balancing a blanket and pillow in the other, heading into a subway station to spend yet another night underground. With no shelters, alerts, or public evacuation plans, young Iranians are turning to the only safe space left as Israel attacks Iran: the internet, and chat apps like Discord and WhatsApp.

“We don’t know where to go,” says Momo, a 24-year-old IT engineering student in Tehran.

“We never know if the building next door houses the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] or the Ministry of Intelligence. I don’t know if my upstairs neighbour is a regular person or a regime official. The facility near me might be part of a secret military programme,” he said, alluding to Israel’s attacks on residential buildings, ostensibly to target individuals associated with Iran’s military or with its nuclear programme.

Despite it all, Momo has chosen to stay in Tehran – not just for his two-year-old rescue cat, but out of principle. “Where would I even go? My home is here. My life is here. We won’t give in to a repressive regime or Israeli aggression. Many of us are staying. We don’t know how long this will last, but I’d rather my home become my grave than live in displacement.”

No shelter but the internet

With conventional safe havens out of reach and communication networks under heavy surveillance or blocked entirely, Iran’s Generation Z – those born between the mid-1990s and mid-2010s – are carving out new refuges in the digital world. Forums have become lifelines, serving as makeshift shelters, therapy rooms, and organising hubs.

Momo has been a Discord user for seven years. “It’s the only place where I can breathe,” Momo says. “I used Discord just for voice chats while gaming with friends. Now, it feels like home. We’re often in touch with people there more than our families. In the middle of the bombings, we watched movies and TV series together. Sometimes, we even fall asleep online.”

This generation of Iranians came of age in the shadow of sanctions, political unrest, and censorship. Many were also key players in the 2022 anti-government protests sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody after she was arrested for wearing “improper hijab” – a movement known globally by the slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom”. Online platforms played a pivotal role then, and they continue to serve as vital tools today.

According to Iranian daily Shargh, nearly 14 million Iranians – around 15 percent of the population – are Gen Z gamers and frequent Discord users. Despite official restrictions, they remain digitally connected, using VPNs and encrypted apps to stay in touch.

“When the attacks began, we were in the middle of a game,” Samin, a 23-year-old from northern Iran, says. “It was surreal – not knowing if the explosions were coming from inside the game or real life. These games are full of gunfire and bombs, creating this bitter irony: I couldn’t tell if I was playing Call of Duty or living it. Sadly, the sounds weren’t from the game – they were real bombings.”

Discord was blocked in Iran in April 2024, with some suspecting that the government shut it down in recognition of its use as a platform to organise protests, although Iran’s judiciary officially cited concerns over indecent content. But the ban hasn’t stopped Gen Z from finding their way back to the app.

“Sometimes we go to great lengths just to find a working VPN, just to log into Discord and join our channels. If someone doesn’t come online, we call them. If their voice cuts out mid-call, our hearts race – we worry they might have been killed in a bombing,” Samin says. “We’re online more than ever, constantly checking in on each other. We’ve shared so much – birthdays, the sound of missiles overhead, the loss of loved ones. We share our fears and daily struggles in that space. It’s a painful atmosphere, but there’s hope, solidarity, and care, too.”

Pregnancy, panic, and perseverance

Meanwhile, a WhatsApp group created initially for prenatal yoga in Tehran has become an unexpected hub of resilience. Its members – pregnant women who were unable to flee the capital – now share breathing techniques, emergency tips, and voice messages during blackout periods.

Ameneh and her friend Zohreh, PhD holders and United States green card recipients, had been waiting for their parents’ visas to be approved by the US for months. While both were expecting babies, they made different decisions: Zohreh returned to Iran to have her family’s support for childbirth, while Ameneh stayed in San Francisco to give birth alone – but safely – in the US.

Now, four days into Israel’s bombardment of Iran, both women are devastated – but still connected via a group chat on the encrypted messaging app called “Yoga for Pregnancy”.

“We give each other advice on self-care and breathing to manage panic attacks and do yoga together online. We light candles and send voice notes when things go quiet again,” says Zohreh, who is eight months pregnant in Tehran.

