TORONTO — In introducing the Saturday night TIFF world premiere of “Good Fortune,” his feature debut as a writer-director, comedian Aziz Ansari told the audience the three words that are scary in Hollywood right now: original theatrical comedy. But the one word that is never scary is Keanu.
Speaking from the stage of the festival’s Roy Thomson Hall, Ansari recalled that his star Keanu Reeves broke his kneecap early in production.
“I found out he broke his kneecap and I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Ansari continued, Reeves himself standing onstage just a few feet away. “It was like, ‘Oh, my God, what is Keanu going to say? Is he going to need some time off? Is he going to drop out of the movie?’”
“And you know what Keanu said?” Ansari added. “Nothing. He just kept showing up to work and never complained, not once,” Ansari said. “He worked through what surely must have been excruciating pain and delivered a hilarious, touching performance, and he is the soul of this movie.”
The film opens with Reeves standing atop L.A.’s iconic Griffith Observatory with a small pair of angel wings on his back. Reeves, in a change of pace from his recent action work in the “John Wick” movies, plays Gabriel, a low-level angel given the task of stopping people from texting and driving. That is until he sees Arj (Ansari), who is struggling to make ends meet while working both at a big-box hardware store and as a food delivery driver.
Hoping to show him the grass isn’t always greener, Gabriel switches Arj’s life with that of Jeff (Seth Rogen), an ultrarich tech investor whose days seem to largely consist of going back and forth between his sauna and his cold plunge.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Arj much prefers Jeff’s life to his own and is reluctant to switch back. The situation becomes more complicated for Gabriel as he loses his job as an angel and must learn the tribulations and joys of being human, while still trying to fix the problem with Arj and Jeff.
For all the film’s gentle humor and quietly humanist spirit, “Good Fortune” is also rife with a palpable anger at the income inequality that motivates its story, the reality that robots are replacing the work of humans and that the excesses of the few seem predicated on the deprivation of many.
Aziz Ansari, left, and Keanu Reeves in the movie “Good Fortune.”
(Eddy Chen / Lionsgate)
The day after the film’s premiere, 42-year-old Ansari is upbeat and dapper in a gray plaid coat, black turtleneck and black slacks as he sat down for an interview in Toronto to discuss the movie and all that led up to it. After the end of his Emmy-winning series “Master of None” in 2021, Ansari had begun shooting a feature called “Being Mortal” that was shut down in 2022 a few weeks into production over allegations of misconduct by its star Bill Murray. Then production of “Good Fortune,” Ansari’s pivot away from “Being Mortal,” was delayed by the Hollywood labor strikes of 2023. Seemingly at long last, Ansari’s debut opens Oct. 17.
When “Being Mortal” got shut down, did you feel like, “Am I ever going to get to make a movie?”
I didn’t feel that way. Steven Spielberg has this story of — what’s the movie he did? “1941.” That didn’t do well and he was like, just immediately throw yourself in another thing. And I really thought about that, and that’s what I did. I just immediately went into “Good Fortune.” I mean, I had a couple of days where I was like,“Oh, no” and it was also so shocking. I think your mind doesn’t process it because it’s not really sinking in that this is what’s really happening. It probably still a piece of me [in which] it hasn’t really sunk in. It was definitely disappointing, but part of me is like, this is what needed to happen. This is the movie that should be out first.
“Being Mortal,” it’s funny, but it’s heavy. The Atul Gawande book, it’s about end-of-life issues. So it’s like, “Oh, OK. It’s another heavy drama thing.” People may have just gotten pissed, like, “What’s this guy doing?” So “Good Fortune” is definitely, to me, if you like those first two seasons of “Master of None,” I feel like what you’d hope I’d do is kind of evolve that style into a feature film and raise the level of it by having Seth and Keanu and Keke [Palmer] and Sandra [Oh], and as a feature film rather than a show.
As sweet and funny as the movie is, there also is a real righteous anger behind it. Where does that come from?
I think I got it from when I was interviewing all these people about the subject matter in the film, when I was doing research to write the Arj character. That attitude seeps in there.
“It was definitely disappointing, but part of me is like, this is what needed to happen,” Ansari says of “Being Mortal,” his first attempt at directing a feature, one that ran into production troubles with its star, Bill Murray,
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
During the opening credits of the movie, you say the line“The American Dream is dead.”
But that’s a frustration a lot of people like that guy Arj feel.
But then, you are a very successful entertainer —
Oh, yeah. Me and Seth are Jeff, no question.
How do you reconcile that? Are you concerned some people might dismiss the movie out of hand for that simple reason?
If you’re writing, you have to be able to write outside your own experience — for someone who’s like Arj, who doesn’t have the platform to tell these stories. When I did “Master of None,” we did an episode called “New York, I Love You.” And there was a segment about taxi drivers, a segment about a doorman and a segment about a woman who’s deaf. And doing that episode taught me a process of interviewing people and figuring out how to get these stories right when they’re not your experience. We did an episode in Season 3 about a woman going through IVF. I’d never done that or anything, and it had never been a part of my life. But I talked to all these people, and from the feedback I got, we got it right. And that’s what I did with this.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but for a movie coming out from a Hollywood studio, Seth gives a speech at the end that is politically radical, about how rich people can’t expect to have so much without others getting angry.
It’s kind of nuts. Some of the stuff that’s in there, I’m like, “Whoa, we really got away with something here.” Some of the stuff that’s in there, and the trailer kind of hides a little bit of that stuff, I think there are people that’d be like, “Oh, s—.”
At the premiere, there was big applause for the line, “F— AI.” Is that your feeling as well?
I’d rather say that I’m pro-human. I’m pro-people.
Keanu Reeves, left, Seth Rogen and Aziz Ansari in the movie “Good Fortune.”
(Eddy Chen / Lionsgate)
The movie is very ambitious in combining the character stories and the attention to the notion of income inequality. Was it hard for you in balancing the characters and that theme? Was the work of that more when you were writing it or when you were editing what you’d shot?
It was both. And that’s the difference between a TV show and a movie. You have a different canvas. But it was a tough thing to do. And it was my first time doing it. I remember writing a second one while I was editing, and it was such a great help because you kind of see a few moves ahead. You’re like, “Oh, wait a second, I should get to this faster.” You kind of can see your mistakes a little bit in an earlier stage because you have more experience. This is another reason I really want to get into it again and start working on the next thing because I feel like I learned a lot from it.
That’s the thing that’s so interesting about doing stand-up and doing filmmaking. Stand-up, it’s so easy to “get to the gym,” right? If I really wanted to go to do stand-up tonight, I could do it. I could go find a club in Toronto and jump on a show. But If I wanted to go direct, that’s a big journey to get to the gym. So you have fewer opportunities to kind of get the reps in.
Shooting a movie is in L.A. has become such an economic and political issue for the city. Was that a consideration in making the movie in Los Angeles?
I wanted it to be in L.A., I felt like this movie had to be set in L.A. Jeff’s not going to be living in whatever place that gives you the tax credit. And L.A. really is the perfect backdrop for the story to me. And it was challenging, but you also get the benefit of working with some of the greatest technicians in the world in L.A. And I also just love being a part of the lineage of films that are set in L.A. I watched that documentary, “Los Angeles Plays itself,” and that was so fun to watch that and just see how every movie has its own L.A., whether it’s “Heat” or “Tangerine” or “Chinatown.”
