1. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine Books: $30) A story of friendship, love and adversity during the 1980s Space Shuttle program.
2. Vera, or Faith by Gary Shteyngart (Random House: $28) A tale of a family struggling to stay together in a country rapidly coming apart.
3. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press: $30) An unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond. 9
4. My Friends by Fredrik Backman (Atria Books: $30) The bond between a group of teens 25 years earlier has a powerful effect on a budding artist.
5. James by Percival Everett (Doubleday: $28) An action-packed reimagining of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
6. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab (Tor Books: $30) A vampiric tale follows three women across the centuries.
7. Culpability by Bruce Holsinger (Spiegel & Grau: $30) A suspenseful family drama about moral responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence.
8. My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende (Ballantine Books: $30) A young writer in the late 1800s travels to South America to uncover the truth about her father.
9. The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley (Ace: $30) A romantasy following an assassin and a healer forced to work together to cure a fatal disease.
10. The Wedding People by Alison Espach (Henry Holt & Co.: $29) An unexpected wedding guest gets surprise help on her journey to starting anew.
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Hardcover nonfiction
1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House: $30) How to stop wasting energy on things you can’t control.
2. Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $30) A study of the barriers to progress in the U.S.
3. The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (Penguin: $32) The music producer on how to be a creative person. 122
4. A Marriage at Sea by Sophie Elmhirst (Riverhead Books: $28) The true story of a young couple shipwrecked at sea: a partnership stretched to its limits.
5. Lessons From Cats for Surviving Fascism by Stewart Reynolds (Grand Central Publishing: $13) A guide to channeling feline wisdom in the face of authoritarian nonsense.
6. 2024 by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager, Isaac Arnsdorf (Penguin Press: $32) The inside story of a tumultuous and consequential presidential campaign.
7. Super Agers by Eric Topol (Simon & Schuster: $33) A detailed guide to a revolution transforming human longevity.
8. The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad (Random House: $30) A guide to the art of journaling and a meditation on the central questions of life.
9. We Can Do Hard Things by Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle (The Dial Press: $34) The guidebook for being alive.
10. The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer and John Burgoyne (illustrator) (Scribner: $20) On gratitude, reciprocity and community, and the lessons to take from the natural world.
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Paperback fiction
1. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco: $20)
2. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Ballantine: $20)
3. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Vintage: $18)
4. All Fours by Miranda July (Riverhead Books: $19)
5. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (Transit Books: $17)
6. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $19)
7. Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Scribner: $20)
8. One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune (Berkley: $19)
9. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper Perennial: $22)
10. Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood (Berkley, $20)
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Paperback nonfiction
1. The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne (Penguin: $21)
2. The Wager by David Grann (Vintage: $21)
3. The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides (Vintage: $19)
4. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (Crown: $12)
5. The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (Amber-Allen: $13)
6. Sociopath by Patric Gagne, Ph.D. (Simon & Schuster: $20)
7. All About Love by bell hooks (Morrow: $17)
8. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Vintage: $18)
9. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (TarcherPerigee: $20)
10. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D. (Penguin: $19)
Josh Kim and Sam Hong had successful careers in tech — but in 2022, they decided to start making burgers, bought a few portable griddles and did their first pop-up at Thank You Coffee in Chinatown. About a year and a half later, the pair earned a vendor spot at Smorgasburg, where they served 450 burgers on their first day of service inspired by their Korean American childhoods — think pork belly sandwiches with sesame mayo and kimchi jam, and a smashburger patty topped with a tempura-fried enoki mushroom, yuzu mayonnaise and pickled red onions.
“I say it’s like exploring cultural confusion,” Kim said of Softies’ menu. “Sam and I are both Korean American, so we grew up at home eating Korean dishes. But whenever we’re out, we wanted to eat burgers and pizza and whatnot. So it’s kind of trying to figure out what that looks like.”
Kim and Hong soft opened their bricks-and-mortar location of Softies Burger in the USC Village on July 6, where they formerly worked at Cafe Dulce. Owner James Choi put in a good word for them to the landlord who, after going to Smorgasburg to try their food, offered them a spot at the campus-adjacent shopping center.
The newly-opened burger joint has a few new items on the menu, including a classic New York-style chopped cheese sandwich, a chicken Caesar salad with spicy panko breadcrumbs and shrimp paste and a selection of sodas, along with drip coffee and cold brew. Desserts pull from childhood nostalgia, including a diner-inspired lime pie with yuzu and a miso-caramel banoffee pie.