“The sound of an explosion woke me. A friend guided me to focus on breathing and heartbeat to calm my contractions. Another time, when my baby didn’t move for hours, they told me to play music, do a massage, and try yoga again.”

US President Donald Trump’s threat that Tehran be “evacuated” sent waves of panic through Tehran. Zohreh and many other pregnant women found themselves unable to leave the city due to their physical condition and limited access to medical care. “We had planned to leave Tehran,” she says, “but after seeing the traffic and the possibility of going into labour early, I decided to stay so I’d have access to a hospital.”

As the bombs fall and uncertainty deepens, Iranians’ defiance lives in digital spaces – quiet, steadfast, and deeply human. Even when the sky offers no warning and the regime offers no refuge, they are still finding each other and refusing to face the dark alone.

Editor’s note: Due to the sensitive nature of this story, names have been changed to protect the people involved.

This story was published in collaboration with Egab.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Dick Cheney on Monday fired Air Force Chief of Staff Michael J. Dugan, saying that the four-star general displayed “poor judgment at a very sensitive time” by revealing possible targets of air strikes in Iraq in the event of war.

President Bush and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, concurred in the dismissal, which came in a 10-minute meeting with Dugan in Cheney’s Pentagon office early Monday.

Dugan was fired for comments published in The Times and Washington Post on Sunday, in which he said that–if war comes–the U.S. military intends to conduct a massive air campaign against Iraq, specifically targeting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, his family and his palace guard.

“Given the extreme delicacy and sensitivity of the current situation, it’s incumbent upon senior officials to be discreet and tactful in their public statements, and I found those qualities lacking” in Dugan’s remarks, Cheney said in a news conference Monday.

The defense secretary said Dugan’s comments put at risk the lives of the more than 150,000 U.S. troops in the region and jeopardized the five-week-old Persian Gulf operation by revealing classified details of U.S. war planning.

Cheney said he will nominate Gen. Merrill A. McPeak, currently commander of Pacific Air Forces, to be the next chief of staff.

As for Dugan, who had been in the post only since July, Cheney said: “He will be retired.”

The only other member of the Joint Chiefs to have been fired was Adm. Louis E. Denfeld, sacked in October, 1949, by President Harry S. Truman. Denfeld, ironically, had irritated the President and his fellow chiefs for raising questions about the value of air power in modern warfare.

Cheney cited a number of critical sins that Dugan committed in the interviews with three journalists conducted over several hours aboard his aircraft on a trip to Saudi Arabia last week.

“We never talk about future operations, such as the selection of specific targets for potential air strikes. We never talk about the targeting of specific individuals who are officials of other governments. Taking such action might be a violation of the standing presidential executive order” banning assassinations, Cheney said.

He also chastised Dugan for underestimating Iraqi military capabilities, for revealing classified information about the size and disposition of U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia and for demeaning the role of the other U.S. military services by citing air power as the “only option” available for defeating the 1-million-member Iraqi army.

Cheney also was disturbed with Dugan for “treating (U.S.) casualties cavalierly,” an aide said. He apparently was referring to a comment from a senior Dugan aide on the trip who called the expected loss of American lives in such a military operation a “manageable risk.”

Powell reportedly was furious when he saw the Post story on Sunday morning and called Cheney at home at 7 a.m. to point it out. Cheney then sought The Times’ version to see if Dugan’s remarks were accurately reported. The two articles were similar, and the quotations in common were exactly the same. Cheney was “very upset,” but did not make up his mind to fire Dugan until Sunday night, a knowledgeable defense official said.

An aide to Cheney said the defense secretary believes Dugan’s comments “showed egregious judgment” and could not be tolerated. “He became the self-appointed spokesman for (Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who is directing the U.S. operation in Saudi Arabia) and the chiefs. He revealed classified information. He talked about operational plans that are fundamentally not his choice. He raised sensitive matters of diplomacy relating to other nations. He set a poor standard of military leadership, that a military commander would not take seriously the people we’re up against,” this official said.

“Based on all these things, the secretary just lost confidence in him,” the aide said.

Powell contacted Dugan in Florida and asked if he had been accurately quoted. Dugan assured him that he had been. Powell told him to report to Cheney’s office at 8 a.m. Monday but did not tell the Air Force chief that the decision had been made to dismiss him.