And I feel like “Good Fortune” has its L.A., and it’s exciting to show some of these neighborhoods, to see people responding to seeing Eagle Rock or Los Feliz. Whenever I was writing the movie, I always thought about that taco place in Hollywood — it’s across the street from Jitlada. I always thought about that place. I thought there was something so cinematic, and it was a hard location to clear. And our guy [location manager] Jay Traynor, he made it happen. And finding Jeff’s house was so hard. But it all came together, and I loved showing Koreatown and that Gabriel works at a Korean barbecue restaurant. Just showing all these parts of L.A.
I want to be sure to ask you about working with Keanu. People are really responding to this role. And I’m having a hard time putting my finger on what that is about.
No, I’m feeling this. Even since [the premiere], I’m feeling it. I knew people would like him, but it’s hitting on another level.
Why do you think that is? What is the alchemy of Keanu in that role?
I was thinking about this when I was eating lunch. If you look at the roles he’s done that are comedic, whether it’s in “Bill & Ted” or in “Parenthood,” there’s this innocence, this sweetness and this kindness that’s in there. And then Gabriel, to me, is the progression of that. And it’s also that you have Keanu at 61, where when I first met him, I was like, “Hey, there’s something about you that people are responding to and who you are as a real person that I don’t think I’ve seen onscreen. And I think you can show some of that with Gabriel.”
It also has all of his comedy superpowers just dialed to the max. And we were just having so much fun. It just became playtime. We were coming up with bits all the time: Oh, he’s never used the internet before. Let’s just write a quick scene where he’s using the internet for the first time. What’s he gonna do? He’s gonna look at photos of baby elephants. It became such a fun joke bag. You could just make him do anything. And it was funny, the guy’s never done anything — if he takes a bite of a taco goes, “Wow!” It’s really the funniest character I’ve ever written for.
England are playing more directly whilst empowering their exciting wingers to showcase their quality, but Tuchel isn’t forgetting to use pragmatic solutions, notably in the form of long throws.
After a recent press conference, he stated “the long throw-in is back”. This is a fair conclusion considering the opening weekend of Premier League football saw an average of 3.2 long throws per game, up from 1.52 the season before.
When facing teams that stubbornly deeply defend their own box, the first goal is paramount in forcing teams to come out, opening up space to attack.
The use of throw-in situations as set-pieces give teams an additional chance to initially break that deadlock and require the appropriate attention.
Clever free-kicks and corner routines are key too, and it is clear Tuchel and his backroom staff have made this central to their system.
The opening goal against Serbia completely changed the direction of the game and from a well-worked corner.
Serbia set up to defend the corner in a zonal fashion, staying in specific zones.
Following Rice’s out-swinging cross, Serbia’s defenders were drawn to the ball but the positioning of England’s players in front of the Serbians meant they could stand in the way, blocking them from getting to the ball. Kane lingered deeper and was able to score, uncontested.
It was calculated, deliberate and effective with England trying the same routine earlier in the game prior to the goal.
Good Morning Britain’s Ranvir Singh shared an important news update during the latest episode of the ITV breaking show alongside hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls
07:23, 08 Sep 2025Updated 07:23, 08 Sep 2025
Good Morning Britain host shares ‘chilling’ news update as fans say same thing
Good Morning Britain star Ranvir Singh shared a “chilling” news update on Monday (September 8) as fans said the same thing.
During today’s edition of the hit ITV programme, hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls updated viewers on the latest news across the UK and around the world.
Ranvir delivered the rest of the day’s news, while Laura Tobin presented regular weather updates.
Later in the show, Ranvir revealed that an Australian woman convicted of murdering three elderly relatives of her estranged husband with poisonous death cap mushrooms has been sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 33 years.
However, the show’s viewers were left confused, with one person writing on X (formerly Twitter): “Might be big in Australian news, but why report it here?”
Another said: ” GMB……. An Australian woman get life for murder in Australia? UK headline news.”
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While tariffs and other obstacles remain for Detroit autos, there is a little bit of good news from August on EV sales.
All eyes were on the automotive industry, and more specifically the electric vehicle (EV) sector, for August. That’s because consumers who were on the fence about making an EV purchase within the next few months rushed ahead to buy before the $7,500 federal tax credit disappears at the end of September.
Once the tax credit disappears, the industry is expected to slow down for some time, so Ford Motor Company(F 0.51%) and General Motors(GM 0.42%) needed to deliver.
Momentum continues
Ford had some momentum as August was the automaker’s sixth consecutive month of sales gains in the U.S., driven by popular SUVs and a spike in EVs due to the pull-forward of demand before the tax credit’s demise.
The automaker reported a 3.9% gain in sales during August to 190,206 vehicles, compared to the prior year. Although it was the sixth consecutive month of gains, August was a slowdown compared to the prior months. Through the first eight months of the year, Ford sold 1.5 million vehicles, 6.6% more than the previous year.
On the flip side, sales of Ford’s EVs were almost the opposite: They spiked 19% during August to a total of 10,671, but year to date, the company’s EV sales are down 5.7% to 57,888 vehicles.
August’s spike was driven not only by the surge in demand from consumers beating the end of the tax credit, but also by the Mustang Mach-E’s 35% sales gain and the F-150 Lightning’s 21% gain, compared to the prior year.
Ford’s F-150 Lightning. Image source: Ford Motor Company.
With U.S. EV sales likely to set an all-time monthly record once August data is complete, it set the stage for General Motors to also perform well — and it did.
Duncan Aldred, GM’s president for North America, said in a press release: “August was our best month ever for EV sales — and we expect that buying surge to pay long-term dividends, given our industry-leading manufacturer loyalty, and EV customers’ overwhelming commitment to the technology. I’m grateful to our team and our dealers for helping us outperform nearly every EV competitor.”
General Motors sold more than 21,000 EVs combined from its Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC brands and remains the No. 2 seller in the U.S., thanks in big part to the Chevy Equinox EV, Cadillac Lyriq, and GMC Sierra EV.
What’s next?
September is going to be another strong month for EV sales, but then the big looming question is: What happens after the tax credit disappears? There’s likely to be a whipsaw effect where the industry sees an equally strong lull in demand during the fourth quarter, and it’s likely to take several months to normalize.
The key to September, as well as the third quarter entirely, will be which competitors were able to move EVs without substantial discounts. But discounts are a part of the automotive industry, and expect automakers to dish them out to move as much product as possible before the tax credit expires, since no automaker wants to find itself with bloated inventory on Oct. 1.
Investors have to remember that while EVs represent a small percentage of sales for traditional automakers, it’s a huge deal for their bottom line. Consider that Ford’s Model-e division, responsible for its EVs, lost roughly $5 billion in 2024. The faster the automakers scale up this business segment and turn it profitable, the faster investors see upside in their earning power.
On the bright side, Ford and GM needed to deliver a strong month for EV sales, and it was just a little good news that they both executed.
Daniel Miller has positions in Ford Motor Company and General Motors. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Allan: I am once again proved wrong. Asking why Ryan Christie is playing, then he puts in a man of the match performance. Scotland battled hard and deserved a point after a shaky start where they continually failed to keep the ball. Eventually, Scotland grew into the game and could have sneaked it. The last 15 minutes it was all hands to the pump in defence and holding out for the point.
G A Simpson: Same old conservative approach from Clarke. Dykes and Adams up front might seem adventurous, but there is no pace there. Dykes and Doak would have exposed the Danes to more risk and may have created more clear cut chances, given the fact that they seemed jittery at the back. Nevertheless a good defensive performance. A decent point taken.