Leading up to the opening, Kim and Hong started a GoFundMe that raised over $18,000 for restaurant equipment, furniture and other inventory. Neither of the pair are chefs, though Kim sees his time working in tech for OpenTable and DoorDash as “data gathering” for what he didn’t realize at the time would become his own restaurant.
The three burgers on the menu hail from Kim and Hong’s Smorgasburg days: the Cali, their take on a classic In-N-Out burger, doctored up with roasted garlic and caramelized onions (a nod to Korean barbecue toppings); the Japanese Peruvian-inspired Aji burger, a smashburger patty topped with pickled jalapenos and a cilantro, garlic and lime mayonnaise; and a rotating third option, which is currently the Crispy Shroom burger.
“We are very specific about the fact that we’re not chefs,” Kim said. “The kind of restaurant we want to build, it’s not too stuffy … We just want this space, especially for the USC students, to feel like their restaurant.”
Kim and Hong designed the 2,600-square-foot space to look like an old-school diner with modern Korean and Japanese influences, pairing retro barstools with spherical chandeliers, sleek white tables and wooden booths and chairs.
Softies Burger is currently open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“The Bear” deli from Chicago at Uncle Paulie’s Deli
The hit FX series “The Bear” has given the iconic Chicago beef sandwich renewed time under the national spotlight. On the heels of the show’s fourth season, the dish, which features tender slices of roast beef dripping with au jus on a crusty roll, is back at the forefront of diners’ minds — and Angelenos are about to get a taste.
The Beverly Grove location of Uncle Paulie’s Deli will host Mr. Beef — the Chicago deli that inspired the Berzatto family’s restaurant on the award-winning drama-comedy — for a pop-up on July 19 and 20.
“Last year was such a success we had to run it back,” Uncle Paulie’s wrote in an Instagram post of its former collaboration with Mr. Beef.
Mr. Beef’s signature Italian beef sandwich, topped with giardiniera and dipped in au jus, will be offered at Uncle Paulie’s on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Chicken tenders with salad in anchovy vinaigrette at Joshua Skenes’ Happies Handmade.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Happies Hand Made
A new destination for fried chicken has arrived in the Arts District. Chef Joshua Skenes, who formerly led the two Michelin-starred Saison in San Francisco and now-closed, one Michelin-starred Angler in the Beverly Center, opened Happies Hand Made on June 6. Skenes throws his fried chicken on the grill before serving it a la carte, in sandwiches or on top of a crispy waffle alongside tallow fries.
The concept is centered around high-quality comfort food, with limited drops and an evolving menu. Happies Hand Made also offers soft serve, with flavors such as wild strawberry, passion fruit and butterscotch, alongside cold brew, tea drinks and house-made sodas, including the Yuzu-Up and Kumquat Cream Top.
Happies Hand Made is open on Wednesday through Sunday from 12 to 8 p.m.
Brisket sliders from Smokey Chance BBQ at Citizen Public Market.
(Athena Riley)
Smokey Chance BBQ and Jikoni at Citizen Public Market
After wowing customers with its 14-hour-smoked brisket at Culver City’s Citizen Public Market for the last nine months, Smokey Chance BBQ will begin a permanent residence at the food hall beginning July 17.
“Before, we literally took over a corner, which was a seating area at the market,” said chef Derrell Smith. “Now we’ll have the opportunity to actually have a full, built-out kitchen [where] we can expand our menu and be able to experiment how we wanted to before.”
Smith, pitmaster Jeff Chen and Darren Wong, who Smith described as the “brain” of Smokey Chance, will serve sliders and other new dishes next week, alongside mainstays that include a brisket Cuban sandwich, brisket cheesesteak, and cornbread made with beef tallow and topped with Calabrian chile honey butter.
“Our barbecue sauce is made with gochujang and jerk — Jeff and Darren are both Taiwanese and Chinese, and my grandma taught me to cook, and she was from North Carolina,” Smith said. “[We’re] taking all of these regional ingredients and turning them into something that’s just fun and whimsical.”
Jikoni, a summer pop-up from “AfriCali” cookbook author Kiano Moju, has been extended at Citizen Public Market for the rest of the summer. Moju puts a California twist on the Kenyan and Nigerian food she grew up eating in Oakland, offering a rotating menu with dishes like Swahili biriyani and saucy coconut butter beans with chapati, along with mishkaki, skewers popular in Tanzania and Kenya.
