Jesus

WOKE theatre chiefs have warned musical Jesus Christ Superstar will “include an onstage depiction of the crucifixion” when it returns next year 

Staggered fans have hit out at producers who have also seen fit to alert would-be watchers that the rock opera also has in it “some violence” and “imitation blood”. 

Tickets only went on sale yesterday for the work which will be staged at the London Palladium.

It will star Eurovision and “Space Man” crooner Sam Ryder playing the part of Jesus. 

It recounts the final week of Jesus’ life, from the perspective of his disciple and betrayer, Judas Iscariot.  

The original — condemned by religious groups for its “sympathetic” portrayal of Judas — opened in London in 1972 and closed in 1980 after 3,357 productions. 

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Gerald Dixon, an admirer of the musical, which includes hits “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” and “Superstar”, was among those nonplussed by the warning attached to the forthcoming show.

He told The Sun: “What next? A warning that the hit musical includes catchy tunes?  

“This nonsense is enough to make anyone utter the Lord’s name in vain.” 

The Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber show runs from June to September, with tickets costing up to £335. 

LW Theatres, London’s largest operator of musical theatres, was contacted for comment on the warning yesterday. 

On the second floor of a cultural center at Christ Cathedral in Orange County, an AI-rendered depiction of Jesus, calm and smiling, fills one side of the room. Breaking a piece of flatbread in two, he passes it to the 12 similarly enlarged men projected on all four walls around him. On the ground are images of heaping plates of food — roast lamb, vegetables, olives and dips.

“Take and eat,” the AI Jesus says. “This is my body.”

In the center of the room, real-life visitors arrayed on 26 swivel chairs turn their heads back and forth to take in the supersized Last Supper occurring all around them. Already, they have been plunged into the sea of Galilee watching as Jesus walked on water and witnessed his transfiguration on a mountain top. It was all part of what’s being touted as “a museum unlike any other, where faith and forensics meet.”

Visitors watch a 360-degree, AI-rendered video depicting the life of Jesus as told in the Gospels at the opening of the Shroud of Turin Experience at Christ Cathedral.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Located five miles from Disneyland on the campus that once housed televangelist Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral Ministries, the Shroud of Turin Experience is Orange County’s newest tourist attraction with a Christian twist. The 10,000-square-foot exhibit, which opened to the public last week, uses digital projection, artificial intelligence and special effects to introduce visitors to the life of Jesus as depicted in the Gospels with a focus on the mysterious linen burial cloth that believers say wrapped his body after the crucifixion.

“It’s a little Disney-esque, but we really want you to feel like you are in these scenes,” said Pat Powers, a financial adviser who helped raise money for the exhibit. “We want the whole experience to be visually overwhelming.”

Powered by technological advances and a consumer desire for in-person connection, immersive experiences are reinvigorating the way businesses and organizations connect with new audiences and the Catholic Church has taken note. From the viral success of Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience which arrived in L.A. in 2021 to the 360-degree entertainment at the Sphere in Las Vegas, young people in particular are seeking new and dynamic ways of interacting with their entertainment. Now, as the Catholic Church seeks to connect with a new generation of Christians who may be unfamiliar with the Biblical Jesus and the mystery of the shroud, religious and lay leaders are exploring digitally enhanced ways of bringing people to faith.

An interactive screen at the Shroud of Turin Experience allows guests to zoom in on details of the shroud of Turin, a mysterious linen cloth which some believe covered Jesus after his death.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“We want to speak to people the way they are used to being spoken to today and in a way they can absorb,” Powers said.

Organizers said the desire to outfit the exhibit with digital bells and whistles came directly from the top. The Diocese of Orange only agreed to sign off on the privately funded project after organizers promised it would offer interactive elements beyond text and images.

“I said no static pictures, too boring,” said Bishop Timothy Freyer, auxiliary bishop of the diocese. “Posters on the walls wasn’t going to do it.”

Now, signs around the 34-acre Christ Cathedral campus where the Diocese of Orange is located advertise “The Shroud of Turin Experience” as if it were a summer blockbuster: “Discover the blood. Uncover the mystery. Encounter the light.”