Dugan did not know when he entered Cheney’s Pentagon office that he was about to be fired, an Air Force official said.

In his news conference, Cheney did not dispute the truth of any of Dugan’s assertions, which included a statement that the Joint Chiefs have concluded that the United States would never have sufficient ground forces in Saudi Arabia to drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait and would therefore be dependent on air power to sway any potential battle.

Dugan also revealed for the first time that the United States has deployed 420 combat aircraft to the Arabian Peninsula–nearly as much striking power as the fleet dedicated to defending Europe against the Soviet Union. Previous estimates of air power in the Persian Gulf region were about half that.

The Air Force chief also disclosed for the first time that the United States had recently purchased advanced Israeli cruise missiles and deployed them aboard B-52 bombers stationed within striking distance of Baghdad. In addition, he said that the Pentagon has consulted with Israeli intelligence agencies to determine the best targets in Iraq.

The most troubling matter, senior Pentagon officials said, was Dugan’s discussion of the possible targeting of Hussein, his family, his inner circle and even his mistress. Cheney suggested that such action “might” violate Executive Order 12333, issued in December, 1981, which specifically prohibits assassinations.

“I think it’s inappropriate . . . for U.S. officials to talk about targeting specific foreign individuals,” Cheney said in the news conference. “I think it is potentially a violation of the standing presidential Executive Order.”

However, the ban on assassinations was modified last year to allow for the killing of senior enemy military commanders as part of a “decapitation” strategy. Hussein is commander in chief of Iraqi military forces–as Bush is commander of all U.S. forces–and thus would be a legal target for military action, Pentagon officials said Monday.

But it clearly would violate U.S. law and policy to target Hussein’s wife, his children or his girlfriend, officials noted.

Cheney, pressed on a variety of Dugan’s assertions, said he could not confirm or deny them without violating the security considerations for which he dismissed Dugan.

The defense secretary also noted that Dugan is “not even in the chain of command,” which runs from Bush to Cheney to Powell to Schwarzkopf, commander of the U.S. Central Command, which covers the Middle East.

Under the current military structure, the members of the Joint Chiefs are advisers to the chairman and provide forces, equipment and support to theater commanders, known inside the Pentagon as the “war-fighting CINCs” or regional commanders in chief.

Cheney praised Dugan’s record of 32 years of Air Force service and said that he regretted firing him. “But under the circumstances, I felt it was necessary,” the secretary said. Dugan’s comments, Cheney noted, “did not in my mind reveal an adequate understanding of the situation and what is expected of him as chief of staff of the Air Force and as a member of the Joint Chiefs.”

The abrupt dismissal undoubtedly will reverberate throughout the Pentagon and the entire U.S. military, which has not enjoyed good relations with the press for two generations.

“You won’t be talking to any generals any time soon,” one senior Army officer told a reporter Monday.

Cheney denied that he was sending a message to military officers to avoid reporters. But he said that he expected his subordinates “to exercise discretion in what they say. . . . That sort of wide-ranging speculation about those matters that were discussed in the interviews that were granted by the general is what I felt was inappropriate.”

Air Force Secretary Donald B. Rice, who had recommended Dugan for the job and who concurred in Cheney’s decision to relieve him, said in a prepared statement: “I regret the circumstances that made it necessary for Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney to take this action. Gen. Dugan is a superb officer. His leadership and innovation will be missed by every man and woman in the Air Force.”

Dugan, 53, jumped over a number of senior Air Force officers when he was chosen for the chief of staff job earlier this year. He is a fighter and attack plane pilot with more than 4,500 flying hours and 300 combat missions in Vietnam.

A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Dugan rose rapidly through the Air Force, serving chiefly in fighter squadron commands. His last post before becoming chief of staff in July was as commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe.

His last Washington assignment was in 1988 and early 1989, when he served as deputy Air Force chief of staff for plans and operations.

Among his decorations are the Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star, Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, Purple Heart, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal and the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm.

Dugan has six children, three of them Air Force officers. When the articles appeared Sunday, he was in Florida attending a ceremony for his son Michael’s graduation from F-16 pilot training school.

