The multidisciplinary artist rafa esparza was maybe 19 and in the break room of the now-defunct Orchard Supply Hardware in Pasadena when he first found out about the revolutionary art group Asco. It was the early 2000s, and he was working full-time while going to school part-time at East Los Angeles College. He’d bring his homework to his job, and an older colleague, Ignacio, took interest in the books he was reading — mostly about Chicana/o studies and art.
Ignacio grew up in East L.A., and showed esparza a big manila envelope stuffed with incredible sketches and drawings by Glugio “Gronk” Nicandro. Gronk, a friend of Ignacio, was one of the founding members of Asco, which roared to life as an unapologetically Chicano organization in the early 1970s and was made up of East L.A. natives including Patssi Valdez, Harry Gamboa Jr. and Willie Herrón.
Esparza is now among two generations of L.A. Chicano and Mexican artists who have passed the torch that Asco used to blaze its groundbreaking trail. The story of the art group and its descendants, also including Maria Maea and San Cha, is featured in the new documentary, “Asco: Without Permission.” Executive produced by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, the film premiered last year at SXSW and arrives on TV for the first time at 7 p.m. Friday as part of PBS SoCal’s “Voces” series (plus PBS.org and the PBS app).
When Asco first coalesced, Gamboa Jr. went to Los Angeles County Museum of Art and noticed a striking absence of Chicano pieces. In the film, he recounts how, after his concerns were dismissed by a higher-up at LACMA, Asco decided to take matters into its own hands. The group came back later that evening and tagged the building with their names (“Spray Paint LACMA,” 1972), effectively reclaiming the entire museum as a work of Chicano art.
1/7
The No-Movie “Chicano Cinema,” starring Harry Gamboa Jr. (Asa Nisi Masa Films / PBS)
2/7
A group shot of the art group Asco. From left to right: Willie Herrón, Gronk, Patssi Valdez and Harry Gamboa Jr. (Asa Nisi Masa Films / PBS)
3/7
Members of the art group Asco pose in Malibu. From left to right: Gronk, Patssi Valdez, Willie Herón and Harry Gamboa Jr. (Asa Nisi Masa Films / PBS)
4/7
Patssi Valdez poses with her golden No-Movie Award, a parody of the Academy Awards, protesting the lack of Latino representation in Hollywood. (Asa Nisi Masa Films / PBS)
5/7
The Asco No-Movie “The Gores (Whittier Blvd + Ax)” (1974). (Asa Nisi Masa Films / PBS)
6/7
The Asco No-Movie “Star” (1980), starring Patssi Valdez. (Asa Nisi Masa Films / PBS)
7/7
A still photo of the Asco performance piece “Birds Wave Goodbye,” from 1972. (Asa Nisi Masa Films / PBS)
Asco’s work remained in relative obscurity — living in local mythology through storytellers like Ignacio — for decades. Then, in 2011, LACMA‘s views evolved and the museum gave Asco its first major retrospective, “Elite of the Obscure.” Documentary writer and director Travis Gutiérrez Senger came across press coverage of the retrospective and felt immediately drawn to the group, connected “on almost a cellular level.”
But it wasn’t until Trump’s first run for presidency and subsequent election, when his language around Latinos and immigrants dangerously sharpened, that Gutiérrez Senger knew in his gut that he needed to make this film now.
What set Asco apart was the fact that it was an art group, not a singular artist, working in tandem to react to social and political realities, including the 1968 East L.A. walkouts, the 1970 Chicano Moratorium, the Vietnam War, police brutality and gang violence.
“I would have never done the film if it wasn’t a collective,” Gutiérrez Senger said. “The thing about art history — and in literature and film — we often canonize individuals. When I saw Asco and it was a group, and they’re [on] the cover of Artforum or at the Whitney … that to me was really, really captivating. And, I thought, also very constructive.
“This isn’t just a group; this is a metaphor for how we mobilize and change,” Gutiérrez Senger remembers thinking.
Asco was a fecund ecosystem, as is the close-knit community of contemporary artists following in its footsteps. The documentary recounts the history of the original group while heeding its call to action by collaborating with next-gen artists to carry the tradition forward. In 2023, Gutiérrez Senger curated a pop-up exhibition — featured in the film — alongside Pilar Tompkins Rivas, called “Asco and the Next Gen: An Inter-Generational Celebration of Latinx Art.” “Asco and the Next Gen” included esparza, Maria Maea, San Cha, Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya, Guadalupe Rosales, Gabriela Ruiz and Dorian Wood.
“When you’re deeply collaborating with folks, and you’re in each other’s mediums and you’re sharing thoughts, and you’re thinking together, conceptualizing together, birthing a project together from scratch, you really have to step beside yourself, and understand that this is something that you’re co-creating,” esparza said. “Versus, I think art teaches us to center the single voice, the singular author of an artwork. And my experience of life, of art-making, has been the complete opposite: I think that we’re constantly reflecting each other.”
Esparza’s contribution to that 2023 pop-up was called “Corpo RanfLA: Terra Cruiser” and was originally staged outside the fairgrounds of Art Basel Miami a year prior. The L.A. version took place in the parking lot of an Arts District strip mall. Esparza bounced. He lay in a prone position, arms extended, body ensconced in gold and green lowrider armature, adhered to a blue bike frame, rocking on a 25-cent mechanical ride mechanism. The early connections esparza had with Asco resonated deeply in his relationship to art-making.
“They’re guerrilla, not asking for permission, just doing what they wanted to do with the help of their collective efforts,” esparza said. “That’s an ethos that’s very present in my own performance work, and it’s something that I hold very dear to me. It’s something that I always want to protect, in terms of how the art industry so powerfully commodifies everything you make as artists. I feel like performance still holds this power to really resist that, depending on how we will it into being.”
The interdisciplinary artist Maria Maea (left) and the filmmaker Travis Gutierrez Senger (right), writer and director of “Asco: Without Permission,” pose at Barker Block. Maea is featured in the film, in which she and Gutierrez Senger collaborated on a new “No-Movie,” titled “Pasado/Futuro.”
(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)
Asco also had an interest in film. The art group members didn’t see themselves — or Chicanos or Latinos — represented in Hollywood, so they did it themselves, subverting a movie into a single still photograph that became its own story; an implied narrative. These, featured in the documentary, were called No-Movies.
In addition to the “Asco and the Next Gen” pop-up exhibition, Gutiérrez Senger and the filmmaking team invited multidisciplinary artist Maria Maea, San Cha, musician Fabi Reyna and Mexico City-based Ruben Ulises Rodriguez Montoya to create new No-Movies, also featured in the film, in response to Asco’s original No-Movies.
Maea first learned about Asco through esparza, too. He’s a mentor of sorts to her (they’re part of the same “interlocked brown community,” she says), and they were making adobe bricks together on the banks of the L.A. River for esparza’s 2017 Whitney Biennial installation when he told her the story about the hardware store and the manila envelope.
“They had a finite amount of resources, and they took this cinematic film lens or film camera film and shot these stills,” Maea said. “I think for me, it was so beautiful to see the infinity that could happen in front of it, the story that could happen behind it. It felt like we were just seeing this snapshot of a beautiful cinematic moment.”
The documentary’s new No-Movies are slightly longer, but still snippets of less than five minutes. The main character of Maea’s “Pasado/Futuro” No-Movie, the Being, sprang from the show “L.A. Fonts,” in the artist Alfonso Gonzalez Jr.’s backyard. (“Pasado/Futuro” also includes a group of kids working in a garage, meant to emulate Asco’s own garage origins — and to represent the next next gen. Its cast includes Maea’s younger sister, Ariel-Evelia Tuilaepa Diaz.) The Being is alien, mystical and magical, a migrant finding her way in a new world. (Maea often works with palm weaving, incorporated here, and palms have their own migration story to L.A.)
A still from “Pasado/Futuro,” one of the contemporary No-Movies in the film, featuring Maria Maea as The Being.
(Asa Nisi Masa Films / PBS)
“Something that really intrigued me was their sci-fi aspect of this film,” Maea said of Asco. “Like, they lived in a real world where they were experiencing the Chicano Moratorium, they’re experiencing violence in the streets, and they were also experiencing … the news projected back at them, that they were the issue,” stranger-than-fiction scenarios they synthesized into sometimes-futuristic or dystopian work.