“When I was on the book tour, people kept asking, ‘Where can I try food like this?’ … I thought it could be fun to do a pop-up where we bring the book to life with some of the recipes,” Moju said.
After a successful pop-up at Melody wine bar this spring, Moju said that Smith told her about a temporary spot opening up at Citizen Public. Her initial two-week residency was extended to a month and just last week, the food hall announced that the Jikoni pop-up would remain through August.
“It’s really fun, but it’s also still incredibly crazy because I thought I’d just be writing recipes and telling people how to cook, and here I am running a restaurant,” Moju said.
Smokey Chance BBQ is open Friday and Saturday from 12 to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 7 p.m, and will begin Thursday service on July 17. Jikoni is open on Wednesday through Saturday from 12 to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 8 p.m.
LA28 released the first look at the 2028 Olympic competition schedule on Monday, exactly three years before the Games open on July 14, 2028. The slate is highlighted by a break in tradition to accommodate the organizing committee’s unique, dual-venue opening ceremony plan.
Instead of beginning the schedule with swimming, as has been customary in recent Games, track and field will instead take place during the first week of competition from July 15 to 24 at the Coliseum. Swimming will follow from July 22 to 30 at SoFi Stadium, where an indoor pool will be built after the opening ceremony.
The opening ceremony, now officially scheduled for 5 p.m. PDT on July 14, 2028, will be shared between the Coliseum and SoFi Stadium. Swimming will deliver the final competition of the 2028 Olympics as the last medal events are set to begin at 3 p.m. on July 30, 2028. Three hours later, the Olympic Games will conclude with the closing ceremony at 6 p.m. at the Coliseum.
Several sports will begin qualifying competitions before the opening ceremony, including cricket. The sport, which is returning to the Games for the first time since 1900, will be played at the Fairgrounds in Pomona and begin competition on July 12, along with soccer, handball, water polo, basketball, rugby and field hockey.
Making its Olympic debut, flag football will take place during the first week of competition from July 15 to 22 at BMO Stadium. The early competition could help reduce potential overlap with NFL training camps. Active NFL players are allowed to try out for Olympic national teams, but training camps typically begin in late July.
The sport will get a premier showcase opportunity in its Olympic debut as all flag football competitions are scheduled for afternoon and evening time slots. The men’s medal games are from from 6-8:30 p.m. on July 21, 2028 with the women’s finals beginning at 1 p.m. on July 22.
An artist’s rendering of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics swimming venue at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
(LA28)
Marquee events swimming, track and field, and artistic gymnastics (July 15-20, July 22-25) will dominate the prime-time windows in the United States as the Summer Games return to American soil for the first time since 1996.
U.S. viewership of the Olympics waned from 2018 to 2022 as three consecutive Games in Asian countries made for complicated time zone changes. Viewers in the Pacific Time Zone were 16 hours behind live coverage from Tokyo in 2021, when the pandemic-delayed Games averaged a record-low Olympic viewership for NBC. But numbers skyrocketed at the Paris Games, where evening sessions in Europe made for lunchtime viewing stateside, building interest just in time for L.A. to take the torch.
“We are energized by today’s milestones,” LA28 CEO Reynold Hoover said in a statement Monday that also celebrated 1 million enrollments with the youth sports program PlayLA, “and remain focused on the work ahead as the Road to 2028 continues.”
A full list of times for specific events are expected to be released later this year.
LA28 announced its eighth sponsorship deal of the year last week, inking Uber and Uber Eats as the official rideshare and on-demand delivery partners, respectively. The private organizing group plans to release information for volunteer opportunities this year, and registration for the ticket lottery should follow in early 2026.
MIAMI — Worms in the food. Toilets that don’t flush, flooding floors with fecal waste. Days without a shower or prescription medicine. Mosquitoes and insects everywhere. Lights on all night. Air conditioners that suddenly shut off in the tropical heat. Detainees forced to use recorded phone lines to speak with their lawyers and loved ones.
Only days after President Trump toured a new immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades that officials have dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz,” these are some of the conditions described by people held inside.
Attorneys, advocates, detainees and families are speaking out about the makeshift migrant detention center that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration raced to build on an isolated airstrip surrounded by swampland. The center began accepting detainees on July 2.