Sen. John S. McCain (R-Ariz.), a former Navy bomber pilot who was shot down and taken prisoner in Vietnam, said the American system of civilian control of the military dictated Cheney’s firing of Dugan. “I think that clearly Cheney has the authority, and indeed the responsibility, to discipline anyone who violated policy,” he said.

McCain said he was especially troubled by Dugan’s comment that in any bombing campaign “the cutting edge would be in downtown Baghdad. This wouldn’t be a Vietnam-style operation, nibbling around the edges. . . . The way to hurt you is at home, not out in the woods somewhere.”

McCain said he did not think the American public would accept that tactic, even if it were justifiable on purely military grounds.

“His comments are at best not cognizant of the sensitivity of those remarks and the reaction that would be fueled by them,” McCain said. “It’s too bad, because I’m sure the guy was highly qualified for the job. But it comes down to the fact that the civilian leaders have a right to choose whom they want.”

Sens. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and John W. Warner (R-Va.), chairman and ranking minority member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a joint statement that they believe Dugan’s firing to be justified.

“The recent public statements attributed to Gen. Dugan were inappropriate,” they said.

THOSE WHO WENT TOO FAR The following is a list of some U.S. military leaders who have been cashiered or disciplined for their comments. GEN. MICHAEL J. DUGAN, Air Force chief of staff

Fired on Sept. 17, 1990

By: Defense Secretary Dick Cheney

For: Publicly discussing possible targets of U.S. air strikes in Iraq if President Bush ordered use of military force against Saddam Hussein.

MAJ. GEN. JOHN K. SINGLAUB, U.S. chief of staff in South Korea

Fired May 21, 1977

By: President Jimmy Carter

For: Publicly opposing Carter’s plan to withdraw U.S. ground forces from Korea. He contended that the move would lead to war.

GEN. DOUGLAS MacARTHUR, Commander, U.S. , U.N. forces in Korean War

Fired on April 11, 1951

By: President Harry S. Truman

For: Making public his disagreement with Truman over methods to win the war, including his desire to bomb supply centers in Manchuria.

ADM. LOUIS E. DENFELD, Chief of naval operations

Fired in October, 1949

By: President Harry S. Truman

For: Speaking out on Capitol Hill against Navy budget cuts and questioning the value of air power.

GEN. WINFIELD SCOTT, General in chief, U.S. Army

Suspended for a year in 1810

By: Court-martial

For: Calling his superior officer, Gen. James Wilkinson, as great a traitor as Aaron Burr.

(Southland Edition) THOSE WHO WENT TOO FAR . . . OR NOT FAR ENOUGH

The following is a list of some U.S. military leaders who have been cashiered or disciplined for their actions or comments. ADM. HUSBAND E. KIMMEL Commander in chief, Pacific Fleet

Retired in 1942 after being accused of dereliction of duty

By: Naval board of inquiry

For: Poor state of readiness of naval forces; poor response to Japan attack on Pearl Harbor.

GEN. JOSEPH HOOKER Commander, Union Army

Relieved of command in April, 1863

By: President Abraham Lincoln

For: Indecisiveness at the battle of Chancellorsville which allowed Confederates to mount surprise attack.

GEN. AMBROSE E. BURNSIDE Commander, Army of the Potomac

Relieved of command in December, 1862.

By: President Lincoln

For: Ordering his forces on Dec. 13, 1862, to make suicidal assault on entrenched

Confederate positions in Fredericksburg, Va., and sustaining 12,600 casualties.

GEN. GEORGE B. McCLELLAN Commander, Union Army

Fired on Nov. 7, 1862

By: President Lincoln

For: Procrastination and failure to capitalize on military opportunities, including allowing Confederates to hold the line at the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17.

BRIG. GEN. JOHN POPE Union Army

Fired on Sept. 5, 1862

By: President Abraham Lincoln

For: Leading Union forces to defeat at the Second Bull Run battle in August.

DUGAN WAS WARNED: Cheney aides told the general to steer clear of the press. A10

WHITE HOUSE CONCERN: Officials are said to feel the military was too candid. A12