Roughly 14 feet long and three feet wide, the shroud of Turin is one of the most scientifically studied and contested religious objects in the world — a holy relic to some and a medieval forgery to others. Scarred by burn marks and water stains, the narrow sheet of linen features hundreds of blood stains consistent with the wounds Jesus suffered at the time of his death. Even more mysteriously, it bares the faint image of a bearded man that some Christians believe provides physical evidence of Jesus’ resurrection. The Catholic Church has not taken an official position on the shroud’s veracity, but the exhibit’s organizers find the evidence for its divine provenance convincing and hope others will too.

A bronze statue of Jesus lies in front of an enlarged photo negative image of the face detail on the shroud of Turin.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“Our position is that the shroud offers evidence of the resurrection, but not proof,” said Nora Creech, a shroud scholar who helped organize the exhibit. “The goal is to lead people in and let them go on their own journey.”

Visitors will not be able to see the actual shroud of Turin. It hasn’t left its long time home of St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Turin, Italy, for centuries. However, with the bishop of Turin’s blessing, organizers were able to procure a high-resolution, full-sized replica. Docents at the exhibit will show visitors how to change their iPhone camera settings to create what looks like a photo negative, making it easier to see the shadowy figure on the cloth.

“Kids always think that’s cool,” said Creech.

The exhibit costs $20 for adults, and organizers say visitors should budget at least 90 minutes to make their way through it. In the first of three immersive rooms, a dizzying 360-degree video introduces guests to the story of Jesus’ life from his baptism to the crucifixion — including that jumbo last supper. At the end of the 20-minute film, a projected rock rolls away from a door leading into a second room designed to look like Jesus’ tomb, complete with a prone figure lying on a stone altar, draped in a white cloth. There guests watch an 18-minute documentary detailing the scientific research on the shroud before moving on to a third “chapel” room where a video animated by AI shares stories from the Bible of sightings of Jesus after his death.

Patrons view a supersized image of Christ on the cross.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

The second half of the exhibit is more traditional. Guests can examine several instruments of torture that were reportedly used to inflict pain on Jesus, including replicas of the nails used for crucifixion, the crown of thorns that adorned his head, and the double-edged blade of a Roman lance that pierced his side. Interactive features include a kiosk that digitally separates each level of the shroud so visitors can examine just the blood stains, just the burn marks or just the shadowy image. Those who want a really deep dive on the shroud can interact with a virtual Father Spitzer, president of the Magis Center on Reason and Faith and a local expert on the shroud, to hear pre-recorded answers to questions like “What evidence suggests a supernatural cause was necessary for the image formulation on the shroud” and “How do neutrons explain the shroud’s exceptional resistance to aging and solvents?”

The final room of the exhibit is designed for reflection and includes a life-sized bronze statue of Jesus created by Italian artist Luigi Enzo Matte, according to the dimensions of the image on the shroud.

Although there is a clear religious bent to the entire experience, Creech said the exhibit, expected to remain at Christ Cathedral through at least 2030, is designed to share information on the life of Jesus and the shroud, but not necessarily to convert anyone.

“I think we can convince people that the shroud is the shroud that wrapped the physical body of Jesus,” she said. “But Jesus stresses the importance of belief. To proclaim that Jesus is our lord and savior is an act of faith that everyone has to take on their own.”

Nov. 22 (UPI) — A Democrat and a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives have co-sponsored a resolution that calls for raising the number of votes needed to censure a colleague from a majority to 60% as a way to force “bipartisan support.”

The two-page resolution introduced by Democrat Don Beyer of Virginia and Republican Don Bacon of Nebraska on Friday comes amid efforts to censure three House members in an escalating numbers of members looking to take action against one another.

“The process of censures and disciplinary measures in the House is broken, and all of us know it,” Beyer said in a joint press release with Bacon announcing the legislation.

“These measures were historically reserved for rare and exceptional cases after a lengthy process that allowed time for investigations and due process, but that precedent has deteriorated,” he said. “Our resolution would break the cycle of censures to help return focus in the House to solving problems for the American people.”

The effort, the duo told colleagues in a letter on Thursday, would fix the problem and raise the level of sanity in the chamber, the New York Times reported.

“A U.S. House ruled by mob mentality cannot function. The institution and American people deserve better than what we’ve seen this week. The vast middle must stand up to the extremes and put commonsense safeguards in place,” Bacon said in the release.

