MADISON, Wis. — Out in Wisconsin’s state capital, where the orange leaves are falling and every other person seems to wear the red and white of the University of Wisconsin Badgers, the pride and pain of rooting for the Dodgers in 2025 played out in the household of Carolina Sarmiento and Revel Sims.
They’re urban planning professors, Southern California natives — he’s from Eagle Rock, she’s from Santa Ana; they met at UCLA — and longtime friends of mine who have lived in Madison for a decade but are still involved in immigrant and anti-gentrification activism back home. I visited them recently as part of a speaking tour of Midwestern colleges and found myself in the middle of a debate that passed through the lives of too many people we know back home.
It’s one that’s unlikely to completely fade away no matter how many rings and parades the Boys in Blue rack up:
Is it OK to, well, revel, in this year’s World Series champs?
On one hand the Dodgers won back-to-back titles for their first time ever and became the first team to do so in a generation. The squad looked like Los Angeles at its best: people from across the world who set aside their egos to win and bring joy to millions of Angelenos in a most difficult year for the City of Angels.
L.A., a city long synonymous with winning — the weather, the teams, the people, the food — has suffered a terrible losing streak that started with the deadly and catastrophic Eaton and Palisades fires and continues with mass deportations that the Trump administration vows to escalate.
That’s where the rub came for Sarmiento and other Dodgers fans. For them, the actions and inactions of the team this year have been indefensible.
“For me, it started when the Dodgers went to the White House,” said the 45-year-old as we drove to their blue-and-white house. She especially took issue with shortstop Mookie Betts, who skipped a White House visit in 2019 when he was with the World Series-winning Boston Red Sox but shook Trump’s hand this time around, describing his previous snub as “very selfish.”
“Who got in his ear?” she exclaimed, bringing out dried mangoes for us to snack on as we waited for Sims to come home. “Since when has standing up for injustice been about you?”
Sarmiento didn’t grow up a Dodgers fan but bought into the team once she and Sims became a couple. They and their two young sons usually attended Dodgers games on trips back home and regularly caught the Dodgers in Milwaukee whenever they played the Brewers. One time, manager Dave Roberts “happily” signed a jersey for them when the family ran into him at a hotel, Sarmiento said.
In Madison, she long wore a Dodgers sweatshirt emblazoned with the Mexican flag that Sims bought for her because “it was a way to represent home. But not anymore. I tell Revel, ‘Babe, I’m not asking you to boycott the Dodgers forever, but they gotta give us something back.’”
Sure, the Dodgers blocked federal agents from entering the Dodger Stadium parking lot in June just after la migra raided a Home Depot facility. Shortly after, the team donated $1 million to the California Community Foundation to disburse to nonprofits assisting families affected by Trump’s deportation Leviathan.
But as the summer went along, Sarmiento grew frustrated that only Dodgers outfielder Kiké Hernández spoke out against immigration raids and Trump’s deployment of the Marines and National Guard. She also wondered why Dodgers chairman Mark Walter wouldn’t address charges that companies he has investments in do business with Trump’s deportation machine. One has a stake in a private prison company that contracts with the federal government to run immigrant detention centers; another has a joint venture with Palantir, which ICE has contracted to create data surveillance systems that would make the Eye of Sauron from “The Lord of the Rings” series seem as innocuous as a teddy bear.
“After a while, it’s like a woman who knows her partner is a cheater but keeps saying, ‘He’s not a cheater, he’s not a cheater’ and then gets upset when he cheats on her again. At that point, all you can say is, ‘Girl…‘”
I brought up how many Dodgers fans I know saw the team’s World Series win as a giant middle finger to Trump.
The heroes of Games 6 and 7, outfielders Kiké Hernández and second baseman Miguel Rojas, come respectively from Puerto Rico and Venezuela, a commonwealth Trump has neglected and a country he’s salivating to invade. The team’s most popular player, Shohei Ohtani, still proudly speaks in his native Japanese despite being in the U.S. for eight years and knowing some English. Tens of thousands of fans came out for the Dodgers victory parade and celebration at Dodger Stadium, many of them undoubtedly immigrants.
Isn’t it OK to let folks be happy?
“It’s like community benefit agreements,” Sarmiento responded, referring to a tactic by neighborhood groups that sees them win commitments from developers on issues like open space, union contracts and affordable housing with the threat of protests and lawsuits. “You know what’s coming, so you try to get something out of it. This year was a political moment that fans could’ve taken and they didn’t, so the Dodgers gave nothing.”
We greeted Sims as he walked in. The two of us walked down to the basement, where he watched the World Series in exile on a big-screen TV.
“It’s a little lonely being a Dodgers fan out here,” joked the 48-year-old, although he was heartened to have seen a fellow University of Wisconsin professor decked out in a Freddie Freeman jersey earlier in the day. Sims grew up going to Dodger Stadium with his father and remembered going to games on his own in the mid-2000s “when it wasn’t a pretty time.”
He brought up the Dodgers’ owner from that era: Frank McCourt, who raised ticket and concession prices seemingly every year and who still partially owns the parking lots surrounding Dodger Stadium. Fans responded to his disastrous regime by protesting before and during games. “It was disheartening to not see that in the stadium this year, when there was an even bigger problem going on.”
Sims felt “conflicted” rooting for the Dodgers this year. He watched every game he could but admitted he found the team celebrating ethnic pride nights “hollow” as raids increased across Los Angeles and the Trump administration attacked the rights of groups that the Dodgers were honoring.
“It would’ve been easy [for the Dodgers] to make a bland statement — ‘We’re a team full of immigrants in a city of immigrants and we’re proud of us all’ — and you wouldn’t have to go any further. They have a historical obligation to do that because of their history.”
But not rooting for the Dodgers was never an option.
Pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto stands onstage at the World Series celebration at Dodger Stadium on Monday.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
“I want to see L.A. people happy. The parade! It’s a free holiday. People just ditch work and don’t get in trouble for it. We’re the only city — not New York, not Boston, not San Francisco — with a chant against us. We’re despised and misunderstood. So if the Dodgers win, L.A. wins.”
Sarmiento joined us. “She’s my better political half,” Sims cracked. “Caro said to pick another sport.”
“No I didn’t!” she kindly replied. “I just said to take a pause, just for now. A political pause.”
Sims admitted that that a vintage jacket that he used to bring out every October as the Dodgers made another playoff run and Wisconsin turns cold was still in the closet. “I haven’t worn any gear all year.”
“When you went to the game!” Sarmiento shot back, referring to a visit to Milwaukee earlier this year with his local softball team.
“I went with a Valenzuela jersey to represent L.A.,” Sims responded as Sarmiento shook her head.
He laughed.
“I love the team. I just don’t like this team for not saying anything. But it’s what I signed up for.”
Tehran, Iran – President Masoud Pezeshkian unveiled a “Gen Z adviser” about a month ago, posing for a smiling photo with him that went viral online.
The adviser, Amirreza Ahmadi, told local media that he sees his mission as listening to the youth of Iran, “from Tehran to the borders of this country”, going so far as to share his mobile number.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
But he later blocked commenting on his social media profiles after criticism from users who claimed that Ahmadi did not “resemble” Gen Z Iranians, was using bots to boost his social media accounts, and had no established connection with youth groups or students demanding change.
The appointment appears to have been part of an effort by the moderate administration, which promised improved social freedoms and lifted sanctions during election campaigns, to connect with younger generations, who have been driving political change across Asia and globally.
Pezeshkian and his administration have struggled, though – partly as a result of indifference from many young Iranians to their overtures, and partly because many of the Iranian establishment’s more hardline factions have little interest in appeasing the youth.
Sanam Vakil, director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, said the Iranian state is struggling to speak the language of a generation that grew up online and outside its ideological frame.
People in the Tajrish Bazaar after ceasefire between Iran and Israel, in Tehran, June 26, 2025 [Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters]
As such, she added, its outreach “feels transactional rather than transformative and ultimately is directed to staving off unrest and protests”, while the hardline elite’s fear of losing control outweighs any concern about losing the young.