Keith: Good point to start us off. Yes we didn’t play exciting attacking football but we played to our strengths against a top ranked team. Big difference with Hickey and Dykes in the team. Everyone played their part, just need three points against Belarus to make it an acceptable double header.
Martin: Seems to be with some folks that Clarke can’t do right, I for one was expecting a thrashing tonight but proved wrong, decent performance, good result.
Stuart: Same old stagnant line-up with a plethora of exciting and in form players on the bench that did not get a sniff, personally I am left frustrated with a point because I think with a fresh perspective we could have won that tonight. Although, credit is due to the back line tonight, they were solid.
A survey conducted by consumer group Which? placed Manchester’s Terminal 3 at the bottom of the list for the fourth consecutive year, with a customer satisfaction score of just 43%
The survey highlights the UK’s least favourite airport (Image: Getty Images)
Travellers have delivered their verdict on the UK’s airports – and Manchester has been branded the worst to fly from.
A survey conducted by consumer group Which? placed Manchester’s Terminal 3 at the bottom of the list for the fourth consecutive year, with a customer satisfaction score of just 43%. The terminal received a dismal one-star rating out of a possible five for measures such as security queues, seating, and the pricing in shops and food outlets.
One frustrated Terminal 3 passenger fumed: “It’s impossible to get a drink or something to eat, but much worse than that – there is nowhere to sit.” Manchester’s other two terminals didn’t fare much better in the survey. Terminal 1, which is set to close later this year, was ranked second-worst.
Another traveller said: “The cleanliness in Terminal 1 is appalling. Toilets are often overflowing, and there’s rubbish everywhere.”
Terminal 2 at Manchester could only muster fourth from bottom, with a customer satisfaction score of 53%, although there was at least some positive feedback. One traveller commended its “good facilities prior to long-haul flight and helpful staff at baggage check-in”.
At the other end of the scale, Exeter Airport topped the list with an overall customer satisfaction score of 80%.
However, Exeter serves around 500,000 passengers annually, compared to 29 million at Manchester or 84 million at Heathrow.
Close behind, with a score of 78%, was Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which now caters to five million passengers each year. Passengers lauded its swift, efficient process and friendly staff.
You can search for your closest airport and check the ratings using our interactive gadget.
Chris Woodroofe, Manchester Airport’s managing director, has hit back at the Which? survey and criticism the airport has received. He said: “Through our historic £1.3 billion transformation programme, we have created a world-class and award-winning Terminal 2. We have also announced plans to invest significantly in Terminal 3 – starting this year.
“I am also proud to say customer satisfaction has increased significantly over the past four years. We know how customers feel about their experience because we asked hundreds of them every week about it. Between January and June this year, 91% of 3,045 people surveyed told us their experience was good, very good, or excellent.
“That is how I know this latest outdated and unrepresentative report from Which? bears no resemblance to the experience people receive at Manchester Airport day in, day out.”
A Gatwick spokesperson added: “In the first half of 2025, passengers received great service, as the airport significantly improved its on-time performance, following excellent collaboration with airline partners and National Air Traffic Services.”
A statement from Heathrow read: “Which? has relied on unrepresentatively small sample sizes and recollections to assess an industry that already collects vast amounts of data on a daily basis, all verified and published by an independent regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority.”
While London Luton Airport’s spokesperson said: “Whilst we value all feedback, a sample size of just 255 Which? readers is simply not representative of the 16.7 million passengers who travelled with us in 2024.”
London Stansted’s spokesperson said it was “proud to have welcomed a record-breaking 30m passengers to the airport in the last year, driven by the great value and reliable service on offer, and convenient access to over 200 destinations across Europe and beyond.”
eBay is rolling out a new authenticity guarantee programme
The programme helps verify second hand designer and branded goods, making sure they are real and match the description.
eBay currently offers the service for pricey goods like luxurywatches, handbags, trainers, and jewellery.
But it is now rolling out the service for luxury clothing, shoes and accessories.
When an item from one of these categories is sold, it is sent to eBay’s UK authentication centre, where specialist check it out.
If the item passes, it’s sent on to the buyer with a tracked delivery and a unique QR-enabled authentication card.
This is a free service, with no extra fees.
The service is automatically carried out when a buyer purchases an item from any of the categories listed above.
Products must also be over a certain price point for the service to be carried out.
You can check out the requirements below:
Trainers from select brands listed at £100+
Watches from select brandspriced at £1,500+
Handbags and accessories from select luxury brands
Jewellery from select brandspriced at £500+
Clothing shoes and accessories from select brands priced at £200+
Kirsty Keoghan, GM European Fashion, eBay, said expanding the programme gives shoppers “confidence”.
She said: “Expanding Authenticity Guarantee to clothing gives people the confidence to buy the styles they love, from staples to statement pieces, knowing every item has been verified by experts.
“With whole-look authentication now possible, our goal is to make pre-loved fashion a natural first choice.”
The shakeup comes just days after the major selling platform said it would pay users more quickly.
Some sellers can now be paid within 24 hours, up from the previous two-day wait.
How does eBay authenticity guarantee programme work?
If you buy a designer item such as a handbag the seller sends your item to an eBay authenticator.
It then undergoes an inspection from packaging to accessories, and against the listing description.
Once verified, your item receives a QR code-enabled card or tag containing detailed information and it’s sent to you via fast, tracked and secure delivery.
Vinted offers a similar service, but it is optional and you have to pay £10.
The items must cost more than £85 and it only applies to certain brands across clothing, bags, accessories, jewellery and shoes.
After the item is verified it is sent to the buyer within one to two business days.
Top tips for selling on eBay
NEW to eBay? It’s head of secondhand, Emma Grant, reveals how to optimise your listings:
Use key words – eBay automatically filters listing titles for key words, so it’s crucial to use the terminology people search for – especially brand and product names.
Choose the right category for your product – It might sound obvious but it’s important to always choose the most specific category to sell in.
Pictures are important – Most users will not bid on items they cannot see. For best results, take photos in natural light against a neutral background and be honest about any scratches or damage to the item.
Be as detailed as possible – Be honest about the condition of the product and be sure to note any wear and tear.
Look at past sold items– eBay has a function that allows you to search for the item you want to sell and then filter the results by sold items. Here, you can view the price the item has sold for and get insight into how others have listed it.
Selling Sundays – Get the timing right. The busiest time for buyers is Sunday evenings, so schedule your listings to end around that time. Opt for seven-day auctions to ensure the max number of bids. The longer your item is listed, the more chance of people seeing it, so unless it’s time-sensitive, pick seven days. December is the busiest month on eBay.
Be realistic with pricing – Try searching for similar items on eBay, to make sure you’re going for the right price and always ask yourself “would I pay this price for this item?”
Donate to charity – When listing your item, consider donating a percentage of the sale to a cause of your choice – from 10% to 100% – you can donate the funds raised from your item straight from the platform.
In “NCIS: Tony & Ziva,” premiering Thursday on Paramount+, two popular characters from the CBS military procedural “NCIS,” have been brought back after several years and given a series of their own. Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo, as special agents Anthony “Tony” DiNozzo and Ziva David, so occupied the romantic fantasies of viewers that their names were portmanteaued into “Tiva.” (You can find thousands of instances of Tiva-themed fan fiction online.) As to the will-they, won’t-they of the relationship, they finally did, before they didn’t, and now they have a 12-year-old daughter, Tali (Isla Gie), whom they’re amicably co-parenting.