The bill already had 29 sponsors by Friday afternoon, Roll Call reported.

“It has become a political tactic, rather than an action to protect the reputation of the House,” Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who in past years served as the majority and minority leader, told the Times. “If it becomes common, it will lose its prophylactic effect.”

Since 1832, the House has censured members 25 times and issued reprimands 11 times — and censured members just six times in the 21st century, according to NBC News.

Bacon and Beyer noted in the press release that most censures in history have come “after lengthy ethics investigations that established criminal activity or serious misconduct.”

Expulsion from Congress requires two-thirds approval, with 16 members of the House and five members of the Senate having been ejected from office, according to Congressional records. The vast majority — 17 — got the boot during the Civil War for backing the Confederacy.

The most recent expulsion was former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., who was later convicted in federal court, although President Donald Trump commuted his sentence after he had served three months in prison.

“The proliferation of resolutions to punish our fellow Members with censure, disapproval or the revocation of committee assignments has become unsustainable, to the point that they now impair our ability to work together to address serious issues. I fear this is inflicting lasting damage on this institution,” Beyer said Friday.

Just this week, there has been a raft of censure efforts introduced in the House, some successful and some not.

On Tuesday, the House rebuked Rep. Jesus Garcia, a Democrat serving Illinois, for hand-selecting his successor after announcing his retirement after the filing deadline for the Democratic primary.

Also on Tuesday, the House voted against censuring Stacey Plaskett, the U.S. delegate representing the U.S. Virgin Islands, amid revelations that she received information via text from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a congressional hearing

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., filed a resolution to censure Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., who has been accused of financial misconduct and domestic abuse. In that case, the House voted to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee.

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., also threatened to censure, and then expel, fellow Floridian, Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick after she was indicted this week for allegedly stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds.

Nov. 15 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has withdrawn his support from one of his past closest allies, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, calling her “wacky.”

Greene, who has served in a Republican-dominated House district in northwest Georgia since January 2021, has sided with Democrats on two issues — enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, and the release of Department of Justice files involving convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including Trump’s relationship with him.

In a lengthy post on Truth Social on Friday night, Trump announced that he is “withdrawing my support and Endorsement of “Congresswoman” Marjorie Taylor Greene, of the Great State of Georgia.”

In a 115-word sentence that highlights his achievements since retaking office, “over the past two weeks … all I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!”

Greene quickly responded on X on Friday night, saying in a post that “Trump just attacked me and lied about me.”

Trump noted why Greene is upset with him.

“It seemed to all begin when I sent her a Poll stating that she should not run for Senator, or Governor, she was at 12%, and didn’t have a chance (unless, of course, she had my Endorsement — which she wasn’t about to get!,” Trump wrote.

He also said that Greene was upset that he has not communicated with her.

“She has told many people that she is upset that I don’t return her phone calls anymore, but with 219 Congressmen/women, 53 U.S. Senators, 24 Cabinet Members, almost 200 Countries, and an otherwise normal life to lead, I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day,” he wrote. “She has gone Far Left, even doing The View, with their Low IQ Republican hating Anchors.”

Greene posted a screenshot of texts she had sent Trump about the Epstein investigation, noting that she had not “called him at all, but I did send these text messages today. Apparently this is what sent him over the edge. The Epstein files.”

Trump said he would support a candidate against her in the congressional primary next year.

“I understand that wonderful, Conservative people are thinking about primarying Marjorie in her District of Georgia, that they too are fed up with her and her antics and, if the right person runs, they will have my Complete and Unyielding Support,” Trump said.

Greene was reelected in 2024, capturing more than 64% of her district’s vote after 65% in 2022 and 75% in 2020. The district includes parts of Chattanooga, Tenn., and Atlanta metro area.

“I have supported President Trump with too much of my precious time, too much of my own money, and fought harder for him even when almost all other Republicans turned their back and denounced him,” she wrote. “But I don’t worship or serve Donald Trump. I worship God, Jesus is my savior, and I serve my district GA14 and the American people.”

“I remain the same today as I’ve always been and I will continue to pray this administration will be successful because the American people desperately deserve what they voted for. For me, I remain America First and America Only!!!”