Composer and performer San Cha’s No-Movie, “Luna,” made together with the musician Fabi Reyna, began as a song San Cha had written for a friend who had died; she had had a dream of him on the moon. In collaboration with Gutiérrez Senger, the No-Movie evolved into a piece about a lover, played by Reyna. Now, “Luna” is tender and otherworldly, drenched in the high drama and glamour that San Cha so loves.
San Cha was born in San José, then moved to San Francisco, where she was taken in by the Bay Area drag scene — specifically by her drag mother Per Sia, who’s still there. (San Cha recently relocated to Amsterdam.)
“She is from South-Central, but she studied art, visual art,” San Cha said. “She was a photographer, and she really got into the drag scene, and she was super familiar with Asco. We would do these processions in the Mission, from the Mission to the Castro … and she would always mention Asco in these moments.”
That’s likely because Asco’s early performances, as the art historian and curator C. Ondine Chavoya points out in the film, emphasized procession, mobility, mobilization and occupation, marking sites of political violence. Once San Cha moved to L.A., she found community quickly, too. She met Maea — with whom she made a video, “Coatlicue,” for the Music Center’s For the Love of L.A. program — and later lived with esparza.
“We can’t really perform in a vacuum,” San Cha said. “I can’t imagine doing this by myself, ever.… When I moved to L.A., there’s someone for everything.… And that way I didn’t feel the need to do everything alone. And even though in L.A. it was a little more professional, there’s so many people that are just like family.”
A still from “Luna,” one of the contemporary No-Movies in the film, featuring Fabi Reyna (left) and San Cha (right).
(Asa Nisi Masa Films)
When Gutiérrez Singer first started making this film, he thought that it — and Asco itself — was about saying “f— you” to the systems and institutions and racism that give us asco. (“Asco” means nausea or disgust in Spanish.)
“But at the end of the project, I started looking at the work and myself and the artists I had made the film with, and just seeing this incredible beauty and love,” he said. “And I realized that the power of Asco’s work is ultimately about self-love, and that when you feel that — and you can feel almost a collective sense of self-love as brown people — it gives you incredible potential and strength.”
By Konstantin Toropin and Michelle L. Price
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is dispatching roughly 9,000 troops aboard a group of ships to the Middle East, a U.S. official said Thursday. The bolstering of the American military presence comes as President Trump warned anew that new strikes against Iran could be on the horizon.
He also said early indications suggest that Iran is linked to the co-pilot who stabbed his captain and tried to crash an Israel-bound flight on Wednesday.
In an exchange with reporters at the White House, Trump raised the connection when asked by a reporter if there were any links between the pilot behind the attack and Tehran.
“I would say the answer, based on what I’m hearing, is ‘yes,’ but we’re working on it right now,” Trump said, without offering details.
Trump also warned that if the link is established to Iran, the United States would retaliate.
“Oh they’ll be hit, very hard, don’t worry,” Trump said. “You just ask them. They know what happened. They’ll be hit very hard.”
Meanwhile, the group of ships now en route to the Middle East together carry over 7,000 sailors and 2,000 Marines.
It includes the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which recently deployed with the cruiser USS Chosin, and the USS Makin Island amphibious readiness group, which includes the USS John P. Murtha and USS Anchorage amphibious landing ships.
It could mean that three carriers are in the region as early as the end of October, according to the U.S. official who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations.
Given the personnel already in place in the Middle East, the move would bring the U.S. naval presence to an unusually high number of more than 20,000 sailors and Marines and hundreds of aircraft. The Navy previously had three carrier strike groups in the Middle East in April for the first time since 2003.
The carriers USS George H.W. Bush and the USS George Washington are in the region now, along with the USS Boxer amphibious readiness group. The Washington is typically deployed to Pacific Ocean but it was moved to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, whose arduous deployment resulted in the crew being at sea for more than 260 days straight.
Trump, in a Time magazine interview published Thursday, also raised the prospects of new strikes, saying it is “possible” that he will ramp up bombing in Iran after the Nov. 3 elections in the United States.
When pressed, Trump said he could not go further in detailing his strategy.
“I can’t tell you that because look, you know, you’re asking, where are you going to bomb?” Trump said.
He said in the interview, conducted Monday, that he rejected the latest ceasefire proposal from Iran because “things that I wouldn’t have approved a year ago I wouldn’t have today.”
Trump cited as an example an offer from Iran to “open up” the Strait of Hormuz, the key energy shipping corridor, but said the overall proposal was “not good enough.”
Members of the military listen as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gives a State of the Force address at Marine Corps Base Quantico.
(Alex Wong / Getty Images)
Asked if the increasingly unpopular war would threaten Republican Party chances in November, Trump at first responded, “It’s possible.” But then he added, “It should help, because Iran will not have a nuclear weapon.”
The president said “100% of the people” oppose Iran having nuclear attack capabilities “including worldwide.”
“So, when you say it that way, It would help,” Trump added. “If you don’t say that, it could hurt.”
Toropin and Price write for the Associated Press. AP writers Seung Min Kim, Will Weissert and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON — A pro-Israel Democratic advocacy group on Thursday released a framework intended to help the party better articulate its vision for the U.S. relationship with Israel, an issue that has deeply fractured Democrats this year and could lead to further divisions heading into the next presidential campaign.
Democratic Majority for Israel is calling on the party to continue providing security and military assistance to the country while supporting a negotiated path to statehood for both Israelis and Palestinians and a future for Gaza that doesn’t include Hamas.
It notably does not insist on unyielding support for Israel, acknowledging that “Israel’s security does not require support for every decision made by an Israeli government.” The document also calls on Israel to “act decisively against settler threats, intimidation, and violence.”
The framework is being released at a sensitive moment for Democrats following a primary season in which voters from New York to Michigan embraced candidates who backed positions including ending military aid to Israel. If Democrats retake control of the U.S. House or Senate in next month’s elections, these candidates could play a significant role in shaping the debate over America’s posture toward Israel.
The issue could also play prominently in the early stages of the next presidential campaign, which could begin shortly after the midterms.
Democratic Majority for Israel’s chief executive, Brian Romick, said his goal is to provide a “helpful guide for our mainstream Democratic candidates on how to engage with a complicated issue.”
“It’s important to remind Democrats and Americans that there’s value in the U.S.-Israel relationship,” he said. “We thought it was important to kind of lay out a forward-looking vision.”
The question is whether such a framework will go very far in shaping the views of Democrats, who are increasingly skeptical of Israel.
About 58% of Democrats said the U.S. is “too supportive” of the Israelis, according to a June survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, up from 45% in January 2024. Roughly half of Democrats believe that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians during the war with Hamas, an accusation Israel rejects.
Former Obama administration chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who has argued Democrats need to return to the political center ahead of launching a potential presidential bid, went to Israel in July and delivered a blistering speech warning the country was at risk of becoming a “territorial pariah.” He specifically called out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has closely aligned himself with President Trump, a Republican.
Emanuel, who’s also a former congressman, Chicago mayor and U.S. ambassador, blamed Netanyahu for driving Israel to a “dead end,” emboldened by poor decisions from American leaders.
The framework from Democratic Majority for Israel takes a less strident view on Netanyahu, who faces another election this month. “Support for Israel,” the group argued, “transcends any one Israeli government.”
The group took a similarly long view on military and security assistance for Israel, arguing it shouldn’t be stopped now even as it acknowledged the possibility of change in the future.
“Over time, and by mutual agreement, today’s partnership should be capable of evolving beyond the traditional assistance framework toward an increasingly reciprocal relationship centered on joint investment, innovation, and technological advantage,” the framework reads. “The objective should be to build the partnership both countries will need to confront the threats and seize the opportunities of the coming decades.”
Daniel Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel under President Barack Obama, acknowledged “strong, passionate views” on the issue.
“Clearly, not everyone will agree with every aspect” of the framework, he said. “But I think there’s a lot there that many Democrats would find speaks to them.”
Sloan writes for the Associated Press.
Accenture in charts: Americas revenue up 7%, CMT industry group gains 10%
Source link
Techa Tungateja/iStock via Getty Images
Anthropic’s (ANTHRO) confidential initial public offering prospectus has revealed its heavy dependence on a small group of big tech partners and clients, according to Reuters.
The hyperscalers Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOG)(GOOGL) have benefited. Anthropic routed
By Matthew Lee and Farnoush Amiri
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s administration was set to issue a last-minute reprieve Tuesday over the planned closure of a camp in Qatar that houses more than 1,000 Afghans who assisted America’s war effort or are the relatives of U.S. service members.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to sign off on a diplomatic note to Qatar extending for nine months the life of Camp As Sayliyah, which had been due to close Wednesday at the end of the U.S. budget year, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The officials spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to offer details before the public announcement.