I have looked in on the franchise now and again, professionally, as new iterations have extended the length and breadth of the brand, which technically reaches back into “JAG,” from which it was spun off. But I’m not even going to attempt to pretend to have any real expertise in the adventures of a large rotating cast over 22 seasons. (It’s been renewed for a 23rd.) But I respect the institution — the original of which has been and may be now America’s most watched series — and its longevity, as I will salute your long marriage.
At the same time, once you know the basic premise of the show — it’s an elite military police procedural — it’s not hard to figure out where you are, wherever you drop in. The characters may be heroic or eccentric, but they’re heroic or eccentric within a recognized mold, with enough individual personality to make them lovable over a long run, and you can pick up on the interpersonal vibes pretty quickly.
Unlike earlier “NCIS” series, all based on broadcast television, “Tony & Ziva” is platformed on Paramount+, which means that characters utter a bad word now and again — it doesn’t get much edgier than that, and despite the sexual heat it’s hardly racy — and that there’s a budget which allows for foreign locations and big action scenes. And where the earlier shows, notwithstanding soap operatic long arcs, are fundamentally episodic, “Tony & Ziva” is a serial story, stretched over 10 episodes. Whether it’s stretched to breaking, we’ll have to wait and see; only four episodes out of 10 were offered for review.
The crime-fighting combo of a roguish guy and a no-nonsense gal is familiar from “Moonlighting” and “Castle.” Even the fact that the title joins Tony and Ziva with an ampersand and not an “and” indicates a certain lightness of tone, and when Tony, speaking of his company, says, “We try to walk that fine line between techno thriller and workplace comedy,” he is, of course, describing the very series he’s in. A strain of comedy is common to team-based procedurals, and it’s certainly part of what’s kept “NCIS” going strong all these years.
Given that the American brand hasn’t been as toxic, internationally and domestically, since the Vietnam era, possibly, and that “NCIS” series show around the world, it’s just as well that the presumed villains are (apparently) not the anti-American, freedom-hating terrorists one often finds in these things, but Bond-type stateless actors merely seeking power and money.
Additionally, the series — whose earlier iterations have been based in Washington, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Hawaii, Sydney and, in last year’s prequel, “NCIS: Origins,” exotic Oceanside, Calif. — is set in Paris, where, having gone civilian, Ziva has opened a fancy language school and Tony runs a high-end security service. (Among his clients: Interpol. You can’t get more European than that.) Along with easy access to croissants and café au lait, our heroes have the benefit of not having to wax patriotic about a country in which they no longer live. It feels very 2025.
The series’ MacGuffin is a magical thumb drive that, when plugged into a computer system, can seemingly do anything at all; possessing it, therefore, is an issue for both the good guys and the bad, into whose respective hands it goes in and out. When villains use it to frame Tony for extorting money from a hospital and threaten Tali’s life, Tony and Ziva are dragged back into a life of running, shooting, reckless driving and fisticuffs. “Two words,” says Tony, observing Ziva take apart a thug endangering her daughter. “Jewish mother.”
Most important, it puts the pair on the run together — the opening episodes find them (ostensibly and/or actually) in France, Italy, Switzerland and Hungary — and into constant close quarters, where old tender feelings simmer and the question of sharing a bed arises, as in “The 39 Steps,” the greatest of all innocent-and-on-the-run romances.
Ziva, whose pre-NCIS employment was as an assassin for the Israeli secret service — perhaps not the best job for a TV heroine to have on her resume nowadays, but it’s not an issue here — has hung on to an arsenal and plural safe houses. (“Have I ever told you how deeply I appreciate your paranoia?” Tony tells her.) And they’ve both kept their old NCIS badges, which they will flash to dazzle security guards and the like.
Along the way they pick up Boris (Maximilian Osinski), a non-aligned Russian hacker who made the MacGuffin in the first place, and his chirpy fiancee Fruzsi (Anne-Marie Waldeck), who provide both comedy and the image of a healthy, all-in romantic relationship to contrast with that of our hesitating heroes. Filling out the ranks are Tali’s capable nanny, Sophie (Lara Rossi), and Tony’s resident tech whiz, Claudette (Amita Suman), because you apparently can’t plot a thriller anymore without computers at the center of things. By virtue of being Tony’s friend and Tali’s godfather, Interpol exec Henry (James D’Arcy) is the sort of character you expect to turn out to be bad, though it’s up in the air. I’ll say no more about Martine (Nassima Benchicou), other than that Benchicou is very good at being very bad.
Created by John McNamara (“The Magicians”), not previously part of the “NCIS” world, “Tony & Ziva” can be quite absurd, depending heavily on suspensions of disbelief, or a viewer just not thinking too hard. This does not set it apart from a great many such screenplays, and the series does not shy away from genre tropes — the car chase through a marketplace, a fight with a seemingly unbeatable big bald bruiser. Indeed, it embraces them.
But what makes the show worth watching are Weatherly and De Pablo, two extremely attractive middle-aged people with genuine chemistry; he’s superheroically unflappable without ever seeming anything but a regular Joe. She’s sad and serious and not to be messed with. They’ve been around; they have worn edges, and when they intersect, it generates something authentically sweet, as real as the rest of the series is improbable. There’s a reason for all that fan fiction.
The discrepancy in his strong crosses-stopped numbers and what is seen when watching him at corners is made clearer knowing he conceded eight goals from 85 corners faced last season, according to Opta.
Conceding 9% of all corners faced, when compared to all Premier League keepers who faced more than 20 corners last season, places 15 keepers as having a better percentage and 12 as having worse.
Interestingly, Aston Villa’s Martinez ranked second best, only conceding two goals from corners having faced 60. Lammens’ 9%, however, is a big improvement on United’s first-choice keeper last season, Andre Onana, who conceded 17.2%.
It is key to note these numbers are influenced by the quality of the league, opposition faced, and the defending team’s ability to defend corners. United’s team-wide defending of corners has been questionable at times and the Premier League’s physicality, inventive corner routines and use of individuals to apply physical contact on keepers, may cause Lammens’ numbers to become slightly worse as he learns to adapt to the league.
His confidence, aggression and height do give him useful raw tools to improve in these situations if coached around when to come and how to position himself.
So, more resource for Townsend but also, it would appear, more pressure to deliver, albeit his chief executive, Alex Williamson, would not talk about specific targets.
“We’re not putting wins and losses as a hard target,” he said. “I just think that you collapse in on yourself on that basis.
“We are really focused on having the best coaches with what we think is a really talented group of players with more coming through our pathway and that we expect to land us in the very best place for the World Cup and, before that, the Six Nations.”
Williamson, was asked the same question about Scotland continuing to finish in and around fourth in the Six Nations and whether that was acceptable.
“No, I don’t think that would be true of any part of any organisation regardless of whether it’s high performance or not because the moment you become satisfied with where you are, you are immediately going backwards at a rate of knots,” he said.
“We are extremely ambitious, we’re investing at a level in our high performance environment that Scottish Rugby has never invested before. I want to be the leading union in world rugby and this is the first articulation, I guess, of our intent.”
So, no pressure, then. Townsend will be given more support on physio and rehabilitation, nutrition and other areas. These are the pillars of the new initiatives announced by Nucifora and Williamson.
“I would say that Gregor has been hamstrung slightly by the way that our structure has been set up,” said Williamson. “We’re changing that now so going forward he’ll have a full-time high-performance environment that’s dedicated to him.