Epstein files

Greene has joined three other House Republicans in signing a discharge petition for the release of documents related to investigations into pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

There are the necessary 218 votes and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has scheduled a vote for next week, but the bill will still need be approved by the Senate, which will require at least 60 votes, as well as Trump’s signature.

Greene wrote “of course he’s coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans before next weeks vote to release the Epstein files. It’s astonishing really how hard he’s fighting to stop the Epstein files from coming out that he actually goes to this level.”

“But really most Americans wish he would fight this hard to help the forgotten men and women of America who are fed up with foreign wars and foreign causes, are going broke trying to feed their families, and are losing hope of ever achieving the American dream. That’s what I voted for,” she added.

Epstein, who had sexual relationships with girls and young women, and trafficked them to other men, was friends with Trump.

“Releasing the Epstein files is the easiest thing in the world,” Greene told Politico on Friday, before Trump’s post.

“Just release it all, let the American people sort through every bit of it, and, you know, support the victims. That’s just like the most common sense, easiest thing in the world. But to spend any effort trying to stop it … just doesn’t make sense to me,” she said.

Government shutdown

Trump posted Wednesday on Truth Social that “only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap. There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”

Democrats launched the 43-day government shutdown after Republicans refused to include an extension of the subsidies in bills to reopen the government — a position that Greene broke with her party in support of. Healthcare was the core a federal government shutdown that lasted 43 days.

Greene had been critical of Trump and her party for promising to at least discuss, if not vote, on extending enhanced subsidies for people who buy health insurance through an Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace.

The shutdown ended Wednesday night when Trump signed legislation to fund the government through January, with the subsidies still set to expire at the end of the year.

“It’s insanely the wrong direction to go,” Greene said. “The five-alarm fire is healthcare and affordability for Americans. And that’s where the focus should be.”

Greene noted during the shutdown that her adult children are enrolled in health insurance plans through the ACA marketplace and that their premiums are set to double if the federal subsidies expire.

Greene also has blamed Republicans’ election losses earlier this month on going against Trump’s initial “America First” agenda.

“This is me wanting my party to do something, to win and do something good for the American people,” Greene told Politico.

“It’s not me going against, it’s me pushing my party to say, this is what we need to be doing Not only is it the right thing to do for America, but if you want to win the midterms, this is what we need to be doing, deliver for Americans if we want them to send us back in 2026.”

What would Jesus do if his early years were told as an unremarkable horror film?

It would probably be another opportunity to forgive, along with the very easy act of forgetting “The Carpenter’s Son,” a dingy alt-biblical slog that doesn’t even have the kitschy sense to use Nicolas Cage properly as a paranoid Joseph who isn’t sure if his kid comes from the good place or the bad one.

Writer-director Lotfy Nathan’s inspiration is an apocryphal 2nd century text called the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, which purports to describe the incident-filled childhood of a temperamental Jesus. It’s never been widely accepted Christian canon, but there’s no reason why what isn’t holy scripture couldn’t be a holy-moly script. In the Egyptian-American filmmaker’s retelling, a mixed-up boy (Noah Jupe) running from persecution with his devout dad, the Carpenter (Cage), and ethereal mother (a blank-faced FKA Twigs) is a superhero in waiting, with a bloody gauntlet of nightmares to get through first.

One of those is surviving his own birth, presented here in a sequence of torchlit, squishy labor that’s far from the twinkly manger of Christmas-diorama harmony. Onscreen, the text reads “Anno Domini,” in case it’s not clear whose umbilical cord is getting cut. “They’re coming for him,” his papa intones. Mom’s anguished childbirth moaning segues to those of young women nearby having their babies ripped from their arms and thrown into a bonfire. Barely escaping the scrutiny of the king’s killers, this new family escapes.

A time shift takes us to when the boy is 15 (not to mention sullen, bored-looking and wracked by violent visions of crucifixion). Our trio lands in a remote settlement that affords them the chance at a simple life, albeit under the Carpenter’s strict precautions against evil spirits: boarded windows, lots of praying, staying clean and making sure the boy sticks to his schooling. Attractive mute girl Lilith (Souheila Yacoub) draws the lad’s peeping gaze. But then there’s the young androgynous figure with mysterious scars (Isla Johnston), who seems intent on giving the new kid lessons in rule-breaking, not to mention cynical guidance about his destiny.