The decision comes months after Rubio told Congress that the U.S. was still in discussions with several third-party countries to take the 1,039 Afghans who worked as interpreters or in other roles helping the American war effort as well as relatives of U.S. service members who have been stranded in Qatar for more than a year.
Rubio’s testimony in June came after the AP and other outlets reported that war-torn Congo was among the countries where the Trump administration was considering resettlement.
The State Department would not immediately comment on Rubio’s extension for the camp but said it “continues to work toward a positive resolution that provides safety for these remaining people to start a new life outside of Afghanistan while upholding the safety and security of the American people.”
The department also repeated its claim that the camp is a legacy of an attempt by President Biden’s administration “to move as many Afghans to America as possible without properly vetting them” — an assertion that has been denied by former officials and refugee advocates.
The group of Afghans in Camp As Sayliyah includes those who fought or worked alongside the U.S. military between 2001 and 2021, with more than 70% of the camp’s residents being women and children, according to statistics from #AfghanEvac. The group has spent the last five years advocating for Washington to make good on its promise to resettle those whose service has put them at risk since the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s reassertion of control.
“This is a victory for those people, and they’re going to have some semblance of knowing that they’re safe there because they’ve been worried that at any moment somebody’s going to come and rip them out of there,” Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran who heads #AfghanEvac, told the AP.
But he added that there needs to be a permanent solution to this years-long crisis.
Despite the camp’s reprieve, which protects those housed there from possible forcible removal to Afghanistan, residents have little hope of being allowed to enter the United States.
Upon entering his second term, Trump, a Republican, paused his Democratic predecessor’s Afghan resettlement program as part of a series of executive orders cracking down on immigration, including dramatically altering refugee admissions to focus on white South Africans. Only five Afghans have been admitted to the U.S. since October 2025, #AfghanEvac says.
The refugee changes left thousands of people who fled war and persecution — and had gone through a sometimes years-long vetting process to start new lives in America — stranded at places worldwide, including the base in Qatar.
Advocates have warned that if there is no alternative, the only other option for the group of residents would be to go back to Afghanistan, where they face likely reprisal from the Taliban.
In the coming nine months, the State Department said it would “continue to work to identify options for voluntary resettlement of all Camp As-Sayliyah residents.” It gave no additional details.
Lee and Amiri write for the Associated Press. Amiri reported from New York.
The UK is filled with beautiful holiday homes whether you’re after a cosy cottage for a romantic break, or a castle-turned-holiday-rental for a weekend away with a huge group of friends and family. The sheer amount of offer can sometimes make it a little trickier to unearth the hidden gems.
Luckily, Sykes Holiday Cottages have helped to narrow it down as they have unveiled the winners of their 2026 Sykes Gem Awards. I was a judge as part of a wider panel, with scores based on a number of factors including guest reviews, the quality of a property, amenities on offer, and even overall popularity.
This year’s winners have included a Grade II-listed lighthouse, a stay in the grounds of the historic Culzean Castle, a cosy glamping hut in the heart of Herefordshire, and a romantic bolthole on the Isle of Lewis.
You can check out the full list of winners here, but below are 12 properties which won gold that we think you’ll definitely want on your radar for your next UK holiday…
It’s not just Sykes Holiday Cottages that’s been serving up a dose of staycation inspiration. Earlier this year, HolidayCottages gave us plenty of UK holiday ideas when it unveiled its 2026 Showcase Awards with categories including winners for Most Iconic Design, Extraordinary Stays and the best in UK and Ireland.
Have you got a holiday story to share? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com
Perhaps no one genre of music screams “Mexican” more than mariachi music.
Yet a close second is probably the melodic sound of British rock band the Smiths.
Many have pondered why Mexicans and Mexican Americans have such an affinity for those blokes from across the pond. Maybe it’s that lead singer Morrissey’s outsider mentality and melancholic words resonate with the demographic — or there’s something acutely relatable about the melodramatic musings of a romantic yearner.
Decades ago, The Times’ own Gustavo Arellano explored the Smiths and Morrissey’s appeal to Latinos and Mexicans, specifically.
He noted that Morrissey’s malaise mirrors the sentiment of many ranchera songs, also citing that his effeminate onstage persona is a perfect subversion of Mexican machismo. These elements make the singer an anglophone mash-up of Pedro Infante and Juan Gabriel, Arellano added.
Both the Smiths and mariachi music can drive even the most macho Mexican man to tears with their poetic lyrics and layered instrumentals.
To celebrate the special choke hold these musical stylings have on Mexican Americans in Southern California, the L.A.-based group Mariachi Tierra Mia is putting on a “Mariachi Meets the Smiths” show at the Ford amphitheater on Sunday. The show will merge not only the cultural resonance of the two in Mexican American culture, but also unite the sounds.
The idea to incorporate elements of mariachi music into a cover of a Smiths tune happened by happenstance in December 2024.
Members of Mariachi Tierra Mia were performing at a Christmas party when an attendee requested that the group perform the 1984 Smiths track “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now.”
Members of rock band The Last Line of Defense who will perform at The Ford as part of “Mariachi Meets The Smiths.”
(Mariachi Tierra Mia)
The ensemble’s leader, Maira Solis, didn’t know the song — but her husband and fellow bandmate Ivan Peña signaled that he did. Later on in the night, he performed the song alongside two dancing, masked luchadors.
The video of Peña belting out the song while outfitted in his mariachi regalia struck a chord with audiences online after the group posted it on social media.
“The relationship between Mexicanos and the Smiths needs to be studied,” Peña told The Times. “[The video] seemed like a very innocuous thing, but days later, it had 3 million views. That was the first time that ever happened to us, and to me, personally.”
The overwhelmingly positive response to Peña’s rendition of the Morrissey-penned tune let him know that people had an appetite to see the Smiths and mariachi blended together.
Born in 1991, Peña was born years after the Smiths broke up, but was introduced to the group’s catalog at age 5, while his uncle drove him around in a lowrider. The first tracks he heard from the band were “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” and “Ask.”
“I don’t think the music has aged a wink. It’s just gotten better with time,” he said. “It’s clearly resonated across generations. Now you even see Gen Z getting in on it too and realizing music of the past is so substantial.”
But the fandom surrounding the Smiths, and more specifically Morrissey, has entered more complex territory in light of the Smiths frontman’s past political commentary.
In recent decades, the crooner has grown increasingly sympathetic toward far-right political stances, voicing anti-immigration and anti-Muslim sentiments, as well as his allegiance to white nationalist party For Britain in the U.K.
Despite this, many fans, like Peña, don’t see a problem with continuing to listen to the Smiths and Morrissey’s solo work.
“I get that he’s a polarizing guy. I know he’s notorious,” Peña said. “I [say], separate the art from the people behind it … because the piece itself is not at fault for the shortcomings or views of the people who made it.”
Sunday night’s concert will be split in two acts, with the first being a bilingual mariachi set by Mariachi Tierra Mia composed of genre standards and more modern covers. For the second act, Peña’s rock group the Last Line of Defense will perform songs by the Smiths and be joined by the mariachi group to merge the sounds.
Incorporating the mariachi to create straightforward covers of the Smiths’ material proved challenging as Peña did not want to put a spin on the songs’ composition — no added notes and no new harmonies were allowed.
“You could task a mariachi band with doing a one-for-one adaptation of the Smiths’ songs, [but] most of the tracks do not work on the mariachi setting,” he said. “Whereas the guitar is leading the charge in a rock band. The guitar and the vihuela are essentially the rhythm section, so you have to translate guitar riffs to the melody section of the mariachi, [which is the] trumpets and violins.”
According to the 34-year-old musician, very few of the English band’s song fit into that mold.
He knows that fans love the original material and he wants to respect the essence of the time-tested songs. Out of that reverence for the group’s music, Peña noted that all the Smiths covers will be performed only in English.
Peña’s final take on why Mexicans are so infatuated with the Smiths?
“Mexicans love catchy music,” he said. “It’s all of the feels. It’s the good, the bad, and a bit of longing. The lyrics aren’t lying to you. [We can all relate to] Morrissey’s angst, his rebellion, his malaise, and, on the other side of that, his optimism.”
Colombian President Abelardo De La Espriella has emerged as close ally the of Trump administration in South America.