“These are human beings who have inherent rights, and they have a right to dignity,” said immigration attorney Josephine Arroyo. “And they’re violating a lot of their rights by putting them there.”
Government officials have adamantly disputed the conditions described by detainees, their attorneys and family members, but have provided few details, and have denied access to the media. A televised tour for Trump and DeSantis showed rows of chain-link cages, each containing dozens of bunk beds, under large white tents.
“The reporting on the conditions in the facility is completely false. The facility meets all required standards and is in good working order,” said Stephanie Hartman, a spokesperson for the Florida Division of Emergency Management, which built the center.
A group of Democratic lawmakers sued the DeSantis administration for access. The administration is allowing a site visit by state legislators and members of Congress on Saturday.
Descriptions from attorneys and families differ from the government’s ‘model’
Families and attorneys who spoke with the Associated Press relayed detainees’ accounts of a place they say is unsanitary and lacks adequate medical care, pushing some into a state of extreme distress.
Such conditions make other immigration detention centers where advocates and staff have warned of unsanitary confinements, medical neglect and a lack of food and water seem “advanced,” said immigration attorney Atara Eig.
Trump and his allies have praised this detention center’s harshness and remoteness as befitting the “worst of the worst” and as a national model for the deterrence needed to persuade immigrants to “self-deport” from the United States.
But among those locked inside the chain-link enclosures are people with no criminal records, and at least one teenage boy, attorneys told the AP.
Concerns about medical care, lack of medicines
Immigration attorney Katie Blankenship described a concerning lack of medical care at the facility, relaying an account from a 35-year-old Cuban client who told his wife that detainees go days without a shower. The toilets are in the same space as the bunk beds and can’t handle their needs, she said.
The wife, a 28-year-old green card holder and the mother of the couple’s 2-year-old daughter, who is a U.S. citizen, relayed his complaints to the AP. Fearing government retaliation against her and her detained husband, she asked not to be identified.
“They have no way to bathe, no way to wash their mouths, the toilet overflows and the floor is flooded with pee and poop,” the woman told the AP. “They eat once a day and have two minutes to eat. The meals have worms,” she added.
The woman said the detainees “all went on a hunger strike” on Thursday night to protest the conditions.
“There are days when I don’t know anything about him until the evening,” she said, describing waiting for his calls, interrupted every three minutes by an announcement that the conversation is being recorded.
No meetings with attorneys
The detainees’ attorneys say their due process rights are among numerous constitutional protections being denied.
Blankenship is among the lawyers who have been refused access. After traveling to the remote facility and waiting for hours to speak with her clients, including a 15-year-old Mexican boy with no criminal charges, she was turned away by a security guard who told her to wait for a phone call in 48 hours that would notify her when she could return.
“I said, well, what’s the phone number that I can follow up with that? There is none,” Blankenship recalled. “You have due process obligations, and this is a violation of it.”
Arroyo’s client, a 36-year-old Mexican man who came to the U.S. as a child, has been detained at the center since Saturday after being picked up for driving with a suspended license in Florida’s Orange County. He’s a beneficiary of the DACA program, created to protect young adults who were brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and to provide them with work authorization.
Blankenship’s Cuban client paid a bond and was told he’d be freed on a criminal charge in Miami, only to be detained and transferred to the Everglades.
Eig has been seeking the release of a client in his 50s with no criminal record and a stay of removal, meaning the government can’t legally deport him while he appeals. But she hasn’t been able to get a bond hearing. She’s heard that an immigration court inside the Krome Detention Center in Miami “may be hearing cases” from the Everglades facility, but as of Friday, they were still waiting.
“Jurisdiction remains an issue,” Eig said, adding “the issue of who’s in charge over there is very concerning.”
Salomon and Payne write for the Associated Press. Payne reported from Tallahassee, Fla.
Singer Ray Stevens has shared his first update since being admitted to the hospital on July 4 for surgery.
According to his Instagram, the 86-year-old has been moved out of intensive care and is continuing to recover.
“Ray is out of ICU and beginning to walk the halls as therapy with a nurse’s assistance as he is working towards recovering from this surgery,” the post from Wednesday reads. “Ray is very grateful for all of the cards and get-well messages. Everything is Still Beautiful!!!!”
The last line is a reference to one of Stevens’ best-known songs, the Grammy Award-winning “Everything Is Beautiful.”
In a previous statement provided to People magazine, representatives of Stevens said he was recovering after a “minimally invasive heart surgery” on Monday. On July 4, he went to a Nashville hospital after experiencing chest pain.