“You know who I am, but who are you?” this coaxing stranger offers, which is like a playground retort twisted to sound pseudo-philosophical. Nathan, via his thoroughly pedestrian directorial style, never exactly masks who it is anyway. But it sure makes for monotonous viewing. Meanwhile, the petulant Jesus starts feeling his powers and is suddenly called a savior by some, a malevolent sorcerer by others. Mostly, he’s one more uninteresting movie juvenile.

With its flat location visuals, B-movie gore (snakes pulled from mouths) and colorless score, “The Carpenter’s Son” is the uninspired origin story you never prayed for. But it really feels like a wasted opportunity when Cage is onscreen, sporting what appears to be a middle-aged man’s attempt at a Rachel haircut, saddled with boring dialogue about faith and fear and generally behaving like a reformed maniac under sedation.

“The Carpenter’s Son” wants to mix it up with an invented (and what some might call blasphemous) narrative about that time Satan almost seduced brooding teenage Jesus. But not letting Cage go biblical? That’s some kind of sin against cinema.

When millions of European immigrants came to the United States in the 19th century only to be scorned by mainstream society, it was the Catholic Church that embraced them, taught that keeping the customs of one’s native lands was not bad and created systems of mutual aid and education for the newcomers that didn’t rely on the government.

The 1960 election of John F. Kennedy, an Irish American Catholic, showed that the U.S. was ready to expand its definition of who could become president. Labor organizers like Cesar Chavez, Dorothy Day and Mother Jones pushed for the dignity of workers while frequently citing the woke words of Jesus — the Sermon of the Mount and the Beatitudes among the wokest — as the fuel for their spiritual fire.

Catholicism is the faith I was baptized in, the one I embraced as a teen and that’s the bedrock for my moral code of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. My work desk covered with statues and devotional cards of Jesus, Mary and the saints is a physical testament to this.

But I’m also one of the 72% of U.S. Catholics that a Pew Research Center survey from earlier this year. found don’t attend weekly Mass, which we’re obligated to do.

I stopped going early on in my adulthood because the Church became something I didn’t recognize.

The bishops and cardinals who preached we should follow Jesus’ admonition we should tend to the least among us presided over a child sex abuse scandal in the 1990s and 2000s that cost parishioners billions of dollars in legal settlements and their ethical high ground. The obsession that too many of those same church leaders had over abortion and homosexuality — which Christ never talked about — over social justice matters during the Obama administration left me disappointed. Their continual condemnation of pro-choice Catholic Democratic politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden for taking Communion while staying silent about Donald Trump’s constant violations of the Ten Commandments was rank hypocrisy.

The Pew Research Center found 55% of my fellow faithful voted for Trump. Key Catholics have blessed Trump’s uglier tendencies: A majority of them rules over our revanchist Supreme Court while the president’s team features a vice president who’s a convert and a rogue’s gallery of influential insiders that bear surnames from previous generations of Catholic diasporas — Kennedy, Rubio, Bovino, Homan among the worst of the worst.

Yet I remain a Catholic because you shouldn’t turn your back so easily on institutions that formed you and you don’t cede your identity to heretics. The election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American to head the Holy See, to succeed Pope Francis stirred in me the sense that things might change for the better as our country worsens.

Now, without naming him, the U.S. Catholic hierarchy has rebuked Trump on his signature issue and one close to my heart in a way that shows my hope hasn’t been in vain.

Clergy attend the 2021 Fall General Assembly meeting of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in Baltimore, Md.

(Julio Cortez/Associated Press)

This week the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops released a so-called “special message” to blast Trump’s deportation Leviathan, decrying its “vilification of immigrants” “the, indiscriminate mass deportation of people” and how hundreds of thousands of residents have “arbitrarily lost their legal status.” Citing passages from across the Bible — the Gospel, the Old Testament, the Letters of Paul — to argue for the human worth of the undocumented and the holy mandate that we must care about them, it was the first time since 2013 that American bishops collectively authored such a statement.