“For the first time the men’s national team will have dedicated strength and conditioning physios, nutritionists, coaching resources (that are not shared by other teams in the organisation),” said Williamson.
“Immediately, he’s getting an uplift of, let’s say, 40% in terms of actual available time from individuals and that’s a huge boon for him.
“And then beyond that we have a pathway which is being designed to bring players through not only quicker but also with all of those specialist skills already embedded.
“I certainly think that they’ve got all of the substance they need to be the very best version of the Scottish national team both men and ultimately for the women as well. We’re giving ourselves the very best opportunity to be successful.”
Scotland will play four games in the autumn against the USA, New Zealand, Argentina and Tonga. Their Six Nation campaign begins in Rome before the Calcutta Cup takes place in Edinburgh a week later. That will be Townsend’s 100th Test as Scotland coach.
Wales away, France at home and Ireland away complete the campaign, Townsend’s penultimate Six Nations. His best-place finish is third, which he achieved in 2023 and 2018. Scotland have finished fourth on five occasions on his watch.
Is that good enough? Is it more of the same? In investing so much time and money in trying to get Scotland moving forward on all fronts, a title challenge worthy of the name is surely the target now.
Townsend should enjoy the challenge, but the heat has been turned up a little, on him and on everybody around him.
M&S has introduced a major shakeup to is store shelves which is exciting news for shoppers.
This is ideal for anyone wanting to try out some different lunch options during their weeks.
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These new food items have just arrived on supermarket store shelvesCredit: Marks & Spencer
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The chicken tikka sandwich is back by popular demandCredit: Marks & Spencer
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There is also a limited edition butter chicken wrapCredit: Marks & Spencer
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Two new bagels have been introduced including a New York deli-style oneCredit: Marks & Spencer
There are new sandwiches, wraps and bagels from the major retailer’s Foodhalls which are available now.
It is an entirely new section to the Marks and Spencer food aisle for people to try.
The shelves have been labelled NEW in the fridge section of grocery stores, with ‘PICK ME! I’ve just arrived’ signs attached.
Among the top picks for this month from the new selection includes a Chicken Tikka Sandwich which is “back by popular demand”.
This sandwich is described to have “creamy” spiced and marinated roast chicken breast inside some “soft malted” onion seed bread.
There is also spinach, tikka sauce and a “cooling” yoghurt raita, so the sandwich is “generously filled and packed with flavour”.
It is priced at £4 from the popular grocer, and is a limited edition.
Another addition is a similar seeded tortilla wrap version, which is a Butter Chicken Wrap that has been added to the new collection.
It is a “summer edit” of the retailer’s food hall that “combines succulent British chicken breast with a luxuriously creamy butter chicken sauce accompanied by crispy spinach, tangy pickled red onion and crunchy cabbage.”
Clemmie Moodie tries the new Arctic Colin the Caterpillar
The American deli-inspired one has been called the “Ruben bagel” which has layers of beef pastrami, pickles, mustard and cream cheese.
Finally, there is the “Katsu Sando” which is going for £5 from M&S.
The Katsu Sando is also part of the “summer edit” described to have panko breaded chicken, katsu curry spiced mayo, pickled cabbage and coriander inside.
As M&S have stated: “The Katsu Sando makes a mouthwatering lunch that’s sweet, spicy and satisfying.”
There is also a honey soy ketchup sauce added to the sandwiches flavour, that is contained within some soft brioche-style bread.
These latest “lunch sensations” can be found at M&S Foodhalls now, and are just some of the store’s top picks for the month.
The news of this updated lunch range from M&S comes after the popular retailer also released a new version of its iconic Colin the Caterpillar Cake.
To mark the much-loved dessert’s 35th birthday, The Sun’s Clemmie Moodie got to have an exclusive first try of the new Arctic Colin.
Arctic Colin went on sale at M&S stores just last week, after two years in the making.
HISTORY OF M&S
M&S was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in Leeds.
The first official Marks and Spencer store opened in Manchester in 1901.
Throughout the 1920s, M&SA gre rapidly, opening more and more stores across the country.
The retailer made its reputation in the early 20th century by selling only British-made products.
It began textile sales in 1926 and started selling food from 1931.
The St Michael trademark was introduced in 1928 as a guarantee of quality and value.
This was initially used only for a small range of textiles but was extended over the years to cover all goods sold by M&S.
M&S introduced its first in-store cafe in 1935 in the Leeds store.
It provided cheap, hygienic, and nutritious mass catering.
By 1942, M&S opened 82 cafes across its estate.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, M&S had 234 stores.
By 1945, over 100 of these had been damaged by bombs, and 16 had been completely destroyed.
BY 1960, M&S pioneered in the sale of fresh poultry following the invention of the cold-chain process.
In the 1970s and 1980s, M&S pushed into international markets including the US, Canada and France.
In 1979, M&S introduced the Chicken Kiev to its food halls across the UK.
In 1992, Percy Pigs were launched.
The Autograph range of clothing was introduced in 2000, and the St Michael brand was slowly phased out.
In 2019, the group announced 110 store closures as part of its plans, affecting several longstanding high-street shops.
In September 2020, M&S partnered with Ocado to allow for home delivery of the chain’s full food range.
M&S has recently announced new stores and is freshening up a swathe of others in a boost for shoppers.
If your Medicare coverage is a letdown, you should soon have an opportunity to make changes.
One of the biggest expenses you might face in retirement is healthcare. And it’s an expense that you may only be able to do so much to reduce.
If you’re tired of paying huge property taxes and spending a lot to maintain a larger home, you can always downsize. If you don’t want to bear the expense of a car, you could move to an area that’s walkable.
Image source: Getty Images.
But if you need to take certain medications to protect your health, you may not get much of a say in the matter. And if you have a medical condition that involves follow-up appointments, skipping them to save on the costs may not be an option (or at least not a wise one).
That’s why it’s so important to make sure you’ve chosen a suitable Medicare plan. The right plan could lead to big savings on health-related costs, not to mention make it easier to get the care you need.
Why you may be unhappy with your Medicare coverage
There are plenty of reasons why you may be less than pleased with your Medicare plan choice. If you have Medicare Advantage, you may be frustrated by:
Limited provider networks, making it harder to see the doctors you prefer
Prior authorization, which could delay your care
High rates of denial, which could be stressful and lead to sub-optimal care
Hefty out-of-pocket costs, which you could face even if your plan itself comes with a low or even $0 premium
Meanwhile, if you have Medicare Part D, you may be unhappy due to:
High out-of-pocket costs for the specific medications you take
Difficulty understanding your plan’s formulary and rules
All of these are valid reasons for wanting to ditch your Medicare plan. And soon enough, you may get that opportunity.
Relief is in sight
Though you may be stuck with your Medicare plan for the time being, soon enough, you should have an opportunity to make a change for the new year. Medicare’s fall open enrollment period is set to begin next month — specifically, on Oct. 15. Between then and Dec. 7, you’ll be able to make changes to your Medicare coverage.
During open enrollment, you can:
Switch from your current Medicare Part D drug plan to another
Switch from your current Medicare Advantage plan to another
Sign up for Medicare Advantage for the first time
Dump Medicare Advantage and switch over to original Medicare (and get a Part D drug plan to go with it)
It pays to explore your plan choices during open enrollment. But ahead of that, make a list of the issues you have with your current Medicare plan so you can make sure any new plan you get does a good job of addressing them. If high medication copays are a problem, for example, then you’ll want to find a Part D plan that treats the drugs you take more favorably.