“That imbalance keeps Iran locked in a politics of repression rather than renewal. I think the system will be locked between conflicting messages, narratives, and policies,” she told Al Jazeera.
Many of the people defying aspects of state controls are Gen Z youth, who are, like most Iranians, also crushed by the deteriorating economic conditions and rampant inflation amid corruption and mismanagement.
Testing the boundaries
With Israel and its Western allies openly touting regime change in Iran since the 12-day war between them in June, authorities say they recognise that public support is needed to get the country through difficult conditions, including reinstated UN sanctions and the lingering threat of war.
This forced some officials, mostly those in the more moderate or pragmatic camps, to advocate for dialling down some controls on social freedoms.
Former President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate camp leader, last week criticised hardline lawmakers and politicians for advancing legislation opposed by an overwhelming majority of Iranians, in a likely reference to the contentious issue of mandatory hijab.
The government has said it will not enforce the law.
A video recorded in downtown Tehran went viral online this week, showing young men and women, who disregarded the dress code imposed by the theological establishment, enjoying a street music performance.
After years of musicians defying a state ban on street performances, they have become increasingly common, but still face crackdowns if they get too much attention.
At least one of the band members had their Instagram account closed by Iranian authorities, with the police posting on the account that it was shut down by judicial order due to “publishing criminal content”.
The authorities have not publicly confirmed whether the band member could face further punishment.
Hardline conservative media outlets this week reported another crackdown in Tehran.
Ticket sales for a “disco that included naked women dancing with boys” in the Pakdasht area were stopped, and legal cases were opened against organisers, according to the state-run Fars news website, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
This was in reference to an electronic music event that had been running for weeks and was selling tickets legally after obtaining the required permits from the authorities.
Dancing in public spaces, especially when done by men and women together, are prohibited and at times, punished by Iranian authorities.
Drinking alcohol remains outlawed, as well, leading to some Iranians purchasing smuggled goods or dangerous homemade products. Alcohol tainted with ethanol and other chemicals continues to claim dozens of lives each year.
But some cafes and restaurants continue to hire DJs – and at times, serve alcohol – despite the restrictions.
In mid-September, authorities permanently shut down a major restaurant located in Tehran’s Nahjol Balaghe Park because a clip showed people dancing to music inside and because alcohol was allegedly served there.
Several clothing shops and other vendors have been shut down over recent weeks after they held events where young people danced in attendance.
In mid-September, authorities also cancelled a major public concert at Tehran’s iconic Azadi Tower that was initially conceived by the government as a demonstration of national unity.
The apparent contradiction between the positions of different factions within the establishment highlights the nature of Iran – with the government not necessarily having the final say in diffferent matters, and other forces, such as the Revolutionary Guard, able to defy government policy.
Hijab laws, online freedoms
The Supreme National Security Council has ordered authorities to stop heavily enforcing the controversial hijab law, which penalises women and men with prison time, being lashed or paying fines if the state determines their attire is improper.
Iranian woman, Bahareh, rides a motorcycle without a licence in Tehran on September 8, 2025 [Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters]
Iran experienced months of deadly nationwide protests in 2022 and 2023 after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested over her hijab.
However, some so-called “morality police” vans have been seen in cities across the country, even though Pezeshkian’s government said no budget had been dedicated towards it.
Another group defying the system in Iran are women riding motorcycles, as the state still won’t issue them motorcycle licences.
The government introduced legislation to allow women to ride, but it is stuck in a parliament dominated by hardline lawmakers after a record-low turnout in elections since 2020.
More women are riding motorcycles across the country, however, with hundreds filmed recently taking part in group rides in Tehran.
Pezeshkian’s government has also failed to honour another campaign promise: lifting draconian state bans on almost all global social media and tens of thousands of websites.
The government this week blamed Israel for the continued imposition of the tough internet restrictions, claiming that the controls would have been lifted had it not been for the June war.
Azadeh Moaveni, writer and associate professor at New York University, told Al Jazeera she does not believe any faction of the state enjoys broad support from the younger generation, as they haven’t been able to offer them anything substantial.
“Pragmatists within the state are just offering their own frustration, which is of zero value, and at best pointing out, as the president has, that he won’t enforce laws that the majority of the country opposes, like the hijab law,” she said.
Moaveni said the dynamic of loosening and tightening of social freedoms by the state to manage society was no longer working, partly due to the changes taking place in society and also because of the dire economic conditions and multiple ongoing crises reshaping daily life.
Residents on Friday walk past collapsed houses in a community of typhoon survivors that was affected by an earthquake in Bogo City, Cebu, Philippines, on Tuesday. On Friday, a typhoon struck the northern part of the nation. Photo by Rolex Dela Pena/EPA
Oct. 3 (UPI) — Typhoon Matmo struck northern Philippines on Friday, three days after a 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit the central part of the Asian nation hundreds of miles away and weeks after two other cyclones hit the country.
Matmo, which is locally named Paolo, had maximum sustained winds of 81 mph with the eye at San Guillermo in Isabela Province, the national weather agency Pagasa said.
Pagasa warned of “lightly stronger/enhanced in coastal and upland/mountainous areas exposed to winds. Winds are less strong in areas sheltered from the prevailing wind direction.” Also, rough seas are forecast.
More than 8 inches of rain are predicted on Isabela, Aurora and Quirino provinces.
Because of the storm, government agencies and schools were closed in the northern provinces’ main Luzon island, GMA News reported. Also, more than a dozen domestic flights were canceled, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
After crossing Luzon, Matmo is forecast to re-emerge into the South China Sea and will strengthen because of warm ocean waters and weak cross-winds, according to the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
A second landfall is expected in southern China’s Leizhu Province, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.
Caritas Philippines is providing relief to victims of Matmo and the earthquake.
“We are constantly faced with various risks and disasters, but it is through fraternal cooperation and unity among our dioceses that we find strength,” Jeanie, the humanitarian head of the organization, said. Together, we continue our humanitarian mission — to save lives, reduce suffering, and uphold the dignity of every human person.”
Caritas noted in Masbate and Romblon, homes, schools, parish buildings and infrastructure were badly damaged. Electricity, water supply and telecoms remain down in many areas with slow road access.
“Displaced families are facing increasing challenges as daily life becomes more difficult,” the nonprofit said. “Across affected areas, people are living in makeshift conditions, unable to return safely to their homes, and are struggling with disrupted livelihoods and a lack of basic hygiene. The uncertainty of recovery continues to weigh heavily on communities.”
The Philippines has been struck by 16 cyclones this year.
Typhoon Bualoi hit the Philippines on Sept. 25. Bualoi caused at least 37 deaths and displaced thousands in the Philippines before hitting Vietnam, where 49 people died.
Three days earlier, Super Typhoon Ragasa, which at one time was the world’s strongest tropical cyclone of the year, struck the Philippines before landfall in southern China.
The Philippines are struck by 20 cyclones each year, Bloomberg News reported. In 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people in the Philippines.
The earthquake affected a different part of the nation where more than 80,000 families affected out of about 366,000 people. Some families are “sleeping outside in unsafe conditions,” Caritas said.
“I still couldn’t process what has happened to us,” Arguel Estalicas told the BBC outside her home in Medellin, near the quake’s epicenter, where she slept with her family. “I am overwhelmed with the things we experienced in the last two days.”
Search and rescue are continuing.
Analysts have criticized officials for poor disaster management, though the geographical location makes it vulnerable to extreme natural hazards.
“We are in the Pacific Ring of Fire, and we’re exposed to earthquake hazards,” Mahar Lagmay, a geologist from the University of the Philippines and the executive director of Project NOAH, a disaster risk reduction, told the South China Morning Post. “That’s something we should take advantage of … the earthquake per se does not kill.”
He added: “We should be looking at all of the hazards together … we should prepare and anticipate for the worst-case events, including climate change scenarios that are bigger than what we have experienced.”