Even as a majority of U.S. Catholics have gone MAGA, support for the special message was overwhelming: 216 bishops voted in favor, 5 against, and there were 3 abstentions. Their missive even concluded with a shout-out to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the brown, pregnant apparition of the Virgin Mary who’s the patroness of the Americas for Catholics.

Talk about someone who would get deported if la migra saw Her on the street.

The cruelty this administration has shown throughout its deportation campaign — families torn apart as easily as the Constitution; U.S. citizens detained; wanton federal violence that a federal judge in Chicago described as “shock[ing] the conscience” — has become one of the most pressing moral issues of our times. The call by Catholic bishops to oppose this wrong is important — so like a voice crying in the wilderness, the church must set an example for the rest of the country to follow.

This example already is being set in parishes across Southern California.

Priests and deacons have marched at rallies and prayed for those detained and deported from Orange County to downtown L.A. and beyond. Dolores Mission in Boyle Heights has let local activists stage know-your-rights workshops since Trump won last November. While L.A archbishop José H. Gomez and Diocese of Orange bishop Kevin Vann, the two most senior Catholic prelates in the region, have spoken out forcefully against immigration raids, some of their local brother bishops have pushed harder.

Diocese of San Bernardino Bishop Alberto Rojas has allowed Catholics who are afraid of la migra to skip Mass since July after immigration agents detained migrants on church property, arguing “such fear constitutes a grave inconvenience” for his flock. In San Diego, Bishop Michael Pham — who’s been in his seat for only four months — helped launch a program encouraging religious leaders to accompany migrants to immigration court to bear witness to the injustices inside and has participated himself.

Expect to hear gnashing of the teeth from the conservative side of church pews about how everyone should respect the rule of law and to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s as if there ever was a Pope Donald. Already, Trump border czar Tom Homan has cried that the bishops are “wrong” for issuing their pro-immigrant letter and suggested they focus on “fixing the Catholic Church.”

But Homan’s dismissal and that of his fellow travelers doesn’t make the bishop’s admonition against Trump’s policies any more prophetic. The president’s immigration dictates are out of Herod — no less an authority than Pope Leo described them in October as “inhuman,” told a delegation of American bishops that “the church cannot remain silent” on those outrages and stated in a separate speech that such abuse was “not the legitimate exercise of national sovereignty, but rather grave crimes committed or tolerated by the state.”

The Catholic Church never will be as progressive as some want it to be. Even as the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops released its message, the group elected as its next president Diocese of Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, whose public politics have so far mostly aligned with those of his deep-red state. But on the issue of dignity for immigrants during the Trump era, U.S. bishops have been on the right side of history — and God. They criticized Trump’s Muslim ban and his move to separate undocumented parents from their children during his first administration and have kept a watch on his attempt to cancel the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows some people who came to this country as children to legally remain in the U.S.

We’re about to enter the Christmas season, a holiday based on the story of a poor family seeking shelter in an era when their kind was rejected by the powers that be and ultimately had to flee home. It’s the story of the United States as well, one too many Americans have forsaken and that Trump wants all of us to forget.

May Catholics remind their fellow Americans anew of how powerful and righteous standing up for the stranger is.

Bayern Munich winger Michael Olise interests Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United eye Borussia Dortmund forward Karim Adeyemi, Newcastle among the clubs chasing AZ Alkmaar midfielder Kees Smit.

Liverpool view Bayern Munich’s Michael Olise, 23, as a possible replacement for Egypt’s Mohamed Salah, 33, and are prepared to break the bank to sign the France forward. (Fichajes in Spanish), external

Arsenal have entered the race for Borussia Dortmund’s Karim Adeyemi, 23, with Manchester United also keen on the Germany forward. (Teamtalk), external

AZ Alkmaar will allow 19-year-old Dutch midfielder Kees Smit to leave but want in excess of £22m with Newcastle, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich all interested. (Sky Sports), external

Paris St-Germain aim to sign Brazil forward Vinicius Jr on a free transfer in 2027, when the 25-year-old’s contract with Real Madrid ends. (Fichajes – in Spanish), external

Arsenal and Brazil forward Gabriel Jesus, 28, has outlined his desire to return to former club Palmeiras in the future. (Mirror), external

Newcastle are pushing to sign James Trafford, 23, in January, with the English goalkeeper struggling for game time at Manchester City. (Teamtalk), external