Published On 26 Sep 202626 Sep 2026
The Colombian government has extradited an alleged drug trafficking leader to the United States, part of a shift in the country’s security policy into greater alignment with Washington.
President Abelardo de la Espriella announced on Friday the extradition of Geovany Andres Rojas, who is accused of leading an organisation formed by previous members of the FARC rebel group.
list of 3 itemsend of list
“You don’t build peace by protecting narco-terrorists like this bandit,” de la Espriella said after he personally oversaw Rojas’s transfer to the US. “I ask US authorities … that he cannot negotiate deals that will leave his crimes unpunished.”
De la Espriella’s left-wing predecessor, Gustavo Petro, shielded Rojas from extradition in order to use him as a mediator in talks between the government and armed and criminal groups, which Petro sought to rein in through negotiations rather than military confrontation.
The far-right president has tossed out that approach, promising to crack down on groups that split off from the former FARC rebel group following a peace deal with the government in 2016. Many of those groups have jostled for control over lucrative drug routes and illicit industries.
Rojas, also known as “the Spider”, was flown to California and placed in the custody of federal agents. He allegedly served as the commander and spokesperson of Comandos de la Frontera, a group associated with cocaine trafficking in the Colombian province of Putumayo that borders Ecuador and Peru.
He will face drug trafficking and terrorism charges in the US, which has sought to expand military operations across Latin America under the pretext of combating crime and drug trafficking during President Donald Trump’s second term in office.
Colombia’s new president has aligned himself closely with those efforts, scrapping peace talks and launching military operations against armed groups since taking office in August.
The New York Times reported that de la Espriella, a former defence lawyer, was previously investigated by US authorities over his ties to powerful drug traffickers, but never charged, and defended politicians linked to right-wing paramilitaries.
Rights groups have warned that a return to militarised confrontation could lead to rights abuses by government forces and an escalation in violence, but many Colombians have expressed support for a harder hand against criminal groups whose operations have often led to violence and mass displacement of civilians.
By Deborah DayAssistant Editor, Fast Break Desk
Naked Eyes lead singer Peter Byrne died in Los Angeles on Sept. 14, according to the group’s website.
Byrne, who co-founded the synth-pop band with Rob Fisher in 1982, died “peacefully … after a brief illness,” the statement reads.
Naked Eyes’ Pete Byrne performs onstage in Los Angeles in 2019.
(Scott Dudelson / Getty Images)
Naked Eyes, a high note for the MTV generation, scored ’80s hits with their synth-pop version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Always Something There to Remind Me” and their original song “Promises, Promises,” with the former hitting No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983 and the latter reaching No. 11 that same year. “When the Lights Go Out” and “(What) in the Name of Love” also reached the Hot 100’s Top 40, hitting No. 37 in 1983 and No. 39 in 1984, respectively.
Byrne was born in Islington, North London, and began his music career in the mid-’70s. From 1979 to 1982, he was a member of the band Neon, which included Fisher and future Tears for Fears founders Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal. Byrne and Fisher released their debut album as Naked Eyes in 1983, according to the group’s website.
After Fisher died in 1999, Byrne released his 2001 solo album “The Real Illusion” and Naked Eyes albums “Fumbling With the Covers” in 2007 and “Disguise the Limit” in 2021. A remastered version of their self-titled debut album was released in 2025.
Byrne is survived by his siblings Eileen, Sandy, Carol and Steve; his three children, Merlin, Dylan and Chloe; and his ex-wife, Elena.
A stunning new poll showing Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman gaining a double-digit lead over incumbent Karen Bass in the mayor’s race is increasing pressure on Bass and her allies to go sharply negative against her opponent and to seek support from conservative and undecided voters to narrow the gap.
The poll, conducted by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by The Times, showed Bass trailing Raman by 11 percentage points — with 28% of likely voters saying they supported the mayor while 39% said they would vote for Raman. The remaining 33% were undecided, an unusually high number this close to the Nov. 3 election.
“The bottom line is this is a huge shot in the arm politically for Raman — and it’s not a good day for the mayor,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, a former L.A. City Council member who now runs the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.
Dan Schnur, a former Republican political consultant, said the poll could have instant negative effects for the mayor’s fundraising ability as potential supporters might now view Raman as the favorite in the race.
“The most immediate tangible result of a poll like this is that Bass’ greatest advantage was her fundraising and it now becomes much more challenging to raise money,” he said.
Bass, appearing Wednesday at a news conference in Hollywood, said she’s seen multiple polls that show a tight race. She said that Raman is “absolutely not” the front-runner in the race.
Mayor Karen Bass speaks at Vermont/Santa Monica Metro Center on Wednesday, touting progress on construction of affordable housing.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
The mayor said she is working to highlight the city’s progress in making rent more affordable, pointing to newly released numbers that show that more than 10,000 units of housing with restricted rents have been built since she took office in December 2022.
“The No. 1 issue to Angelenos continues to be lack of affordability, and our primary way of addressing that from the city is housing,” she said. “So we are absolutely addressing affordability.”
Others in the Bass camp seemed more anxious about the poll results.
“It put a pit in stomachs,” said one supporter close to the Bass campaign who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the poll. “But there is still an outside chance for Bass. It’s not total doomsday.”
The supporter said that the Bass campaign truly doesn’t believe Raman’s lead is that big, but that the poll was still “not good news,” especially for fundraising.
Mike Bonin, a progressive former L.A. City Council member who now runs the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State Los Angeles, said Bass needs to focus on winning over voters who chose former reality television personality Spencer Pratt in the primary election in June. Many of those voters are now on the fence.
Pratt received 26% of the vote in the primary, and most of the voters who cast ballots for him — 63% — say they still haven’t decided whom to vote for in the runoff, the poll found. Among the Pratt voters who have decided, 22% favored Bass compared with 16% for Raman.
Bonin said he expects Bass and her allies to attack Raman’s progressive views in order to reach Pratt voters. Raman is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and opposed raises for Los Angeles Police Department officers that had been championed by Bass.
“The nature of the attacks will try to reach the Pratt voters particularly since they are the largest bloc of undecideds and they skew conservative,” Bonin said.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing LAPD officers, is already airing campaign ads critical of Raman over her opposition to a law barring homeless encampments next to schools. In the coming days, the group will also roll out commercials highlighting Raman’s ties to the DSA, which has endorsed her mayoral bid, said union spokesman Tom Saggau.
“Our own poll told us that the Pratt folks were very much undecided, and that when they heard more about Nithya’s record, and her co-governing with DSA, they moved off of her,” he said, adding that his group still views the race as a dead heat.
Raman, not surprisingly, cheered the poll results.
“This poll reflects the momentum we’re seeing on the ground. Angelenos are ready for change and want to see a City That Works,” Raman said in a post on Instagram.
Raman campaign officials said the poll probably will help their fundraising efforts, which they said had already been gaining momentum over the last few weeks. And Schnur, the former GOP political consultant, said the wide lead allows Raman to spend more time touting her own credentials instead of disparaging Bass.
“For the most part Raman has the front-runner’s luxury of putting out a positive message and reinforcing her own credentials,” Schnur said.
Estevan Montemayor, who is running the pro-Raman Estamos con Nithya independent expenditure group, said his group’s role will be to inform voters about Raman’s positives while the Bass campaign attacks.
“They’re gonna come after Nithya and we’re gonna be here to tell her success story,” he said.
Bass supporter Stuart Waldman, chief executive of the Los Angeles County Business Federation, said the large number of undecided voters this close to the Nov. 3 election is worrying but also leaves an opening for Bass to gain ground.
“Any swing in any direction could make a big change,” Waldman said. “We have no idea who’s going to vote. … Usually by this point in time, everything has tightened up.”
Councilmember Nithya Raman, lower right, campaigns at a Latinos Con Raman rally at La Cita Bar in downtown Los Angeles.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
In courting those undecided voters, however, Bass is burdened by high unfavorability numbers, according to the Berkeley IGS/L.A. Times poll.
The mayor had 63% unfavorable ratings, the poll found, with 28% favorable and 9% having no opinion. By comparison, 40% had a favorable view of Raman, according to the poll, while 39% said they had an unfavorable view of her and 21% had no opinion.
Mike Murphy, a Republican political consultant, said that Bass needs to accept responsibility on core issues upsetting Angelenos about her tenure, such as homelessness and the 2025 Palisades fire, which killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes. In a recent interview with The Times, Bass said her biggest mistake as mayor was being in Ghana when the fire began amid high wind warnings.