He advocates creating maps documenting disasters.
“Our ancestors and we have been surviving in this area for quite some time,” Ven Paolo Valenzuela, a research fellow at Singapore Management University’s College of Integrative Studies who is an expert in climate change, told the the South China Morning Post. “These are not new risks.”
The United Nations estimates every $1 invested in disaster prevention would lead to $7 to $8 saved in disaster response. Valenzuela asked if the Philippines has “been investing in that dollar. And once a disaster strikes, how sure are we that the $8 is actually going towards proper response and building back better?”
There has been an ongoing flood-control scandal of allegations of corruption, ghost projects and substandard infrastructure.
Mining proponents are expecting to see an increase in activity under President Noboa, a right-wing candidate who won re-election in April.
In 2024, Noboa travelled to the World Exploration and Mining Convention in Canada and signed six agreements worth $4.8bn.
And just this month, Noboa issued a presidential decree that would dissolve the Ministry of Environment and fold its duties into the Ministry of Energy and Mining.
Critics warn these developments threaten to undercut environmental causes and the right for Indigenous communities to have prior consultation before development projects.
To prevent conflicts like Rio Blanco’s, experts emphasise that implementing these rights in good faith is key. They also say communities need more resources, so that mining is not the only way out of poverty.
“These places often have no government support, leaving people to fend for themselves,” said Patricio Benalcázar, a sociology professor and mining conflict researcher at the University of Cuenca.
“The government should create programmes that improve people’s lives, provide basic utilities, schools, healthcare — and should help create other ways for people to earn money, besides mining.”
Alfaro, however, believes that communities cannot rely on the national government’s support. Activists, nonprofits, universities and others need to step in.
“Río Blanco is the best example we have of a community working together to stop a big international mining project,” he said.
“But that doesn’t mean the next steps will be easy. How do you rebuild and heal families after the industry’s damage? For a small place like Río Blanco, they can’t do it alone.”
Community members in Rio Blanco gather for a Mother’s Day event [Anastasia Austin/Al Jazeera]
Community members, however, are taking small steps to begin healing the rifts the mining caused.
In May, Durazno — the local leader — organised a Mother’s Day event to bring together Rio Blanco’s residents.
A mother of four herself, she felt the holiday could be unifying. Still, the attendance was not what Durazno had hoped for.
As she watched a dozen children from pro- and anti-mining families play together in a sunlit courtyard, she reflected on the toll the conflict has taken.
“It took too much to drive mining out,” she said. “People are tired and don’t want to hear about mining any more. If the company comes back, I don’t know if we’d have the strength to take them on again.”
Roozbeh Farahanipour sat in the blue-green glow of his Westwood restaurant’s 220-gallon saltwater aquarium and worried about Iran, his voice accented in anguish.
It was Sunday morning, and the homeland he fled a quarter-century ago had been bombed by the U.S. military, escalating a conflict that began nine days earlier when Israel sprang a surprise attack on its perennial Middle Eastern foe.
“Anger and hate for the Iranian regime — I have it, but I try to manage it,” said Farahanipour, owner of Delphi Greek restaurant and two other nearby eateries. “I don’t think that anything good will come out of this. If, for any reason, the regime is going to be changed, either we’re facing another Iraq or Afghanistan, or we’re going to see the Balkans situation. Iran is going to be split in pieces.”
Farahanipour, 53, who’d been a political activist before fleeing Iran, rattled off a series of questions as a gray-colored shark made lazy loops in the tank behind him. What might happen to civilians in Iran if the U.S. attack triggers a more widespread war? What about the potential loss of Israeli lives? And Americans, too? After wrestling with those weighty questions, he posed a more workaday one: “What’s gonna be the gas price tomorrow?”
Such is life for Iranian Americans in Los Angeles, a diaspora that comprises the largest Iranian community outside of Iran. Farahanipour, like other Iranian Americans interviewed by The Times, described “very mixed and complicated” feelings over the crisis in Iran, which escalated early Sunday when the U.S. struck three nuclear sites there, joining an Israeli effort to disrupt the country’s quest for an atomic weapon.
About 141,000 Iranian Americans live in L.A. County, according to the Iranian Data Dashboard, which is hosted by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies. The epicenter of the community is Westwood, where the neighborhood’s namesake boulevard is speckled with storefronts covered in Persian script.
On Sunday morning, reaction to news of the conflict was muted in an area nicknamed “Tehrangeles” — a reference to Iran’s capital — after it welcomed Iranians who emigrated to L.A. during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In some stores and restaurants, journalists from CNN, Spectrum News and other outlets outnumbered Iranian patrons. At Attari Sandwich Shop, known for its beef tongue sandwich, the pre-revolution Iranian flag hung near the cash register — but none of the diners wanted to give an interview.
“No thank you; [I’m] not really political,” one middle-aged guest said with a wry smile.
Kevan Harris, an associate professor of sociology at UCLA, said that any U.S. involvement in a military conflict with Iran is freighted with meaning, and has long been the subject of hand-wringing.
“This scenario — which seems almost fantastical in a way — is something that has been in the imagination: the United States is going to bomb Iran,” said Harris, an Iranian American who wrote the book “A Social Revolution: Politics and the Welfare State in Iran.” “For 20 years, this is something that has been regularly discussed.”
Many emigres find themselves torn between deep dislike and resentment of the authoritarian government they fled, and concern about the family members left behind. Some in Westwood were willing to chat.
A woman who asked to be identified only as Mary, out of safety concerns for her family in Iran, said she had emigrated five years ago and was visiting L.A. with her husband. The Chicago resident said that the last week and a half have been very difficult, partly because many in her immediate family, including her parents, still live in Tehran. They recently left the city for another location in Iran due to the ongoing attacks by Israeli forces.
“I am talking to them every day,” said Mary, 35.
Standing outside Shater Abbass Bakery & Market — whose owner also has hung the pre-1979 Iranian flag — Mary said she was “hopeful and worried.”
“It’s a very confusing feeling,” she said. “Some people, they are happy because they don’t like the government — they hate the government.” Others, she said, are upset over the destruction of property and death of civilians.
Mary had been planning to visit her family in Iran in August, but that’s been scrambled. “Now, I don’t know what I should do,” she said.
Not far from Westwood, Beverly Hills’ prominent Iranian Jewish community was making its presence felt. On Sunday morning, Shahram Javidnia, 62, walked near a group of pro-Israel supporters who were staging a procession headed toward the city’s large “Beverly Hills” sign. One of them waved an Israeli flag.
Javidnia, an Iranian Jew who lives in Beverly Hills and opposes the government in Iran, said he monitors social media, TV and radio for news of the situation there.
“Now that they’re in a weak point,” he said of Iran’s authoritarian leadership, “that’s the time maybe for the Iranians to rise up and try to do what is right.”
Javidnia came to the U.S. in 1978 as a teenager, a year before revolution would lead to the overthrow of the shah and establishment of the Islamic Republic. He settled in the L.A. area, and hasn’t been back since. He said returning is not something he even thinks about.
“The place that I spent my childhood is not there anymore,” he said. “It doesn’t exist.”
Center Theatre Group temporarily canceled “Hamlet” at Mark Taper Forum; the Los Angeles Philharmonic scuttled the final night of its Seoul Festival at Walt Disney Concert Hall; the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles’ Geffen Contemporary and the Broad museum are both closed through the weekend; and the Japanese American National Museum fenced off its pavilion to prevent further vandalism — these are just some of the immediate effects felt by downtown Los Angeles’ many arts organizations as ICE protests, an ongoing curfew and the arrival of thousands of federal troops upend daily life in the city’s civic core.
(On Thursday, Los Angeles city officials carved out a curfew exemption for ticket holders of indoor events and performing arts venues downtown including the Music Center, paving the way for evening performances of Center Theatre Group’s “Hamlet” and Los Angeles Opera’s “Rigoletto.”)