One thing you don’t want to do, though, is rush through open enrollment if you’re dissatisfied with your current Medicare plan. Mark Oct. 15 on your calendar so you can begin pursuing other options as soon as possible and have ample time to analyze them.
Good Morning Britain hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls returned to the show after their summer break on Monday
Good Morning Britain fans say same thing as Susanna Reid unveils new look after break
Good Morning Britain fans said the same thing as Susanna Reid unveiled a new look after her summer break.
During Monday’s (September 1) edition of the hit ITV programme, Susanna and her co-host Ed Balls made their return as they presented the latest news from across the UK and around the world.
They were joined in the studio by Alex Beresford, who delivered regular weather forecasts, while Ranvir Singh took charge of the rest of the day’s news.
The show’s viewers quickly took to social media to share their delight at Susanna’s return, with many noticing her glam new hair transformation. The 54-year-old has notably dyed her hair a lighter colour, a far cry from her signature brunette locks.
Susanna Reid has debuted a new hairstyle(Image: ITV)
“Hello, September new month new hairstyle. Nice to see you back,” one person wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
Another added: “I’m glad you’re back, it’s not been the same show without you. I hope you had a great summer,” while a third said: “Susanna looking fresh faced and lovely after her well earned summer break.”
This is a breaking showbiz story and is being constantly updated. Please refresh the page regularly to get the latest news, pictures and videos.
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A Good Morning Britain news presenter has announced his departure from the ITV show, as he lands a new role at GB News – which he’s ‘thrilled’ to start in September
21:10, 29 Aug 2025Updated 21:16, 29 Aug 2025
A Good Morning Britain star has revealed he’s leaving the show amid ITV’s ongoing cutbacks. News reporter Will Godley has been a crucial part of the news team on the morning show for the last four years, delivering news updates from across the country. However, on Friday, Will revealed his time on ITV would be coming to an end – as he lands a new role on GB News.
Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, to announce the news, Will announced: “JOB NEWS. Thrilled to be starting as a National Reporter at @GBNEWS in September!
“That means I’m sadly saying goodbye to @GMB after 4 wonderful years. A huge thanks to the brilliant team, who even made the nightshifts amazing. Really excited to get stuck in at GB News!”
The ITV news reporter will be moving over to GB News(Image: X/@willgodley)
From January 2026, ITV daytime will undergo huge schedule changes. Good Morning Britain will be extended by 30 minutes to run from 6am to 9.30am daily. However, programme Lorraine, which airs straight after, has been cut in half and will run for just thirty minutes from 9.30, rather than an hour.
Not only that, but the show will only run for 30 weeks a year, with Good Morning Britain running until 10am on the weeks it’s off air.
This Morning will stay in its usual slot of 10am-12.30pm slot on weekdays throughout the year, with Loose Women staying in the 12.30-1.30pm slot. However, like Lorraine, the panel show will also only air for 30 weeks of the year.
It comes after Noel Phillips was axed from the ITV show (Image: noel_philly/Instagram)
News of Will’s departure comes just months after it was revealed US correspondent Noel Phillips had been axed from the show.
It emerged via Deadline that he has been dropped from his position on the programme as ITV attempts to shave £15 million from its budget. The journalist joined the show in 2021 as a US correspondent, covering a number of huge events, including the US elections and LA wildfires.
“I’m still in disbelief,” he told the hosts. “I remember two weeks ago I was lying on the kitchen floor numb, refusing to accept the fact I did something so stupid.
“I felt embarrassed, I felt ashamed, I felt worthless. On top of that, the excruciating pain of all of this is the mental trauma.”
“How could someone like me who reports stories like this fall a victim? How could this happen to me?”, Noel was left questioning.
How does it feel to get played by Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce? Turns out the couple didn’t get engaged this week after all, according to Swift’s FFIL — future father-in-law — Ed Kelce.
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end actually popped the question “not quite two weeks ago,” his dad told News 5 Cleveland on Tuesday.
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“He was going to put it off till this week. I think she was getting maybe a little antsy, but he was going to put her off till this week, to, you know, make some grand thing, to make it a big special event,” Ed Kelce said. “And I told him repeatedly, you know, you could do it on the side of the road, do it any place that makes it a special event … when you get down on one knee and ask her to marry you.”
Apparently it happened at Travis Kelce’s home in Lee’s Summit, Mo., Ed Kelce said, before the two headed out for dinner. Before they left, Travis told Taylor, “‘Let’s go out and have a glass of wine.’ … They got out there, and that’s when he asked her, and it was beautiful.” No word on whether they made it to a restaurant after all that.
Interesting that Ed Kelce described the proposal as beautiful, given that he wasn’t actually there to see it — he said he was taking in a Philadelphia Eagles preseason football practice that was open to the public. His younger son called him on FaceTime to share the news while he was watching the team that his older son Jason Kelce played with for years.
“I don’t know how much I’m supposed to say, but I don’t care!” Ed Kelce said with a happy shrug.
Travis Kelce, on the other hand, knew exactly how much tea he could spill in public without his future wife’s OK: nada. The KC Chief told his dad the announcement would happen “whenever Taylor says so.” Of course, Swift and her beau announced Tuesday, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.”
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift announced their engagement Tuesday.
(Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
(KillaTrav seemed equally “Excited to finally share what we’ve been cookin’ up!!” on Wednesday when he launched his new AE x Tru Kolors clothing collaboration on social media. For those who are interested, the collection looks like a preppy, a jock and a member of the “Duck Dynasty” cast got together and brainstormed. In other words, kinda like something Travis Kelce would wear to the stadium on game day.)
Meanwhile, the rest of the Kelce clan is just delighted, delighted, delighted by recent events, because, according to a People source, Swift is still the bomb.
“She goes out of her way to show the whole family how much she cares for not just Travis, but all of them, down to Jason’s kids,” the source said Tuesday. That entails “sweet, thoughtful gifts,” flowers and baked goods for everyone.
“Taylor gets along so well with the family and they’re just her biggest fan,” said the source, who apparently is “close to the newly engaged couple” and whose first name might be Brittany or Kylie — just a guess, of course, on that last part.
BBC Breakfast’s Luxmy Gopal were left shocked after their co-host shared some statistics on eating in bed
BBC Breakfast: Hosts chat about places to eat dinner at home
Luxmy Gopal told her co-star, “That’s not good,” after he announced some surprising news on Monday’s BBC Breakfast.
During one segment, Ben revealed the latest statistics about where most people eat their tea or dinner in the evenings.
However, when he explained that some people have admitted to eating in bed, Luxmy was left taken aback.
To kick off the discussion, Ben asked his co-star, “What do you think about having your phone at the dinner table?”
“I would say just hygiene-wise, it is not ideal because you know, your phone has a lot of bacteria on it,” Luxmy replied, reports the Express.
“You use it a lot without washing your hands; there is just a lot of dirt there.”
Luxmy said it wasn’t good to eat in bed(Image: BBC)
Ben went on to point out that many people sit at their tables and scroll on their phones or watch TV while they eat instead of talking to their family.
“I understand watching TV, it’s kind of a classic, it’s how TV dinners were a thing,” Luxmy went on. “Watching TV while you eat is quite common.”
Ben then read out some of the statistics that had been reported. He said, “Three percent eat their dinner in a bedroom..”