“You have to say, ‘I hear you,’” he said. “Voters don’t think Karen gets that they are mad about things that happened during her term.”
Then, Murphy said, he believes Bass needs to attack Raman as being more establishment than Bass.
Murphy noted that Bass has frequently attacked Raman for being “at City Hall longer than I have,” which he called a powerful message to voters who are considering Raman because they want change. Raman was elected in 2020 and Bass in 2022.
Other polls taken in the campaign have shown a closer race than the Berkeley IGS/L.A. Times poll.
In an internal Raman campaign poll from early September, the council member was ahead, 44% to 39%, with 17% undecided. She was also leading, 38% to 32%, in a poll commissioned by the group Streets for All, which is backing Raman.
In an early August poll commissioned by an independent expenditure group supporting Bass, the mayor had the edge, 41% to 35%, with 24% undecided.
Mayor Karen Bass greets community members after speaking at Vermont/Santa Monica Metro Center.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
The Bass campaign cited some of those polls when responding to the Berkeley IGS/L.A. Times poll Wednesday, calling it an “outlier poll” and accusing the pollsters of getting it wrong.
“In the primary … they got it wrong and undercounted Karen Bass’ support,” campaign spokesperson Alex Stack said in a news release.
Stack added that polls conducted online, like the Berkeley IGS/L.A. Times poll, “systematically [undercount] working-class families, seniors, and non-English speaking communities who regularly turn out on Election Day.”
Mark DiCamillo, the director of the Berkeley IGS Poll, defended the methodology, saying he has spent 45 years polling in California and eight years running the Berkeley IGS Poll.
“What would you expect from a campaign down by double digits? They attack the poll,” he said.
Aaron Donald is still earning his spot.
In his mind, anyway.
During defensive line drills, the Future Hall of Famer continues to go third — even when groups are split — rather than lead.
“Earning my keep right now,” Donald said after Rams practice Thursday. “I’m a guy that likes to work and earn everything I get.”
Donald, 35, has one game under his belt after returning from a two-year retirement to rejoin the team that selected the three-time NFL defensive player of the year in the first round of the 2014 NFL draft.
Donald played 33 snaps in the Rams’ 28-6 victory over the New York Giants on Monday. He made three tackles, including one for a loss.
Donald said he watched tape of his performance six times — two times by himself, once with his brother and three more times on his own.
“Not as bad as I thought,” he said. “A lot of things to clean up but on the right track.”
Donald looked “excellent,” defensive coordinator Chris Shula said.
“He was awesome,” Shula said. “He put a lot of pressure on the quarterback, and then you see like some of the run plays … that group as a whole played really tough, played stout, played physical at the line of scrimmage and Aaron was a huge part of that.”
Now, one of the top interior pass rushers in NFL history is preparing for Sunday night’s game against the Denver Broncos in Denver.
Will Donald’s playing time increase?
“Every game is going to kind of tell its own story,” Shula said. “I think we have a general range of where he would be, but I think depending on how the game plays out, you never know how many snaps and the situations that you’re going to be in.
“You never want to put a full hard cap on it.”
Donald is happy with the way his return to game action is playing out.
“We’ve got a good rotation … keeping guys fresh and right now I’m liking it,” he said. “I think it’s at a great pace right now.
“I’m getting my feet wet, get going, get a feel for the game again and other guys are out there working and getting work too.”
Rams receiver Puka Nacua (hip), who sat out against the Giants, did not practice for the second day in a row. On Wednesday, coach Sean McVay told reporters he was “not sure” if Nacua would play against the Broncos. Later in the day, he told ESPN radio that Nacua was “not making great progress.” … Tight end Colby Parkinson (knee) and safety Kam Kinchens (hamstring) also did not practice.
WASHINGTON — Eight sailors attempted suicide while deployed with the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group, which spent a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea supporting the Iran war, the Navy’s top civilian leader said this week.
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao provided the information to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in a letter dated Tuesday after the New York Democrat inquired last month about the strike group’s crew of thousands. The Lincoln’s extended deployment drew the nation’s attention following reports of crew stress and poor mental health, as well as supply shortages, including food and hygiene products.
Gillibrand asked Cao specifically if there were any suicides.
“There have been no suicides on board during this deployment,” Cao wrote in the letter, which was obtained by the Associated Press and reported earlier by CNN. “Since the beginning of LINCOLN’S deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group — this number includes the LINCOLN crew and Sailors from the carrier wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers, and all embarked aviation squadrons.”
President Trump had downplayed reports about conditions on the Lincoln, which left its homeport in San Diego in November, arrived in the Middle East in January in support of Iran operations, and spent a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 260 days.
The carrier and some of its supporting ships stopped in Thailand in early September on their way back home to California. The Lincoln’s commanding officer, Capt. Dan Keeler, said then that the ship will be heading home soon but may make further supply stops. He declined to comment on the exact date the strike group is expected back in the U.S.
Last month, Trump called the nearly nine months at sea that the sailors endured a “good period of time” but added that “over the years, we’ve had them out there much longer.”
Trump told reporters in August that he spoke with a retired admiral who recounted being on ships for “much longer.” Trump said the admiral assured him that the Lincoln is “beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of.” Trump did not name the admiral.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also had said that conditions about the Lincoln were “completely misrepresented.”
Gillibrand took aim at both in a statement released this week in response to Cao’s letter.
“What Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismissed as ‘fake news’ turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members,” she stated.
“Our troops and their families make immense sacrifices every single day, yet the president dismissed them with open disrespect,” Gillibrand said. “That this administration can find endless taxpayer dollars for bombs, ballrooms, and billionaires, but cannot take care of our service members, is completely unacceptable.”
Extended deployments of carriers wear on service members who are away from home for long periods and increase strain on the ship and its equipment. The Navy is continuing to enforce a blockade on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz, and the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the war.
Finley writes for the Associated Press.
Growing up, Alejandra Villarreal was accustomed to the dry Mexican heat, trapped inside the small historic venues where she and her sisters would perform as kids. But as temperatures hit 103 degrees outside the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, she couldn’t help but shout.
“¡Ay, qué calor!” she said, swinging her bass guitar.
Inside the nearly 100-year-old theater, Alejandra was onstage for a sound check. She ran through distorted, metal-influenced riffs as her sisters — drummer Paulina Villarreal and lead vocalist-guitarist Daniela Villarreal — prepared for the second of three sold-out shows at the Fonda, as the rapidly rising rock band the Warning.
The Warning has been shaking the walls of L.A. theaters since the group first landed in the city eight years ago — but this year feels especially monumental for the sisters.
Released in August, the band’s most recent album, “Everything’s Falling,” is a snarling, noisy and melodic rock joyride that rarely, if ever, slows down.
Written between L.A. and their hometown of Monterrey, the straight-to-the point lyricism documents the Villarreal sisters’ frustrations, anger and failures — most fiercely on “Kerosene,” which lambasts a jealous critic who “falls asleep with me on your screen,” so sings Daniela.
“Kerosene” recently shot up to the No.1 spot on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, which made the Warning the first Mexican and first all-female band to make the spot. Another single, their Spanish-language anthem “Ego,” was nominated for rock song at the 2026 Latin Grammys.
Members of the Warning hold up Billboard No. 1 awards after performing at the Fonda Theatre.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
The legend of the Warning began in 2014, when Alejandra was just 9 years old and Paulina and Daniela were 12 and 14, respectively. The sisters came home from a Sunday carne asada with their family — and recorded a righteous cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.”
Dressed in floral blouses and white capris, the girls thundered through the song with a focus and technical ability that sparked the interest of audiences worldwide — earning them a current total of 27 million views, not to mention praise from Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett.
“We were wearing our sandalias, our church clothes,” Paulina said. “It’s just pretty crazy to think that one random Sunday afternoon we recorded that and it jump-started our whole career.”
The idea for the group came from playing the video game “Rock Band,” which led the sisters to performing at local “Battle of the Bands” competitions and posting cover songs to YouTube.
But the success of the “Enter Sandman” cover changed the course of their lives, taking them from local venues like Cafe Iguana — or, as Paulina calls it, “Monterrey’s Whisky a Go Go” — to appearing on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and various international music festivals.
“We started having adult responsibilities way early in our lives,” Paulina said. “We didn’t have that [average] teenage experience at all.”