Following a heart catheterization, Stevens was informed that he had suffered a minor heart attack. A subsequent surgery was carried out successfully.
Though the two-time Grammy winner’s upcoming performances at his CabaRay Showroom in Nashville have been canceled, fans are just happy to hear he is OK.
“This is the good news I was waiting for,” one Instagram user commented under the update. Another rejoiced, saying it was “great news in a world of such sadness and loss recently.”
Stevens has had a successful music career, cutting his first top 10 pop hit, “Ahab the Arab,” in 1962. The singer has recorded 45 albums, according to his website, won two Grammy Awards, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2019.
Following the induction, Stevens was asked whether he would be retiring anytime soon.
“I feel fine; I’ll probably keel over after I hang up the phone,” he joked.
In 2024, he announced he would be hanging up his boots — only to change his mind a year later with the release of a new album, “Say Whut?”
“Although I said earlier that last year was going to be my final year at the CabaRay … I’m kind of going back on that because I want to promote this album,” he told NewsChannel 5 Nashville.
1 of 8 | Photograph shows William Jennings Bryan (seated, left, with fan) and Clarence Darrow (standing, center, with arms folded) at an outdoor courtroom during the Scopes Trial (Tennessee v. Scopes) in Dayton, Tenn., in July 1925. UPI File Photo
July 10 (UPI) — On this date in history:
In 1925, the so-called Monkey Trial, in which John Scopes was accused of teaching evolution in school, a violation of state law, began in Dayton, Tenn., featuring a classic confrontation between William Jennings Bryan, the three-time presidential candidate and fundamentalist hero, and legendary defense attorney Clarence Darrow.
In 1962, the United States launched the first telecommunications satellite, Telstar, into orbit, which relayed TV pictures between the United States and Europe.
In 1985, Coca-Cola, besieged by consumers dissatisfied with the new Coke introduced in April, dusted off the old formula and dubbed it “Coca-Cola Classic.”
File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI
In 1989, Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and countless other Warner Bros. cartoon characters and radio and TV comic creations, died from complications of heart disease. He was 81.
In 1991, Boris Yeltsin was inaugurated as the first freely elected president of the Russian republic.
In 2009, General Motors completed its race through bankruptcy with the signing of a contract with the U.S. government, which got 61 percent of the company. The recovery plan included considerable shrinkage, including the closing of factories and layoffs of 21,000 union workers.
Then-General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson attends a press conference in New York City on June 1, 2009. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
In 2011, media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World, Britain’s best-selling weekly newspaper, abruptly ceased publication amid allegations that its reporters and investigators had hacked into telephones of royalty, politicians, celebrities, homicide victims, families of fallen soldiers and others to illegally gain material for stories.
In 2012, an Israeli court acquitted former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of corruption but found him guilty of breach of trust. The charges stemmed from a period before he was PM.
In 2018, divers rescued the last of the 12 boys and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand, where they’d been trapped for more than two weeks.
In 2022, Serbian Novak Djokovic defeated Australian Nick Kyrgios to win his fourth-straight and record-tying seventh Wimbledon men’s singles title.
1. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine Books: $30) A story of friendship, love and adversity during the 1980s Space Shuttle program.
2. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press: $30) An unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond.
3. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (Berkley: $29) Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of an heiress.
4. James by Percival Everett (Doubleday: $28) An action-packed reimagining of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
5. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab (Tor Books: $30) A vampiric tale follows three women across the centuries.
6. The River Is Waiting by Wally Lamb (S&S/Marysue Rucci Books: $30) A young father grapples with tragedy and the search for redemption.
7. So Far Gone by Jess Walter (Harper: $30) A reclusive journalist is forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.
8. My Friends by Fredrik Backman (Atria Books: $30) The bond between a group of teens 25 years earlier has a powerful effect on a budding artist.
9. My Name Is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende (Ballantine Books: $30) A young writer in the late 1800s travels to South America to uncover the truth about her father.
10. Don’t Let Him In by Lisa Jewell (Atria Books: $30) Three women are connected by one man who seems too good to be true.
…
Hardcover nonfiction
1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House: $30) How to stop wasting energy on things you can’t control.
2. Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $30) A study of the political, economic and cultural barriers to progress in the U.S. and how to work toward a politics of abundance.