The Trump administration says it will deploy 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to L.A. to protect immigration agents and federal buildings at a reported cost of $134 million. On Tuesday, the state of California requested a temporary restraining order blocking the deployments, so it’s anyone’s guess as to how this will ultimately unfold.
The uncertainty, including how long Mayor Karen Bass’ 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew will remain in effect, has added to the pall over downtown L.A., where businesses and restaurants are also struggling with security issues and the many unknowns of the swiftly evolving crisis.
On Wednesday, I reached out to many of downtown’s arts leaders, and they all issued statements in support of Los Angeles and all of its inhabitants.
“As Los Angeles’ largest theatre company, located in Downtown LA, we are heartbroken by the events unfolding around us and affecting so many in our beautiful and diverse city,” CTG said. “Our mission is to be a home for everyone who calls themselves an Angeleno.”
This is a sentiment that abounds throughout this proud city of immigrants, where many with friends or neighbors who are undocumented feel sorrow to see the violence and destruction.
I’m arts and culture reporter Jessica Gelt, standing with my community in support of all its members. Here’s this week’s arts news.
Best bets: On our radar this week
Newsletter
You’re reading Essential Arts
Our critics and reporters guide you through events and happenings of L.A.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Huntley Ritter, from left, Kirsten Dunst, Nathan West and Eliza Dushku in the 2000 movie “Bring It On.”
(Getty / Universal Studios)
Academy screenings The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents two very different films this weekend. On Friday, the North American premiere of a new 4K restoration of 1975 best picture winner, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” starring Jack Nicholson, screens with supervising film editor Richard Chew and editor Lynzee Klingman joining screenwriter Larry Karaszewski to discuss the film. Then, the academy’s Teen Movie Madness! series continues Saturday with a 25th anniversary screening of cheerleading cult fave “Bring It On” in 35mm, preceded by a conversation with actor and artist Brandi Williams, who played Lafred in the film. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” 7:30 p.m. Friday; “Bring It On,” 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Academy Museum, David Geffen Theater, 6067 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. academymuseum.org
Cinderella Los Angeles Ballet closes out its 2024-25 season with this fairy tale classic featuring choreography by Edwaard Liang set to the music of Sergei Prokofiev. This reimagined version adds a modern sensibility, new twists, fantasy and humor to the story of a young woman, mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, who is transformed for a date with a prince by a fairy godmother. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Dolby Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood. losangelesballet.org
Soprano Renée Fleming will headline the performance “Renée Fleming & Friends” on June 14.
(Andrew Eccles / Decca)
Renée Fleming & Friends Broadway and opera come together as vocalists Tituss Burgess, Lindsay Mendez and Jessie Mueller join the legendary soprano for a one-night-only concert presented by L.A. Opera. When Fleming appeared in the musical “Light in the Piazza” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 2019, Times theater critic Charles McNulty wrote that the singer “delivers the goods in the show’s climax … Sound and sense are at last joined, making the distinction between Broadway and opera irrelevant.” (The performance is still planned as originally scheduled. Please check with L.A. Opera for updates.) 7:30 p.m. Friday. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laopera.org
Poster for the movie “The Bull-Dogger” starring actor Bill Pickett,1925. Lithograph on paper.
(Autry Museum)
Black Cowboys: An American Story Beyoncé earned accolades (including her first best album Grammy) for “Cowboy Carter,” bringing the iconography of the Black West to the mainstream. For those whose appetites have been whetted for more, this exhibition at the Autry Museum of the American West, conceived and organized by the Witte Museum in San Antonio, delivers a deep dive into that underreported slice of history. Tales of how Black men and women deployed their equestrian skills to great effect as they tamed and trained horses, tended livestock and embarked on cattle drives across the country come to life through historical and contemporary objects, photographs and personal recollections. The Autry’s presentation also highlights Hollywood’s influence on the Black cowboy image with movie memorabilia, including vintage film posters and the costumes used in the 2021 Netflix film “The Harder They Fall.” Saturday through Jan. 4. Autry Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park. theautry.org
Culture news
Denzel Washington, left, and Jake Gyllenhaal attend the “Othello” Broadway production media day at Tavern on the Green on Feb. 10 in New York.
(C.J. Rivera / Invision / Associated Press)
“Broadway finally got its groove back. The 2024-25 season was the highest-grossing season on record and the second-highest in terms of attendance,” Times theater critic Charles McNultywrites in a column about last Sunday’s Tony Awards. That resurgence could be attributed to the many high-powered film and television stars on New York stages including George Clooney, Kieran Culkin, Jake Gyllenhaal, Denzel Washington, Bob Odenkirk and Sarah Snook — but the real reason audiences flocked to live theater this season, McNulty concludes, was “unadulterated theatrical fearlessness.”
The Smithsonian Institution’s standoff with President Trumptook a new turn Monday evening when the Smithsonian issued a statement that could be read as a rejection of Trump’s late-May firing of National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet. The Smithsonian said the organization’s secretary, Lonnie G. Bunch, “has the support of the Board of Regents in his authority and management of the Smithsonian,” after a lengthy meeting by the board. This seems to imply that, for now, Sajet isn’t going anywhere.
An installation view of “The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
(Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)
On Wednesday, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., announced a major gift of modern and contemporary drawings from longtime museum supporters Lenore and Bernard Greenberg. The collection of more than 60 works of art includes pieces by Vija Celmins, Willem de Kooning, Alberto Giacometti, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Franz Kline, Brice Marden, Bruce Nauman, Susan Rothenberg, Ed Ruscha, Shahzia Sikander and Cy Twombly.
“Adrien Brody’s art is horrendous. Why are some people pretending it isn’t?” senior ARTnews editor Alex Greenberger argues in a pointed, sometimes hilarious takedown of the Oscar-winning star’s paintings. “Adrien Brody has received due attention for his acting abilities: his Oscar-winning performance in last year’s film The Brutalist is the kind of work most actors would be lucky to pull off once in their lifetime. Last week, however, he started receiving undue attention for the hideous art he debuted in New York at Eden Gallery, which — based on its press coverage, anyway — is one of the most talked-about exhibitions of the summer,” the column begins. If you need a chuckle, it’s worth reading in its entirety.
The SoCal scene
Patrick Ball, from left, Ramiz Monsef and Gina Torres in “Hamlet” at the Mark Taper Forum.
(Jeff Lorch)
Unlike his assessment of Broadway’s season, Charles McNulty wasn’t so positive about a recent L.A. theater offering. He did not enjoy director Robert O’Hara’s world-premiere adaptation of “Hamlet,” starring Patrick Ball from MAX’s hit show “The Pitt.” The new material places the story in a noir landscape in modern-day L.A. and features a second-act twist when a detective comes to investigate the play’s bloodbath a la “CSI.” “O’Hara’s audacious antics are stimulating at first, but there’s not enough dramatic interest to sustain such a grueling journey,” McNulty writes.
A massive Barbara Kruger mural titled “Questions” on the side of MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary began appearing in news broadcasts and social media posts across the country as ICE protests unfolded over the weekend. This proved prophetic, since the 1990 artwork is composed of a series of pointed questions that interrogate the very nature of power and control. Read all about it here.
Enjoying this newsletter? Consider subscribing to the Los Angeles Times
Pasadena Playhouse has announced its 2025-26 season, its first since buying back its historic 1925 building. Theater lovers can gear up for the shiny new Tony Award-winning best revival of a play, “Eureka Day,” as well as Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus,” a world-premiere adaptation of “Brigadoon” and the novel two-person hip-hop musical, “Mexodus.”
Commentary: From far away, an L.A. couple grapples with all-too-familiar debate after Dodgers win
MADISON, Wis. — Out in Wisconsin’s state capital, where the orange leaves are falling and every other person seems to wear the red and white of the University of Wisconsin Badgers, the pride and pain of rooting for the Dodgers in 2025 played out in the household of Carolina Sarmiento and Revel Sims.