“We didn’t go to normal school, we didn’t go and hang out with other teenagers,” she continued. “We were mostly hanging out with adults like our parents, [or] on tour and working. So there was this huge disparity between what our friends were living through and what we were going through.”
Over the course of its 13-year career, the Warning has opened for acts ranging from the Foo Fighters to Yungblud, writing and recording tirelessly in between. Now that the bandmates are all in their 20s, they say they “wouldn’t change it for anything.”
“When I was 10, I was like, ‘This is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life,’” Alejandra said. “I guess I did miss out on high school and ‘the norm.’ But honestly, I’m very grateful that we did this.”
In “Everything’s Falling,” the Warning contends with self-imposed songwriting limits that boxed them in as children — and tear down old personas to reveal their continuous, however imperfect, process of growth.
“All of our lives, we felt like we needed to sound a certain way,” said Alejandra. “English is not our first language, so we always found ourselves using really complex words — so that people would say, ‘They know the language.’ The lyrics of this album are very straightforward. We don’t have anything to prove anymore. It was a very liberating album to make.”
1/4
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
2/4
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
3/4
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
4/4
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
The group’s highly technical progressive rock style, influenced early on by bands like Muse, Metallica and Paramore, brought it a legion of Gen X fans who admired the sisters’ dedication to shredding, mathematical guitar solos and classical training base.
On their latest album, the sisters introduce new levels of fuzz and overdrive that blur their usually crisp instrumentals, plus verses that “lean into femininity” and take inspiration from a source that may surprise some: K-pop.
The rising global genre, known for its catchy harmonies and bouncing performance style, inspired the sisters to bring pop elements to their recording sessions.
“We love getting inspired outside of our genre,” Paulina said. “I think what happens a lot in rock is that, it’s very purista [purist]. Especially as women, whatever you do is very scrutinized. So if you ever step out of those confines it’s like, ‘Well [if] you’re not rock, you shouldn’t even be participating.’”
The sisters’ desire to defy expectations is most apparent in their jam-packed touring schedule.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
“I fainted onstage [in July], and it was very dramatic,” recalled Paulina. “More than it being scary, I think people for the first time realized how hard we work. People were like, ‘Oh, your team is pushing you too hard.’”
“Nobody’s forcing us to be here,” she added, resolutely. “We’re grown women. We know what we’re doing and we know how much we can take.”
Daniela, the lead vocalist, had come down with a cold during the group’s L.A. shows, which required her to step back from interviews to rest her voice. The first night, she sang through the entire setlist, screaming and all — but by the third, she could only perform a few songs. Rather than cancel the concert, the Warning insisted that the show go on.
A la Karen Carpenter, Paulina sang lead vocals from behind the drum kit, calling on the crowd to clap and sing along to the music. They also brought out fans and collaborators to help them perform, including songwriter Annie Schindel, as well as rock acts Holy Wars and Dead Poet Society.
“We push forward through a lot of bad experiences,” Alejandra said. “One time I felt like I was dying — and that was the one of the few times we canceled a show. We only do it in extreme measures, because we know how much planning a show takes.”
One could blame it on the “Mexican work ethic,” they said.
Before taking on Hollywood, the sisters joined regional Mexican artist Carín León on the first night of his sold-out weekend at the Sphere in Las Vegas: the first time a Latin artist had ever headlined the venue. The band released the bluesy rock single “Love to be Loved” earlier this year with the Sonora native, recalling the first time they played it together “a highlight of our lives.”
“[Even if] we do our own thing in a different genre, we still shared that pride because of where we come from,” Paulina said. “Everything about that show was so Mexican … The unity, the community that we have outside of our country. Hopefully the people that went there felt how special it was.”
“I cried,” Alejandra added. “[Watching Carín perform], it was emotional.”
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
A week later, at the Fonda, they smiled as fans launched into chants like “Olé, Olé, Olé” and “Viva Mexico.” The line had been forming since 3 p.m., and once the show had begun, the Warning transformed from jovial 20-somethings to well-seasoned professionals.
“I feel like there will be a very clear change in what we do, ‘Everything’s Falling’-forward,” Paulina said. “I feel like we really allowed ourselves to be more emotional in the music and these shows, and that feels really powerful.”
Said Alejandra: “We opened Pandora’s box.”
Alexander Shapovalov
Tesla’s (TSLA) Full Self-Driving system exceeded the legal speed limit in 55% of tested 30-km/h road segments in Brussels and repeatedly attempted to overtake cyclists where the maneuver is prohibited, Belgian road-safety group Johanna.be said.
Johanna.be tested FSD over about
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao has said that eight crew members who were assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during their lengthy deployment.
The disclosure was made in a letter to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York on Tuesday in response to questions from the Democrat on the well-being of sailors onboard following mounting concerns.
Family members of sailors had raised alarm about deteriorating mental health and grim conditions during a prolonged mission in the Middle East as part of the US war in Iran.
The carrier, which had been deployed since last November, is now returning to the US. The BBC has contacted the US Navy for comment.
In his letter, Cao said that there were five chaplains and multiple mental health professionals available on board to meet the “spiritual and emotional needs of the crew”.
He said the eight sailors included “the Lincoln crew and sailors from the carrier airwing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers and all embarked aviation squadrons”.
While the US Navy has previously acknowledged supply challenges on the carrier, it denied that a mental health crisis was taking place on the Lincoln, which had some 5,000 crew aboard.
Cao’s letter also denied widespread concerns about broken plumbing and shortages of fresh food, but acknowledged temporary “localized piping failures” and problems with the reverse osmosis desalination units, and some meal options were reduced for a “short time”.
Senator Gillibrand, a member of the Senate’s armed services committee, criticised the Trump administration’s previous responses to reports of grim conditions, calling the treatment of service members “completely unacceptable”.
“What Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismissed as ‘fake news’ turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members,” she said in a statement to the BBC on Wednesday.
“Our troops and their families make immense sacrifices every single day, yet the president dismissed them with open disrespect,” she added.
The carrier left California in November for the South China Sea and was sent to the Middle East ahead of attacks on Iran in February. The deployment, which was originally set to end in May, was repeatedly extended.
In August, the USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier, was sent to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln following a nine-month deployment.
US sailors stopped in Thailand on their way home, hitting bars, malls and beach areas in their first time on land before continuing on to the US.
Suicide remains a leading cause of death in the US Navy and Marines, according to an analysis of military data by USNI News, while veterans have higher rates of suicide than Americans who have not served in the military, according to the Veterans Administration.
A study, external of 956 sailors released in January 2025 found that troops aboard US Navy ships suffer the highest rates of “serious psychological distress” compared to other branches of the US military.
The study cited “unique stressors, such as poor habitability, noise and demanding schedules that leave inadequate time for sleep and rest”.
If you or anyone you know has been affected by the issues raised in this article, details of organisations offering information are available at BBC Action Line or you can call the US Suicide and Crisis Lifeline on 988.
Michelle Keegan stars as Di Emma Craine in ITV’s The Blame(Image: ITV)
Deeply offensive messages sent by serving police officers in a group chat are the basis of a storyline featured in ITV‘s gripping new drama starring Michelle Keegan.
Six-part series The Blame, based on the 2023 book of the same name by Charlotte Langley, starts off when the body of a young woman is found in a small town where DI Crane (Michelle Keegan) and DI Radley (Douglas Booth) work.
The duo team up to uncover what happened to a teenage figure skater, Sophie Madsen, and discover “a tangled web of lies, institutional cover-ups and a moral compromise”.
The show tackles misogyny that can be found in the UK police force, and the official synopsis confirms that Keegan’s DI Crane “must navigate both a murder investigation and the treacherous politics inside her own team”.
It also depicts actual text messages from the real-life Metropolitan Police group chat scandals, in which multiple investigations exposed deep-rooted and systemic racism, homophobia, and sexism, dismissed as “banter”, poisoning the country’s top police force.
Speaking about The Blame at ITV Showcase 2026 earlier this year, actor Douglas Booth explained: “There was a Panorama about the Charing Cross WhatsApp messages and texts that are completely sickening, and that was a bit of a basis and model for this group chat to let this toxic behavior spread and rot the department.”
He added: “Every single character in this show is trying to be a good person and nearly all of them are touched by some sort of institutional failure and hold some form of moral injury.”
An official investigation was launched by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which exposed the highly damaging revelations involving officers based at London’s Charing Cross Police Station who shared deeply offensive, racist, misogynistic, and homophobic messages on WhatsApp and Facebook.