Before Ben could continue, Luxmy looked disgusted and responded, “Ohhh, that is not good. That doesn’t seem hygienic.”
Ben Thompson and Luxmy Gopal(Image: BBC)
Ben then gave the statistics for how many people stood in the kitchen while they ate.
“Standing up?” Luxmy said in surprise. “That can’t be comfortable or enjoyable. I don’t think that is good for your digestion, is it?”
“I am actually surprised that it is as high as that,” Luxmy chimed in after Ben revealed that a quarter of people still sit at a table and eat together.
“I think that is quite encouraging,” she commented, with Ben adding his two cents: “But the phone has to be away. You can’t have it sat on the table because then it is like you’re waiting for something better to come along.”
Meanwhile, Carol Kirkwood was in the studio to provide the latest weather updates, while John Watson provided the most recent sports news.
BBC Breakfast is broadcast every day at 6am on BBC One.
Jerry Adler, who spent decades backstage on Broadway before reinventing himself in his 60s as a television actor, most memorably as Herman “Hesh” Rabkin on HBO’s “The Sopranos” and Howard Lyman on CBS’ “The Good Wife,” has died. He was 96.
Adler died Saturday in New York, where he lived, according to his family. A cause was not disclosed.
On “The Sopranos,” Adler played Hesh, a Jewish music producer and loan shark with long ties to the Soprano crime family. Not a member of Tony Soprano’s inner crew but close enough to be trusted, he was one of the few who could speak bluntly to James Gandolfini’s mob boss without fear of reprisal. Adler remained with the series from its 1999 pilot through the final season in 2007, a steady presence on the margins of Tony’s world.
Hesh turned up in some of the show’s most memorable arcs, helping Tony’s protégé Christopher and his girlfriend Adriana in their ill-fated stab at the music business, joining Tony in a horse-racing venture and, in the final season, watching their relationship sour when the boss pressed him for a large loan.
Steven Van Zandt, Adler’s “Sopranos” castmate and guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, paid tribute to Adler on social media: “Such an honor working with you. Travel well my friend.”
While “The Sopranos” launched a number of previously little-known actors to instant fame, Adler’s rise was unusual, the culmination of more than four decades spent behind the scenes on Broadway before he ever stepped in front of a camera.
A Brooklyn native born Feb. 4, 1929, Adler began his career as an assistant stage manager in 1950 on “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and went on to work as stage manager, production manager or supervisor on more than 50 shows, including the original “My Fair Lady,” Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming” and “The Apple Tree,” directed by Mike Nichols. He also directed several productions.
By the 1980s, he had moved to Los Angeles to be closer to his children and found steady work in daytime television as a stage manager. It wasn’t until his early 60s that acting entered the picture. After debuting on CBS’ “Brooklyn Bridge” in 1991, Adler found steady film and TV work as a character actor through the 1990s, appearing in Joe Pesci’s “The Public Eye” (1992) and Woody Allen’s “Manhattan Murder Mystery” (1993).
After “The Sopranos,” Adler remained a familiar presence on television. He joined “The Good Wife” in 2011 as Howard Lyman, a blustery, out-of-touch partner at the Lockhart/Gardner law firm. What was initially meant to be a one-off guest spot turned into a recurring role across six seasons, with Adler reprising the part in “The Good Fight” in 2017 and 2018.
Adler also recurred on FX’s “Rescue Me” as fire chief Sidney Feinberg and appeared in series ranging from “Northern Exposure” and “Mad About You” to “Transparent” and “Broad City.” His film credits include “In Her Shoes” (2005), “Synecdoche, New York” (2008) and “A Most Violent Year” (2014).
Adler returned to Broadway as a performer late in life, appearing in Elaine May’s 2000 comedy “Taller Than a Dwarf” and Larry David’s “Fish in the Dark” in 2015. Adler’s last screen credit came in the 2019 revival season of “Mad About You.” In 2024, he published a memoir, “Too Funny for Words: Backstage Tales From Broadway, Television, and the Movies,” reflecting on his unusual path through show business.
On Instagram, “Sopranos” co-star Michael Imperioli, who played Christopher, praised Adler as “a fantastic actor and the kindest of human beings. He brought so much humor, intelligence and truth to the role of Herman ‘Hesh’ Rabkin and was one of my favorite characters on ‘The Sopranos.’ I loved working and spending time with Jerry. A true class act.”
Survivors include his wife, Joan Laxman, whom he married in 1994, and his daughters, Alisa, Amy, Laura and Emily.
Donald Trump ran on a promise to use the powers of the government for revenge against those he claims have wronged him. He now appears to be fulfilling that campaign promise while threatening to expand his powers well beyond Washington.
On Friday, the FBI searched the home of John Bolton, Trump’s first-term national security advisor turned critic, who in an interview this month called the administration “the retribution presidency.”
Trump’s team has opened investigations of Democrat Letitia James, the New York attorney general who sued Trump’s company alleging fraud for falsifying records; and Sen. Adam Schiff of California, another Democrat who as a congressman led Trump’s first impeachment.
The Republican administration has charged Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) over her actions at an immigration protest in Newark, N.J., after arresting Mayor Ras Baraka, also a Democrat. Under investigation, too, is former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a longtime Democrat now running an independent campaign for New York City mayor.
Trump has directed prosecutors to investigate two other members of his first administration: Miles Taylor, who wrote a book warning of what he said were Trump’s authoritarian tendencies, and Chris Krebs, who earned the president’s wrath for assuring voters that the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, was secure.
The actions look like the payback Trump said he would pursue after being hit with four separate sets of criminal charges during his four years out of office. Those included an indictment for his effort to overturn the 2020 election that was gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court, which said presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for official acts while in office. The remaining case was dismissed after Trump was elected in November, a consequence of Justice Department policy not to bring charges against sitting presidents.
The Trump team has countered by accusing the president’s foes of politicizing the legal process against him.
“Joe Biden weaponized his administration to target political opponents — most famously, President Trump,” Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, said Saturday. Trump, she said, “is restoring law and order.”
In addition to making good on his promises of retribution, Trump has deployed the military into American cities, which he says is needed to fight crime and help with immigration arrests. He has sent thousands of National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officers to patrol the streets in the nation’s capital, after activating the guard and Marines in Los Angeles earlier this year.
Taken together, the actions have alarmed Democrats and others who fear Trump is wielding the authority of his office to intimidate his political opponents and consolidate power in a way that is unprecedented in U.S. history.
“You combine the threat of prosecution with armed troops in the streets,” said Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth College. “The picture is pretty clear for anyone who’s read a history book what kind of administration we’re dealing with.”
Past election investigations are a Trump focus
Trump began his second term as the only felon to ever occupy the White House, after his conviction last year on fraud charges related to hush money payments to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign.
He promptly pardoned more than 1,500 people who were convicted of crimes during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot and insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — including people found guilty of sedition and of assaulting police officers.
His Justice Department, meanwhile, has fired some federal prosecutors who had pursued those cases. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi ordered a grand jury to look into the origins of the investigation of his 2016 campaign’s ties with Russia, and Trump has called on her department to investigate former Democratic President Obama.
The government’s watchdog agency has opened an investigation into Jack Smith, the special counsel who investigated Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and the classified documents stashed at his Florida estate. Those cases were among several that dogged Trump in the years between his presidential terms, including the New York fraud case and charges for election interference in Georgia brought by the Democratic prosecutor in Fulton County.