They’re urban planning professors, Southern California natives — he’s from Eagle Rock, she’s from Santa Ana; they met at UCLA — and longtime friends of mine who have lived in Madison for a decade but are still involved in immigrant and anti-gentrification activism back home. I visited them recently as part of a speaking tour of Midwestern colleges and found myself in the middle of a debate that passed through the lives of too many people we know back home.
It’s one that’s unlikely to completely fade away no matter how many rings and parades the Boys in Blue rack up:
Is it OK to, well, revel, in this year’s World Series champs?
On one hand the Dodgers won back-to-back titles for their first time ever and became the first team to do so in a generation. The squad looked like Los Angeles at its best: people from across the world who set aside their egos to win and bring joy to millions of Angelenos in a most difficult year for the City of Angels.
L.A., a city long synonymous with winning — the weather, the teams, the people, the food — has suffered a terrible losing streak that started with the deadly and catastrophic Eaton and Palisades fires and continues with mass deportations that the Trump administration vows to escalate.
That’s where the rub came for Sarmiento and other Dodgers fans. For them, the actions and inactions of the team this year have been indefensible.
“For me, it started when the Dodgers went to the White House,” said the 45-year-old as we drove to their blue-and-white house. She especially took issue with shortstop Mookie Betts, who skipped a White House visit in 2019 when he was with the World Series-winning Boston Red Sox but shook Trump’s hand this time around, describing his previous snub as “very selfish.”
“Who got in his ear?” she exclaimed, bringing out dried mangoes for us to snack on as we waited for Sims to come home. “Since when has standing up for injustice been about you?”
Sarmiento didn’t grow up a Dodgers fan but bought into the team once she and Sims became a couple. They and their two young sons usually attended Dodgers games on trips back home and regularly caught the Dodgers in Milwaukee whenever they played the Brewers. One time, manager Dave Roberts “happily” signed a jersey for them when the family ran into him at a hotel, Sarmiento said.
In Madison, she long wore a Dodgers sweatshirt emblazoned with the Mexican flag that Sims bought for her because “it was a way to represent home. But not anymore. I tell Revel, ‘Babe, I’m not asking you to boycott the Dodgers forever, but they gotta give us something back.’”
Sure, the Dodgers blocked federal agents from entering the Dodger Stadium parking lot in June just after la migra raided a Home Depot facility. Shortly after, the team donated $1 million to the California Community Foundation to disburse to nonprofits assisting families affected by Trump’s deportation Leviathan.
But as the summer went along, Sarmiento grew frustrated that only Dodgers outfielder Kiké Hernández spoke out against immigration raids and Trump’s deployment of the Marines and National Guard. She also wondered why Dodgers chairman Mark Walter wouldn’t address charges that companies he has investments in do business with Trump’s deportation machine. One has a stake in a private prison company that contracts with the federal government to run immigrant detention centers; another has a joint venture with Palantir, which ICE has contracted to create data surveillance systems that would make the Eye of Sauron from “The Lord of the Rings” series seem as innocuous as a teddy bear.
“After a while, it’s like a woman who knows her partner is a cheater but keeps saying, ‘He’s not a cheater, he’s not a cheater’ and then gets upset when he cheats on her again. At that point, all you can say is, ‘Girl…‘”
I brought up how many Dodgers fans I know saw the team’s World Series win as a giant middle finger to Trump.
The heroes of Games 6 and 7, outfielders Kiké Hernández and second baseman Miguel Rojas, come respectively from Puerto Rico and Venezuela, a commonwealth Trump has neglected and a country he’s salivating to invade. The team’s most popular player, Shohei Ohtani, still proudly speaks in his native Japanese despite being in the U.S. for eight years and knowing some English. Tens of thousands of fans came out for the Dodgers victory parade and celebration at Dodger Stadium, many of them undoubtedly immigrants.
Isn’t it OK to let folks be happy?
“It’s like community benefit agreements,” Sarmiento responded, referring to a tactic by neighborhood groups that sees them win commitments from developers on issues like open space, union contracts and affordable housing with the threat of protests and lawsuits. “You know what’s coming, so you try to get something out of it. This year was a political moment that fans could’ve taken and they didn’t, so the Dodgers gave nothing.”
We greeted Sims as he walked in. The two of us walked down to the basement, where he watched the World Series in exile on a big-screen TV.
“It’s a little lonely being a Dodgers fan out here,” joked the 48-year-old, although he was heartened to have seen a fellow University of Wisconsin professor decked out in a Freddie Freeman jersey earlier in the day. Sims grew up going to Dodger Stadium with his father and remembered going to games on his own in the mid-2000s “when it wasn’t a pretty time.”
He brought up the Dodgers’ owner from that era: Frank McCourt, who raised ticket and concession prices seemingly every year and who still partially owns the parking lots surrounding Dodger Stadium. Fans responded to his disastrous regime by protesting before and during games. “It was disheartening to not see that in the stadium this year, when there was an even bigger problem going on.”
Sims felt “conflicted” rooting for the Dodgers this year. He watched every game he could but admitted he found the team celebrating ethnic pride nights “hollow” as raids increased across Los Angeles and the Trump administration attacked the rights of groups that the Dodgers were honoring.
“It would’ve been easy [for the Dodgers] to make a bland statement — ‘We’re a team full of immigrants in a city of immigrants and we’re proud of us all’ — and you wouldn’t have to go any further. They have a historical obligation to do that because of their history.”
But not rooting for the Dodgers was never an option.
Pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto stands onstage at the World Series celebration at Dodger Stadium on Monday.
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
“I want to see L.A. people happy. The parade! It’s a free holiday. People just ditch work and don’t get in trouble for it. We’re the only city — not New York, not Boston, not San Francisco — with a chant against us. We’re despised and misunderstood. So if the Dodgers win, L.A. wins.”
Sarmiento joined us. “She’s my better political half,” Sims cracked. “Caro said to pick another sport.”
“No I didn’t!” she kindly replied. “I just said to take a pause, just for now. A political pause.”
Sims admitted that that a vintage jacket that he used to bring out every October as the Dodgers made another playoff run and Wisconsin turns cold was still in the closet. “I haven’t worn any gear all year.”
“When you went to the game!” Sarmiento shot back, referring to a visit to Milwaukee earlier this year with his local softball team.
“I went with a Valenzuela jersey to represent L.A.,” Sims responded as Sarmiento shook her head.
He laughed.
“I love the team. I just don’t like this team for not saying anything. But it’s what I signed up for.”
Source link
Iran grapples over social freedoms after war with Israel | Politics News
Tehran, Iran – President Masoud Pezeshkian unveiled a “Gen Z adviser” about a month ago, posing for a smiling photo with him that went viral online.
The adviser, Amirreza Ahmadi, told local media that he sees his mission as listening to the youth of Iran, “from Tehran to the borders of this country”, going so far as to share his mobile number.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
But he later blocked commenting on his social media profiles after criticism from users who claimed that Ahmadi did not “resemble” Gen Z Iranians, was using bots to boost his social media accounts, and had no established connection with youth groups or students demanding change.
The appointment appears to have been part of an effort by the moderate administration, which promised improved social freedoms and lifted sanctions during election campaigns, to connect with younger generations, who have been driving political change across Asia and globally.
Pezeshkian and his administration have struggled, though – partly as a result of indifference from many young Iranians to their overtures, and partly because many of the Iranian establishment’s more hardline factions have little interest in appeasing the youth.
Sanam Vakil, director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, said the Iranian state is struggling to speak the language of a generation that grew up online and outside its ideological frame.
As such, she added, its outreach “feels transactional rather than transformative and ultimately is directed to staving off unrest and protests”, while the hardline elite’s fear of losing control outweighs any concern about losing the young.
“That imbalance keeps Iran locked in a politics of repression rather than renewal. I think the system will be locked between conflicting messages, narratives, and policies,” she told Al Jazeera.
Many of the people defying aspects of state controls are Gen Z youth, who are, like most Iranians, also crushed by the deteriorating economic conditions and rampant inflation amid corruption and mismanagement.