First exposed globally in a landmark February 2022 report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), the scandal triggered widespread public outrage and directly contributed to the resignation of Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick.
The IOPC’s Operation Hotton uncovered a toxic culture within the station’s impact team between 2016 and 2018, which officers routinely dismissed as “banter”.
The watchdog noted a pervasive culture of bullying where good officers were too intimidated to challenge or report their peers. The initial 2022 report led to multiple fast-track misconduct hearings, resulting in several officers being sacked, forced to resign, or barred from policing.
Secret filming aired during BBC’s Panorama Undercover in the Police revealed evidence of racism, misogyny and officers revelling in the use of force at Charing Cross.
Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said at the time: “Enquiries were immediately launched by our Directorate of Professional Standards into allegations of criminality and misconduct by officers and staff based at Charing Cross Police Station.The behaviour as reported is disgraceful and rapid steps to secure evidence and protect the public have also been taken.
“In addition, we are scrutinising more widely the leadership and culture within these teams, led by Professional Standards and senior leaders, to root out any further failings. The leadership of these teams failed to create the right culture that identified warning signs or generated confidence in junior colleagues to report. This is one of the reasons we are taking such assertive exceptional action.
“The Met’s leadership has been very clear that it will not tolerate behaviour that fails to meet the organisation’s standards of professionalism and integrity.”
The Blame airs Sunday, September 20 on ITV1 at 9pm
Days before the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art officially opens, protesters from the Fair Games Coalition — wearing Jedi robes and Jar Jar Binks masks and carrying lightsabers — rallied together outside the new museum.
Dozens of people from the group fighting for better worker protections during major sporting events were loudly blowing horns, banging drums and chanting, “Sí se puede,” directly across from Exposition Park’s newest museum. The group was at the museum’s private opening party Saturday night to take a stance against museum co-founder Mellody Hobson‘s recent resignation from the Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee, LA28.
“We launched the campaign with some real, reasonable demands,” said Jessica Durrum, the director of the Fair Games Coalition, for the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy. “If the Olympics are coming to town, we want to make sure there are lasting benefits for our communities.”
The Fair Games Coalition, which is made up of over 80 organizations, formed to fight for better labor deals during major events like the Super Bowl and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Some of the unions in the coalition include United Teachers Los Angeles, National Union of Healthcare Workers, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, United Farm Workers and various community groups.
Ahead of these events, the group is asking that employers provide union and living wage jobs, funding for 50,000 units of housing for working families, a moratorium on short-term rentals and protections for immigrant workers.
Gladys Avyla marches in a Fair Games Coalition protest outside the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
(Jonathan Alcorn / For The Times)
Gladys Avyla, a member of Unite Here Local 11, has worked as a cleaner at the W Hotel in Hollywood for the last 14 years. Several years ago she had to move to Victorville when her rent in L.A. got too high. Avyla said that with these major sporting events coming through town she’s worried the cost of living will continue to rise as her work gets busier and busier.
“Rent is very high, and everything is expensive. It’s hard living here. We need a wage increase for the Olympics because everything costs so much,” Avyla said in Spanish. “We need help for all workers. We’re human beings, but, honestly, we aren’t treated like human beings.”
Hobson, who co-founded the billion-dollar museum alongside her husband, George Lucas, resigned from LA28 earlier this week. She reportedly stepped down from the position due to the demands of running the Lucas Museum.
But the Fair Games Coalition claims she responded to their requests to meet and discuss their concerns by resigning. The 35-person board led by Casey Wasserman, who was recently under heat for his ties to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, is meant to help plan and execute the upcoming Olympic Games.
“That’s how you hide your head in the sand. But we’re not giving up. She still has clout and still has a lot of power in the city of Los Angeles with the Olympic Committee,” said the Rev. Gary Bernard Williams from St. Mark United Methodist Church, a member of the coalition. “There’s going to be a lot of money flowing at the top. Very little money will be trickling down to the workers who need it the most.”
Demonstrators at a Fair Games Coalition protest at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.
(Jonathan Alcorn / For The Times)
LA28 and the Lucas Museum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During this year’s World Cup, where several games were hosted in L.A., Unite Here Local 11, the union which represents workers including dishwashers, concession workers, bartenders and servers and SoFi Stadium’s food-service operator Legends Global, came to a tentative agreement days before the first match. Pastor Bridie Roberts, who works as the community organizing director at Unite Here Local 11, said having the Fair Games Coalition’s support was helpful during the negotiations.
“Our members face serious, critical decisions every single day about how to make ends meet and they work with some of the biggest tourism companies in the world that will profit in the billions of these games,” said Roberts. “We feel that the games have potential to bring real outcomes for working people, but only if we fight for them.”
WASHINGTON — Several of the nation’s largest voter engagement and racial justice organizations are facing steep funding shortfalls and staffing cutbacks just as voting is getting underway in an election that will determine control of Congress for the final two years of President Trump’s term.
The shortfalls are setting off alarms among Democratic strategists, who are betting on high turnout and robust voter protection efforts to boost the party’s chances this fall. They are worried that many grassroots groups will not be able to mount effective registration and get-out-the-vote efforts, much less protect against the possibility of election interference from the administration given Trump’s efforts to restrict voting access and assert federal control over the election.
America Votes, a coordinating hub for more than 400 progressive groups, has fallen “well below” the level of funding it had during the 2022 midterms, the group’s executive director, Daria Dawson, said in a statement to the Associated Press. America Votes has acted as a nerve center for the voter mobilization efforts of groups such as the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, the League of Conservation Voters, the AFL-CIO and SEIU labor unions, as well as local groups focused on racial justice, climate and civil liberties.
“There is still time to reach voters and bring them into this election, but we are no longer talking about a future opportunity,” Dawson said. “The window to engage them is open now, and it is narrowing every day.”
Wealthy donors and philanthropic groups have reduced their support of many liberal causes since the 2024 presidential election. That pullback has been especially stark for voting groups geared toward engaging communities of color.
While multiple organizers said some funders had expressed an interest in adopting different strategies, racial justice organizers have felt that as a betrayal.
A retreat in donor support is “handcuffing our ability to persuade our communities to vote in a year where there is no Voting Rights Act,” said Esosa Osa, a veteran Democratic strategist and founder of Onyx Impact, a research group focused on combating misinformation in Black communities.
A Supreme Court ruling this year knocked out one of the last remaining pillars of that landmark 1965 law, essentially gutting it.
“We are watching surrender, not strategy,” Osa said.
A July memo that circulated among major Democratic fundraisers warned that “the organizations that registered and persuaded millions of voters to participate in the 2018 and 2022 midterms are drastically underfunded. They have raised nearly 40% less than they had at this point in those cycles.”
It further warned that funding voter mobilization groups was especially critical “given that the Democratic brand is underperforming on generic ballot tests relative to historical comparisons and the president’s approval ratings.”
The shortfalls have led organizations focused on engaging and mobilizing key voting groups to scale back operations and staffing over the last year. That has included programs aimed at registering and mobilizing lower-propensity voters, voters of color, and rural and younger voters.
The Democratic National Committee, which has faced its own funding challenges, has consolidated voter engagement efforts this year partly in response to the ecosystem’s past shortcomings. The DNC in a statement said it was making “historic investments” in its organizing but did not address the weaknesses among allied groups.
“We are expanding our voter protection infrastructure to defend Americans’ sacred right to vote, hold Trump and Republicans accountable in court, and register and mobilize voters across the country,” said Angelo Fernández Hernández, a DNC spokesperson.
The reasons for the troubled funding landscape are varied and at times unclear, according to nearly two dozen fundraisers and organizers who spoke with the AP. Some donors, still disappointed with the Democratic Party and some of its allies following the 2024 presidential election, have closed their pocketbooks to liberal causes entirely.
While a small group of liberal megadonors has continued to bankroll progressive causes, most focus their support on liberal legal organizations that have taken the Trump administration to court, rather than political or voter engagement groups.
Others, including major philanthropic institutions, have pulled back out of fear of retribution that giving to political or racial justice causes could draw the administration’s ire. Organizers who have engaged with potential donors said the administration’s targeting of political opponents and diversity initiatives seems to have put a chill on fundraising for their causes.
Tameka Ramsey-Brown, founding director of the Michigan Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said multiple donors since the 2024 election had asked whether her group could remove the word “Black” from its name or find financial conduits to mask the source of donations for fear of retribution from the administration.