All those investigations led him to claim that Democrats had weaponized the government against him.
“It is amazing to me the number of people the Trump administration has gone after, all of whom are identified by the fact that they investigated or criticized Trump in one way or another,” said Stephen Saltzburg, a former Justice Department official who is a George Washington University law professor.
On Friday, Trump used governmental powers in other ways to further his goals. He announced that Chicago could be the next city subject to military deployments.
And after his housing director alleged that one of the governors of the independent Federal Reserve had committed mortgage fraud, Trump demanded she resign or be fired. He took to his social platform on Saturday to highlight the claims, as he tries to wrest control of the central bank.
‘I’m actually the chief law enforcement officer’
Vice President JD Vance denied in a television interview that Bolton was being targeted because of his criticism of Trump.
“If there’s no crime here, we’re not going to prosecute it,” Vance said Friday in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Trump said he told his staff not to inform him about the Bolton search ahead of time, but he emphasized that he has authority over all prosecutions.
“I could know about it. I could be the one starting it,” the president told reporters. “I’m actually the chief law enforcement officer.”
Bolton occupies a special place in the ranks of Trump critics. The longtime GOP foreign policy hawk wrote a book published in 2020, after Trump had fired him the year before. The first Trump administration sued to block the book’s release and opened a grand jury investigation, both of which were halted by the Biden administration.
Bolton landed on a list of 60 former officials drawn up by now-FBI Director Kash Patel that he portrayed as a tally of the “Executive Branch Deep State.” Critics warned it was an “enemies list.” When Trump returned to office in January, his administration revoked the security detail that had been assigned to Bolton, who has faced Iranian assassination threats.
The FBI is now investigating Bolton for potentially mishandling classified information, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly. In contrast, Trump condemned the FBI’s search of his own Mar-a-Lago resort in 2022, which prosecutors say turned up a trove of classified documents, including nuclear data and other top-secret papers.
Retribution is wide-ranging, from judges to the military
Trump has also targeted institutions that have defied him.
The president issued orders barring several law firms that were involved in litigation against him or his allies, or had hired his opponents, from doing business with the federal government. Trump cut deals with several other firms to do free legal work rather than face penalties. He has targeted universities for funding cuts if they do not follow his administration’s directives.
His administration filed a judicial misconduct complaint against a judge who ruled that Trump officials probably committed criminal contempt by ignoring his directive to turn around planes carrying people being sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
The actions are among steps that seem to be intensifying. Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has fired several military leaders perceived to be critics of the president or not sufficiently loyal, and last week the administration revoked the security clearances of about three dozen current and former national security officials.
“It’s what he promised,” said Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department official and Biden White House staffer who is a law professor at Loyola Marymount University. “It’s what bullies do when no one tells them ‘no.’ ”
Riccardi writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
ATHENS — The end of an exemption on tariff duties for low-value packages coming into the United States is causing multiple international postal services to pause shipping to the U.S. as they await more clarity on the rule.
The exemption, known as the “de minimis” exemption, allows packages worth less than $800 to come into the U.S. duty-free. A total of 1.36 billion packages were sent in 2024 under this exemption, for goods worth $64.6 billion, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agency.
It is set to expire Friday. On Saturday, postal services around Europe announced that they are suspending the shipment of many packages to the United States amid confusion over new import duties.
Postal services in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Italy said they will stop shipping most merchandise to the U.S. effective immediately. France and Austria will follow Monday.
The U.K.’s Royal Mail said it would halt shipments to the U.S. on Tuesday to allow time for those packages to arrive before duties kick in. Items originating in the U.K. worth over $100 — including gifts to friends and family — will incur a 10% duty, it said.
“Key questions remain unresolved, particularly regarding how and by whom customs duties will be collected in the future, what additional data will be required, and how the data transmission to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection will be carried out,” DHL, the largest shipping provider in Europe, said in a statement.
The company said that starting Saturday it “will no longer be able to accept and transport parcels and postal items containing goods from business customers destined for the U.S.”
A trade framework agreed on by the U.S. and the European Union last month set a 15% tariff on the vast majority of products shipped from the EU. Packages under $800 will now also be subject to the tariff.
The U.S. duty-free exemption for goods originating from China ended in May as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to curb American shoppers from ordering low-value Chinese goods. The exemption is being extended to shipments from around the world.
Many European postal services say they are pausing deliveries now because they cannot guarantee the goods will enter the U.S. before Aug. 29. They cite ambiguity about what kind of goods are covered by the new rules, and the lack of time to process their implications.
Postnord, the Nordic logistics company, and Italy’s postal service announced similar suspensions effective Saturday.
“In the absence of different instructions from US authorities … Poste Italiane will be forced, like other European postal operators, to temporarily suspend acceptance of all shipments containing goods destined for the United States, starting August 23. Mail shipments not containing merchandise will continue to be accepted,” Poste Italiane said in a statement Friday.
Shipping by services such as DHL Express remains possible, it added.
Bjorn Bergman, head of PostNord’s Group Brand and Communication, said the pause was “unfortunate but necessary to ensure full compliance of the newly implemented rules.”
In the Netherlands, PostNL spokesperson Wout Witteveen said the Trump administration is pressing ahead with the new duties despite U.S. authorities lacking a system to collect them. He said that PostNL is working closely with its U.S. counterparts to find a solution.
“If you have something to send to America, you should do it today,” Witteveen told the Associated Press.
Austrian Post, Austria’s leading logistics and postal service provider, stated that the last acceptance of commercial shipments to the U.S., including Puerto Rico, will take place Tuesday.
France’s national postal service, La Poste, said the U.S. did not provide full details or allow enough time for the French postal service to prepare for new customs procedures.
″Despite discussions with U.S. customs services, no time was provided to postal operators to re-organize and assure the necessary computer updates to conform to the new rules,″ it said in a statement.
PostEurop, an association of 51 European public postal operators, said that if no solution can be found by Aug. 29, all its members will probably follow suit.
Nellas and Anderson write for the Associated Press and reported from Athens and New York, respectively. AP writers Angela Charlton in Paris; Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki, Greece; Stephanie Lichtenstein in Vienna; Brian Melley in London and Molly Quell in Amsterdam contributed to this report.
Retired Miami police officer Marcos Tomas Perez appeared Tuesday at U.S. Superior Court for the Southern District of Florida and issued a guilty plea to transporting and transferring stolen goods in interstate commerce, after pleading not guilty to the felony count at an initial hearing earlier this month.
Perez’s attorney, Robert Buschel, told NBC6 in Florida after Tuesday’s hearing that Perez is “depressed, naturally, but he accepts responsibility for his behavior and we’re gonna work through this issue in his life.”
Perez, 62, faces up to 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 31.
“I hope that the judge will consider all factors in his life and his history as a good person,” Buschel said. “He was an exemplary police officer in the city of Miami, he’s been retired for close to 10 years. This was an unfortunate set of decisions that he made and he’s going to accept responsibility for that.”
Buschel declined to comment any further when reached by The Times via email Wednesday.
According to a news release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and the Miami field office of the FBI, Perez has admitted to stealing hundreds of game-worn jerseys and other memorabilia worth millions of dollars belonging to the Heat and selling them to online brokers.
One such item was a jersey that LeBron James wore in Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals, during which James and the Heat defeated the San Antonio Spurs 95-88 to win their second consecutive championship. After Perez allegedly sold the jersey for around $100,000, it was sold in an online auction for $3.7 million in 2023.