Testing the boundaries
With Israel and its Western allies openly touting regime change in Iran since the 12-day war between them in June, authorities say they recognise that public support is needed to get the country through difficult conditions, including reinstated UN sanctions and the lingering threat of war.
This forced some officials, mostly those in the more moderate or pragmatic camps, to advocate for dialling down some controls on social freedoms.
Former President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate camp leader, last week criticised hardline lawmakers and politicians for advancing legislation opposed by an overwhelming majority of Iranians, in a likely reference to the contentious issue of mandatory hijab.
The government has said it will not enforce the law.
But, on the other hand, hardline factions within the establishment have mobilised to reintroduce as many restrictions as possible.
A video recorded in downtown Tehran went viral online this week, showing young men and women, who disregarded the dress code imposed by the theological establishment, enjoying a street music performance.
After years of musicians defying a state ban on street performances, they have become increasingly common, but still face crackdowns if they get too much attention.
At least one of the band members had their Instagram account closed by Iranian authorities, with the police posting on the account that it was shut down by judicial order due to “publishing criminal content”.
The authorities have not publicly confirmed whether the band member could face further punishment.
Hardline conservative media outlets this week reported another crackdown in Tehran.
Ticket sales for a “disco that included naked women dancing with boys” in the Pakdasht area were stopped, and legal cases were opened against organisers, according to the state-run Fars news website, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
This was in reference to an electronic music event that had been running for weeks and was selling tickets legally after obtaining the required permits from the authorities.
Dancing in public spaces, especially when done by men and women together, are prohibited and at times, punished by Iranian authorities.
Drinking alcohol remains outlawed, as well, leading to some Iranians purchasing smuggled goods or dangerous homemade products. Alcohol tainted with ethanol and other chemicals continues to claim dozens of lives each year.
But some cafes and restaurants continue to hire DJs – and at times, serve alcohol – despite the restrictions.
In mid-September, authorities permanently shut down a major restaurant located in Tehran’s Nahjol Balaghe Park because a clip showed people dancing to music inside and because alcohol was allegedly served there.
Several clothing shops and other vendors have been shut down over recent weeks after they held events where young people danced in attendance.
In mid-September, authorities also cancelled a major public concert at Tehran’s iconic Azadi Tower that was initially conceived by the government as a demonstration of national unity.
The apparent contradiction between the positions of different factions within the establishment highlights the nature of Iran – with the government not necessarily having the final say in diffferent matters, and other forces, such as the Revolutionary Guard, able to defy government policy.
Hijab laws, online freedoms
The Supreme National Security Council has ordered authorities to stop heavily enforcing the controversial hijab law, which penalises women and men with prison time, being lashed or paying fines if the state determines their attire is improper.
Iran experienced months of deadly nationwide protests in 2022 and 2023 after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was arrested over her hijab.
However, some so-called “morality police” vans have been seen in cities across the country, even though Pezeshkian’s government said no budget had been dedicated towards it.
Another group defying the system in Iran are women riding motorcycles, as the state still won’t issue them motorcycle licences.
The government introduced legislation to allow women to ride, but it is stuck in a parliament dominated by hardline lawmakers after a record-low turnout in elections since 2020.
More women are riding motorcycles across the country, however, with hundreds filmed recently taking part in group rides in Tehran.
Pezeshkian’s government has also failed to honour another campaign promise: lifting draconian state bans on almost all global social media and tens of thousands of websites.
The government this week blamed Israel for the continued imposition of the tough internet restrictions, claiming that the controls would have been lifted had it not been for the June war.
Azadeh Moaveni, writer and associate professor at New York University, told Al Jazeera she does not believe any faction of the state enjoys broad support from the younger generation, as they haven’t been able to offer them anything substantial.
“Pragmatists within the state are just offering their own frustration, which is of zero value, and at best pointing out, as the president has, that he won’t enforce laws that the majority of the country opposes, like the hijab law,” she said.
Moaveni said the dynamic of loosening and tightening of social freedoms by the state to manage society was no longer working, partly due to the changes taking place in society and also because of the dire economic conditions and multiple ongoing crises reshaping daily life.
Source link
As Philippines grapples with earthquake fallout, typhoon strikes
Residents on Friday walk past collapsed houses in a community of typhoon survivors that was affected by an earthquake in Bogo City, Cebu, Philippines, on Tuesday. On Friday, a typhoon struck the northern part of the nation. Photo by Rolex Dela Pena/EPA
Oct. 3 (UPI) — Typhoon Matmo struck northern Philippines on Friday, three days after a 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit the central part of the Asian nation hundreds of miles away and weeks after two other cyclones hit the country.
Matmo, which is locally named Paolo, had maximum sustained winds of 81 mph with the eye at San Guillermo in Isabela Province, the national weather agency Pagasa said.
Pagasa warned of “lightly stronger/enhanced in coastal and upland/mountainous areas exposed to winds. Winds are less strong in areas sheltered from the prevailing wind direction.” Also, rough seas are forecast.
More than 8 inches of rain are predicted on Isabela, Aurora and Quirino provinces.
Because of the storm, government agencies and schools were closed in the northern provinces’ main Luzon island, GMA News reported. Also, more than a dozen domestic flights were canceled, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.
After crossing Luzon, Matmo is forecast to re-emerge into the South China Sea and will strengthen because of warm ocean waters and weak cross-winds, according to the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
A second landfall is expected in southern China’s Leizhu Province, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.
Caritas Philippines is providing relief to victims of Matmo and the earthquake.
“We are constantly faced with various risks and disasters, but it is through fraternal cooperation and unity among our dioceses that we find strength,” Jeanie, the humanitarian head of the organization, said. Together, we continue our humanitarian mission — to save lives, reduce suffering, and uphold the dignity of every human person.”
Caritas noted in Masbate and Romblon, homes, schools, parish buildings and infrastructure were badly damaged. Electricity, water supply and telecoms remain down in many areas with slow road access.
“Displaced families are facing increasing challenges as daily life becomes more difficult,” the nonprofit said. “Across affected areas, people are living in makeshift conditions, unable to return safely to their homes, and are struggling with disrupted livelihoods and a lack of basic hygiene. The uncertainty of recovery continues to weigh heavily on communities.”
The Philippines has been struck by 16 cyclones this year.
Typhoon Bualoi hit the Philippines on Sept. 25. Bualoi caused at least 37 deaths and displaced thousands in the Philippines before hitting Vietnam, where 49 people died.
Three days earlier, Super Typhoon Ragasa, which at one time was the world’s strongest tropical cyclone of the year, struck the Philippines before landfall in southern China.
The Philippines are struck by 20 cyclones each year, Bloomberg News reported. In 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,000 people in the Philippines.
The earthquake affected a different part of the nation where more than 80,000 families affected out of about 366,000 people. Some families are “sleeping outside in unsafe conditions,” Caritas said.
“I still couldn’t process what has happened to us,” Arguel Estalicas told the BBC outside her home in Medellin, near the quake’s epicenter, where she slept with her family. “I am overwhelmed with the things we experienced in the last two days.”
Search and rescue are continuing.
Analysts have criticized officials for poor disaster management, though the geographical location makes it vulnerable to extreme natural hazards.
“We are in the Pacific Ring of Fire, and we’re exposed to earthquake hazards,” Mahar Lagmay, a geologist from the University of the Philippines and the executive director of Project NOAH, a disaster risk reduction, told the South China Morning Post. “That’s something we should take advantage of … the earthquake per se does not kill.”
He added: “We should be looking at all of the hazards together … we should prepare and anticipate for the worst-case events, including climate change scenarios that are bigger than what we have experienced.”
He advocates creating maps documenting disasters.
“Our ancestors and we have been surviving in this area for quite some time,” Ven Paolo Valenzuela, a research fellow at Singapore Management University’s College of Integrative Studies who is an expert in climate change, told the the South China Morning Post. “These are not new risks.”
The United Nations estimates every $1 invested in disaster prevention would lead to $7 to $8 saved in disaster response. Valenzuela asked if the Philippines has “been investing in that dollar. And once a disaster strikes, how sure are we that the $8 is actually going towards proper response and building back better?”