“Just being Black in this country again has become a bad word, and it has made it that much more difficult just to raise money because funders don’t want the added pressure and stress or attacks on them by funding us,” she said.
Many of the nonprofit groups that traditionally have conducted the registration, voter education and organizing say they are trying to adapt to their new, leaner reality.
Vamos a Votar, an initiative of the largest civil rights and advocacy groups focused on Latino communities, has had to readjust its ambitions this year due to a lack of investment from funders.
“This is shaping up to be a cycle where investments haven’t gone to the Black and brown communities that will ultimately decide this election,” said Juan Proaño, chief executive of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a member of the initiative.
In a September pitch circulated among donors, the coalition said it aimed to invest $27.5 million in voter engagement and persuasion efforts this year, but still required $5.4 million from donors to fund voter turnout efforts across 10 states and 17 House districts. Even that investment reflected reduced ambitions from previous pitches to donors early this year.
“It has been extremely disappointing to see that progressive donors are not meeting the moment,” said Héctor Sánchez Barba, head of Mi Familia Vota, one of the affiliated organizations. “We are not waiting. We are always on the front lines for our democracy and our communities.”
To counter the funding cutbacks, some groups have begun relying more heavily on artificial intelligence to provide voter registration guides, share information in multiple languages and track potential election issues. Some groups have increased their partnerships with ride-sharing companies to provide free rides to polling places instead of bus shuttles.
With fewer in-person organizers, some groups are also focusing on social media and partnering with liberal content creators to boost their messages.
“In my more than 30 years of organizing, it has never been this bad to raise money to support Black causes of any kind,” said Melanie Campbell, president and chief executive of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, a nonpartisan civil rights group.
“We’re going to do the work, our state affiliates are doing all that is possible. … But the bottom line is that those who believe that democracy matters should make sure they fund the work.”
Brown writes for the Associated Press.
The Manchester United Muslim Supporters group says club co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe “must go” after he spoke out against immigration levels and said the country was “on the slide”.
Billionaire Ratcliffe, who is one of Britain’s richest people and founder of petrochemical giant Ineos, made the comments in an interview with the BBC on Saturday.
Ratcliffe said the UK was in decline because of a combination of high taxes and high immigration.
He has previously apologised for “offending some people” with his language after saying the UK had been “colonised by immigrants”.
At the time, in February, United responded by saying the club “prides itself” on being “inclusive”, while BBC Sport cited a source familiar with the Glazer family as understanding the club’s majority shareholders were “horrified” by his initial remarks and saw them as showing “disregard for their ownership”.
“We condemned those comments then,” said a statement of no confidence from Manchester United Muslim Supporters Club (MUMSC) in the club’s ownership, issued on Saturday.
“He [Ratcliffe] subsequently apologised for his choice of language. We hoped a lesson had been learned. Clearly, it has not.
“This week, Sir Jim has again placed immigration and people receiving benefits at the centre of his explanation for Britain’s problems, arguing that nobody is ‘tough enough’ to deal with either.
“We find these latest comments deeply disappointing and completely unacceptable.”
Ratcliffe campaigned for a Leave vote in the 2016 European Union referendum and has been a tax resident in Monaco since 2020.
He acquired a 27.7% stake in Man Utd in 2024, and has since restructured the organisation, overseeing 450 redundancies, overhauling senior management and sacking two managers.
MUMSC highlighted that United’s “players, staff, stewards, security teams and supporters come from different countries, cultures, ethnicities, religions and backgrounds”.
The group added: “Manchester United would not be Manchester United without them. That diversity isn’t a weakness of Manchester United. It is part of Manchester United.”
In the statement, the MUMSC also called on the Glazer family to go.
MUMSC said its members were among the club’s fans who hoped Ratcliffe’s arrival “would finally signal meaningful change” after the Glazer family had “presided over Manchester United’s decline”.
However, the group pointed to “higher ticket prices” and “a stadium allowed to deteriorate”, along with “a football team that continues to fall further behind where Manchester United should be”, among their concerns which “now extend beyond the pitch”.
Manchester United entered the weekend sitting 13th in the Premier League after gaining four points from their first four Premier League games, and they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday with a 3-2 home defeat by Brighton.
“After years of decline, broken promises and repeated failure, Manchester United Muslim Supporters’ Club has lost confidence in the current ownership structure of Manchester United Football Club,” MUMSC concluded.
“Enough is enough. It is time for change. The Glazers and Sir Jim Ratcliffe must go.”
Somewhere in the overlap between William Friedkin’s 1977 action thriller “Sorcerer” and Kelly Reichardt’s 2020 Pacific Northwest pioneer indie “First Cow” lies Padraic McKinley’s directorial debut “The Weight.”
“Sorcerer” is about a group of fugitives driving a load of dynamite across the jungle; “The Weight” follows a group of Depression-era convicts transferring gold through the forest. “First Cow” is about the sweetness of friendship and French pastries in the wilds of Oregon during westward expansion; “The Weight” is about the corrupting forces of capitalism. McKinley’s movie marries the instincts of modern indie filmmaking with a New Hollywood ethos, while bringing an authenticity to the details of the period.
We follow the story of Murphy (Ethan Hawke), a World War I vet and single father in Eugene, Ore., struggling to provide for his daughter, Penny (Avy Berry), three years into the Great Depression. After an unfortunate run-in with the law, Murphy finds himself in a prison labor camp, building a road and trying to shorten his sentence so he can get out before his daughter is adopted by a new family.
Opportunity presents itself in Murphy’s foreman, Clancy (Russell Crowe), who takes a shine to him after he fixes his car and devises an ingenious way to remove boulders without dynamite. Cuddly but dangerous, Clancy makes a seemingly simple offer to Murphy: He and three friends can earn their freedom if they hike a load of gold out of a mining camp on the eve of President Franklin D. Roosevelt confiscation of all gold stockpiles.
The how and why details aren’t that important; the story is merely that the prisoners have to get from point A to point B through a rugged forested terrain, under the watch of two intimidating chaperones, Amis (Sam Hazeldine) and Letender (George Burgess). A mining camp servant, Anna (Julia Jones), joins their group as a runaway and while it seems a straightforward task, the arduous and brutal journey is one that is liable to turn these convicts into runaways.
Murphy’s gang weren’t really outlaws to begin with — he was imprisoned for defending his daughter from some undercover cops, while Singh (Avi Nash) was arrested for his associations with socialism. Olson (Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen) was part of a group going after a judge for seizing Scandinavian farms, while the most hardened criminal among them is Rankin (Austin Amelio), who grew up in juvie. But in order to survive the woods, Murphy will have to dig deep into his wartime past and rely on his own skills and smarts to make out it out intact.
McKinley pours his craft into authentically representing the era, from the perfectly worn denim of the costumes to the refreshingly real and craggy faces of the cast (and thank goodness Hawke and Crowe are respectably aging into their character-actor looks). The Bavarian forest beautifully stands in for 1930s Oregon and cinematographer Matteo Cocco balances ’70s-inspired slow zooms with composed, high-contrast images that hark to early 20th century styles of photography. A score by Latham and Shelby Gaines balances discordant, atonal tones with suspense-driven sound design that captures the creaking noises of the forest and the concealed dangers it holds.
McKinley stages a few bullet-sweating sequences of peril, including a particularly brutal transport of gold bars across a crumbling rope bridge and an underwater accident exacerbated by floating logs. Both are nail-biters but you can’t help but think he could have pushed it even further. Tonally, the film is torn between wanting to be brutally bleak and offering some kind of hope for Murphy and his precocious, adorable daughter.
When “The Weight” leans into its nasty, mean and grim moments, it gets at something that seems closer to truth than the saccharine resolution we fear is coming. It seems like McKinley wants to deliver a crushing blow, but then feints at the last minute, opting for a more optimistic kind of fantasy.
Politically and culturally, what “The Weight” speaks to is as ugly as the violence that occurs in the mud and fog of the forest. But it ends on an oddly cheery note that doesn’t square with what we’ve seen. It’s a cutesy ’70s nod that feels more “Smokey and the Bandit” than “Sorcerer.” The bolder choice would have been to commit to expressing the despairing lessons of this world. We want to see these characters changed by what they’ve experienced, even if it’s dark. We want to see them actually carry the weight.
Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.
‘The Weight’
Rated: R, for language and some violence/bloody images
Running time: 1 hour, 55 minutes
Playing: Opens Friday, Sept. 18 in wide release