There has been an ongoing flood-control scandal of allegations of corruption, ghost projects and substandard infrastructure.
Source link
A pyrrhic victory? An Ecuadorian town grapples with a divisive mine closure | Mining News
Mining proponents are expecting to see an increase in activity under President Noboa, a right-wing candidate who won re-election in April.
In 2024, Noboa travelled to the World Exploration and Mining Convention in Canada and signed six agreements worth $4.8bn.
And just this month, Noboa issued a presidential decree that would dissolve the Ministry of Environment and fold its duties into the Ministry of Energy and Mining.
Critics warn these developments threaten to undercut environmental causes and the right for Indigenous communities to have prior consultation before development projects.
To prevent conflicts like Rio Blanco’s, experts emphasise that implementing these rights in good faith is key. They also say communities need more resources, so that mining is not the only way out of poverty.
“These places often have no government support, leaving people to fend for themselves,” said Patricio Benalcázar, a sociology professor and mining conflict researcher at the University of Cuenca.
“The government should create programmes that improve people’s lives, provide basic utilities, schools, healthcare — and should help create other ways for people to earn money, besides mining.”
Alfaro, however, believes that communities cannot rely on the national government’s support. Activists, nonprofits, universities and others need to step in.
“Río Blanco is the best example we have of a community working together to stop a big international mining project,” he said.
“But that doesn’t mean the next steps will be easy. How do you rebuild and heal families after the industry’s damage? For a small place like Río Blanco, they can’t do it alone.”
Community members, however, are taking small steps to begin healing the rifts the mining caused.
In May, Durazno — the local leader — organised a Mother’s Day event to bring together Rio Blanco’s residents.
A mother of four herself, she felt the holiday could be unifying. Still, the attendance was not what Durazno had hoped for.
As she watched a dozen children from pro- and anti-mining families play together in a sunlit courtyard, she reflected on the toll the conflict has taken.
“It took too much to drive mining out,” she said. “People are tired and don’t want to hear about mining any more. If the company comes back, I don’t know if we’d have the strength to take them on again.”
Source link
L.A.’s Iranian community grapples with reactions to U.S. military attack
Roozbeh Farahanipour sat in the blue-green glow of his Westwood restaurant’s 220-gallon saltwater aquarium and worried about Iran, his voice accented in anguish.
It was Sunday morning, and the homeland he fled a quarter-century ago had been bombed by the U.S. military, escalating a conflict that began nine days earlier when Israel sprang a surprise attack on its perennial Middle Eastern foe.
“Anger and hate for the Iranian regime — I have it, but I try to manage it,” said Farahanipour, owner of Delphi Greek restaurant and two other nearby eateries. “I don’t think that anything good will come out of this. If, for any reason, the regime is going to be changed, either we’re facing another Iraq or Afghanistan, or we’re going to see the Balkans situation. Iran is going to be split in pieces.”
Farahanipour, 53, who’d been a political activist before fleeing Iran, rattled off a series of questions as a gray-colored shark made lazy loops in the tank behind him. What might happen to civilians in Iran if the U.S. attack triggers a more widespread war? What about the potential loss of Israeli lives? And Americans, too? After wrestling with those weighty questions, he posed a more workaday one: “What’s gonna be the gas price tomorrow?”
Such is life for Iranian Americans in Los Angeles, a diaspora that comprises the largest Iranian community outside of Iran. Farahanipour, like other Iranian Americans interviewed by The Times, described “very mixed and complicated” feelings over the crisis in Iran, which escalated early Sunday when the U.S. struck three nuclear sites there, joining an Israeli effort to disrupt the country’s quest for an atomic weapon.
About 141,000 Iranian Americans live in L.A. County, according to the Iranian Data Dashboard, which is hosted by the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies. The epicenter of the community is Westwood, where the neighborhood’s namesake boulevard is speckled with storefronts covered in Persian script.
On Sunday morning, reaction to news of the conflict was muted in an area nicknamed “Tehrangeles” — a reference to Iran’s capital — after it welcomed Iranians who emigrated to L.A. during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. In some stores and restaurants, journalists from CNN, Spectrum News and other outlets outnumbered Iranian patrons. At Attari Sandwich Shop, known for its beef tongue sandwich, the pre-revolution Iranian flag hung near the cash register — but none of the diners wanted to give an interview.
“No thank you; [I’m] not really political,” one middle-aged guest said with a wry smile.
Kevan Harris, an associate professor of sociology at UCLA, said that any U.S. involvement in a military conflict with Iran is freighted with meaning, and has long been the subject of hand-wringing.
“This scenario — which seems almost fantastical in a way — is something that has been in the imagination: the United States is going to bomb Iran,” said Harris, an Iranian American who wrote the book “A Social Revolution: Politics and the Welfare State in Iran.” “For 20 years, this is something that has been regularly discussed.”
Many emigres find themselves torn between deep dislike and resentment of the authoritarian government they fled, and concern about the family members left behind. Some in Westwood were willing to chat.
A woman who asked to be identified only as Mary, out of safety concerns for her family in Iran, said she had emigrated five years ago and was visiting L.A. with her husband. The Chicago resident said that the last week and a half have been very difficult, partly because many in her immediate family, including her parents, still live in Tehran. They recently left the city for another location in Iran due to the ongoing attacks by Israeli forces.
“I am talking to them every day,” said Mary, 35.
Standing outside Shater Abbass Bakery & Market — whose owner also has hung the pre-1979 Iranian flag — Mary said she was “hopeful and worried.”
“It’s a very confusing feeling,” she said. “Some people, they are happy because they don’t like the government — they hate the government.” Others, she said, are upset over the destruction of property and death of civilians.
Mary had been planning to visit her family in Iran in August, but that’s been scrambled. “Now, I don’t know what I should do,” she said.
Not far from Westwood, Beverly Hills’ prominent Iranian Jewish community was making its presence felt. On Sunday morning, Shahram Javidnia, 62, walked near a group of pro-Israel supporters who were staging a procession headed toward the city’s large “Beverly Hills” sign. One of them waved an Israeli flag.
Javidnia, an Iranian Jew who lives in Beverly Hills and opposes the government in Iran, said he monitors social media, TV and radio for news of the situation there.
“Now that they’re in a weak point,” he said of Iran’s authoritarian leadership, “that’s the time maybe for the Iranians to rise up and try to do what is right.”
Javidnia came to the U.S. in 1978 as a teenager, a year before revolution would lead to the overthrow of the shah and establishment of the Islamic Republic. He settled in the L.A. area, and hasn’t been back since. He said returning is not something he even thinks about.
“The place that I spent my childhood is not there anymore,” he said. “It doesn’t exist.”
Source link
Downtown L.A.’s arts scene grapples with curfews and cancellations
Center Theatre Group temporarily canceled “Hamlet” at Mark Taper Forum; the Los Angeles Philharmonic scuttled the final night of its Seoul Festival at Walt Disney Concert Hall; the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles’ Geffen Contemporary and the Broad museum are both closed through the weekend; and the Japanese American National Museum fenced off its pavilion to prevent further vandalism — these are just some of the immediate effects felt by downtown Los Angeles’ many arts organizations as ICE protests, an ongoing curfew and the arrival of thousands of federal troops upend daily life in the city’s civic core.
(On Thursday, Los Angeles city officials carved out a curfew exemption for ticket holders of indoor events and performing arts venues downtown including the Music Center, paving the way for evening performances of Center Theatre Group’s “Hamlet” and Los Angeles Opera’s “Rigoletto.”)
The Trump administration says it will deploy 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to L.A. to protect immigration agents and federal buildings at a reported cost of $134 million. On Tuesday, the state of California requested a temporary restraining order blocking the deployments, so it’s anyone’s guess as to how this will ultimately unfold.
The uncertainty, including how long Mayor Karen Bass’ 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew will remain in effect, has added to the pall over downtown L.A., where businesses and restaurants are also struggling with security issues and the many unknowns of the swiftly evolving crisis.
On Wednesday, I reached out to many of downtown’s arts leaders, and they all issued statements in support of Los Angeles and all of its inhabitants.
“As Los Angeles’ largest theatre company, located in Downtown LA, we are heartbroken by the events unfolding around us and affecting so many in our beautiful and diverse city,” CTG said. “Our mission is to be a home for everyone who calls themselves an Angeleno.”
This is a sentiment that abounds throughout this proud city of immigrants, where many with friends or neighbors who are undocumented feel sorrow to see the violence and destruction.
As losses mount for the arts in downtown L.A., it is worth noting that if you add the cost of President Trump’s Saturday military parade in Washington, D.C. — estimated to be about $45 million — to the aforementioned price tag for sending troops to Southern California , the total is about $179 million. The National Endowment for the Arts, which Trump has proposed eliminating entirely, requested a $210.1 million budget for 2025, and millions in grants for arts groups have been clawed back this year under Elon Musk’s DOGE.
I’m arts and culture reporter Jessica Gelt, standing with my community in support of all its members. Here’s this week’s arts news.
Best bets: On our radar this week
Newsletter
You’re reading Essential Arts
Our critics and reporters guide you through events and happenings of L.A.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Huntley Ritter, from left, Kirsten Dunst, Nathan West and Eliza Dushku in the 2000 movie “Bring It On.”
(Getty / Universal Studios)
Academy screenings
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents two very different films this weekend. On Friday, the North American premiere of a new 4K restoration of 1975 best picture winner, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” starring Jack Nicholson, screens with supervising film editor Richard Chew and editor Lynzee Klingman joining screenwriter Larry Karaszewski to discuss the film. Then, the academy’s Teen Movie Madness! series continues Saturday with a 25th anniversary screening of cheerleading cult fave “Bring It On” in 35mm, preceded by a conversation with actor and artist Brandi Williams, who played Lafred in the film.
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” 7:30 p.m. Friday; “Bring It On,” 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Academy Museum, David Geffen Theater, 6067 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. academymuseum.org
Cinderella
Los Angeles Ballet closes out its 2024-25 season with this fairy tale classic featuring choreography by Edwaard Liang set to the music of Sergei Prokofiev. This reimagined version adds a modern sensibility, new twists, fantasy and humor to the story of a young woman, mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters, who is transformed for a date with a prince by a fairy godmother.
7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Dolby Theatre, 6801 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood. losangelesballet.org
Soprano Renée Fleming will headline the performance “Renée Fleming & Friends” on June 14.
(Andrew Eccles / Decca)
Renée Fleming & Friends
Broadway and opera come together as vocalists Tituss Burgess, Lindsay Mendez and Jessie Mueller join the legendary soprano for a one-night-only concert presented by L.A. Opera. When Fleming appeared in the musical “Light in the Piazza” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in 2019, Times theater critic Charles McNulty wrote that the singer “delivers the goods in the show’s climax … Sound and sense are at last joined, making the distinction between Broadway and opera irrelevant.” (The performance is still planned as originally scheduled. Please check with L.A. Opera for updates.)
7:30 p.m. Friday. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laopera.org
Poster for the movie “The Bull-Dogger” starring actor Bill Pickett,1925. Lithograph on paper.
(Autry Museum)
Black Cowboys: An American Story
Beyoncé earned accolades (including her first best album Grammy) for “Cowboy Carter,” bringing the iconography of the Black West to the mainstream. For those whose appetites have been whetted for more, this exhibition at the Autry Museum of the American West, conceived and organized by the Witte Museum in San Antonio, delivers a deep dive into that underreported slice of history. Tales of how Black men and women deployed their equestrian skills to great effect as they tamed and trained horses, tended livestock and embarked on cattle drives across the country come to life through historical and contemporary objects, photographs and personal recollections. The Autry’s presentation also highlights Hollywood’s influence on the Black cowboy image with movie memorabilia, including vintage film posters and the costumes used in the 2021 Netflix film “The Harder They Fall.”
Saturday through Jan. 4. Autry Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park. theautry.org
Culture news
Denzel Washington, left, and Jake Gyllenhaal attend the “Othello” Broadway production media day at Tavern on the Green on Feb. 10 in New York.
(C.J. Rivera / Invision / Associated Press)
“Broadway finally got its groove back. The 2024-25 season was the highest-grossing season on record and the second-highest in terms of attendance,” Times theater critic Charles McNulty writes in a column about last Sunday’s Tony Awards. That resurgence could be attributed to the many high-powered film and television stars on New York stages including George Clooney, Kieran Culkin, Jake Gyllenhaal, Denzel Washington, Bob Odenkirk and Sarah Snook — but the real reason audiences flocked to live theater this season, McNulty concludes, was “unadulterated theatrical fearlessness.”
The Smithsonian Institution’s standoff with President Trump took a new turn Monday evening when the Smithsonian issued a statement that could be read as a rejection of Trump’s late-May firing of National Portrait Gallery director Kim Sajet. The Smithsonian said the organization’s secretary, Lonnie G. Bunch, “has the support of the Board of Regents in his authority and management of the Smithsonian,” after a lengthy meeting by the board. This seems to imply that, for now, Sajet isn’t going anywhere.
An installation view of “The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans” at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
(Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)
On Wednesday, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., announced a major gift of modern and contemporary drawings from longtime museum supporters Lenore and Bernard Greenberg. The collection of more than 60 works of art includes pieces by Vija Celmins, Willem de Kooning, Alberto Giacometti, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Franz Kline, Brice Marden, Bruce Nauman, Susan Rothenberg, Ed Ruscha, Shahzia Sikander and Cy Twombly.
“Adrien Brody’s art is horrendous. Why are some people pretending it isn’t?” senior ARTnews editor Alex Greenberger argues in a pointed, sometimes hilarious takedown of the Oscar-winning star’s paintings. “Adrien Brody has received due attention for his acting abilities: his Oscar-winning performance in last year’s film The Brutalist is the kind of work most actors would be lucky to pull off once in their lifetime. Last week, however, he started receiving undue attention for the hideous art he debuted in New York at Eden Gallery, which — based on its press coverage, anyway — is one of the most talked-about exhibitions of the summer,” the column begins. If you need a chuckle, it’s worth reading in its entirety.
The SoCal scene
Patrick Ball, from left, Ramiz Monsef and Gina Torres in “Hamlet” at the Mark Taper Forum.
(Jeff Lorch)
Unlike his assessment of Broadway’s season, Charles McNulty wasn’t so positive about a recent L.A. theater offering. He did not enjoy director Robert O’Hara’s world-premiere adaptation of “Hamlet,” starring Patrick Ball from MAX’s hit show “The Pitt.” The new material places the story in a noir landscape in modern-day L.A. and features a second-act twist when a detective comes to investigate the play’s bloodbath a la “CSI.” “O’Hara’s audacious antics are stimulating at first, but there’s not enough dramatic interest to sustain such a grueling journey,” McNulty writes.
A massive Barbara Kruger mural titled “Questions” on the side of MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary began appearing in news broadcasts and social media posts across the country as ICE protests unfolded over the weekend. This proved prophetic, since the 1990 artwork is composed of a series of pointed questions that interrogate the very nature of power and control. Read all about it here.
Enjoying this newsletter? Consider subscribing to the Los Angeles Times
Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Become a subscriber.
Pasadena Playhouse has announced its 2025-26 season, its first since buying back its historic 1925 building. Theater lovers can gear up for the shiny new Tony Award-winning best revival of a play, “Eureka Day,” as well as Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus,” a world-premiere adaptation of “Brigadoon” and the novel two-person hip-hop musical, “Mexodus.”
— Jessica Gelt
And last but not least
There is nothing more delectable — or truer to the diverse fabric of Los Angeles — than a good street taco. The Food team has pulled together a delicious list of 19 street vendors to support from the 101 Best Tacos guide.
Source link