3. Wealthy and Well-Known by Rory Vaden and AJ Vaden (Mission Driven Press: $27) How to master the art of personal branding.
4. Lessons From Cats for Surviving Fascism by Stewart Reynolds (Grand Central Publishing: $13) A guide to channeling feline wisdom in the face of authoritarian nonsense.
5. Mark Twain by Ron Chernow (Penguin Press: $45) The Pulitzer-winning biographer explores the life of the celebrated American writer.
6. Notes to John by Joan Didion (Knopf: $32) Diary entries from the famed writer’s journal.
7. Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green (Crash Course Books: $28) The deeply human story of the fight against the world’s deadliest infectious disease.
8. One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (Knopf: $28) Reckoning with what it means to live in a West that betrays its fundamental values.
9. The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (Penguin: $32) The music producer on how to be a creative person.
10. Actress of a Certain Age by Jeff Hiller (Simon & Schuster: $29) A collection of autobiographical essays from the comedian and actor.
…
Paperback fiction
1. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco: $20)
2. All Fours by Miranda July (Riverhead Books: $19)
3. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (Ballantine: $20)
4. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Vintage: $18)
5. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $19)
6. Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (Scribner: $20)
7. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (Vintage: $19)
8. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (Transit Books: $17)
9. Funny Story by Emily Henry (Berkley: $19)
10. The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $19)
…
Paperback nonfiction
1. All About Love by bell hooks (Morrow: $17)
2. The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne (Penguin: $21)
3. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (Crown: $12)
4. The Wager by David Grann (Vintage: $21)
5. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World: $20)
6. Just Kids by Patti Smith (Ecco: $19)
7. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Vintage: $18)
8. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (TarcherPerigee: $20)
9. All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley (Simon & Schuster: $18)
10. The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger (Harper Perennial: $20)
Jacqui Heinrich, senior White House correspondent for Fox News, just vetted the story of her own engagement to U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick on Tuesday. The verdict? It ain’t fake news.
The Pennsylvania Republican asked Heinrich for her hand in marriage in a lavender field in Provence, France, according to People. Promoting that story, the journalist wrote on X, “Fact check: true.” Then she tacked on a couple of appropriately lovey emojis.
“The cooking was the dealmaker. Congrats Jacqui!” Fox News contributor Joe Concha said in comments. Chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst chimed in with, “Love this news,” while Jessica Tarlov, who speaks for Democrats on “The Five,” wrote, “Ahhhhhh congratulations!!!”
Fitzpatrick popped the question on June 29, People reported, before he had to hustle back to vote on the just-passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act. His inspiration came from something Heinrich told the Boston Globe last summer, ahead of the 2024 election: “I’ve always dreamed of eating my way through the French Riviera and Provence, with sun-drenched days at the lavender fields punctuated by crisp wines and salty butter.”
So Fitzpatrick, 51, booked a summer trip to France as a birthday gift for Heinrich, who turns 37 in November. But the journalist was concerned, she told the celebrity outlet, that her beau would have to cut the trip short to vote against Trump’s bill, which the president signed into law on July 4. Did Fitzpatrick want to postpone the trip, she wondered?
“He was like, ‘We are going. We’re going to the lavender fields. All I want is to see the lavender fields at sunrise,’” she told People. “All the time I’ve known this man, he has never been desperate to see a field of flowers at dawn. So I had a feeling that [a proposal] was the goal.”
What was supposed to be a 10-day trip was whittled down to only a couple of days.
After arriving in Nice, France, they drove two hours in darkness to catch the sunrise in the town of Valensole, known for its lavender and truffles. The town is built into a hill overlooking a small river valley, and a lavender festival is held there annually on the third Sunday in July. But the OBBBA waited for no sweet-smelling shrub, so attending the festival was definitely out.
Fitzpatrick had an agenda. He stopped at one particular lavender field and suggested Heinrich go for a stroll while he took some photos of her, she told People. As she took in the view, a photographer and a drone appeared, she said, and Fitzpatrick was asking her to marry him and presenting a ring he had procured from her family’s longtime jeweler.
The photos, as seen on the outlet’s website, are lovely. Heinrich, who has been dating Fitzpatrick since the 2021 Kennedy Center Honors, said yes.
“I love his brain,” Heinrich told People of her fiance, a five-term congressman who was previously an FBI special agent and federal prosecutor. Fitzpatrick was also embedded with U.S. Special Forces during Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to his biography.
“I love the way he approaches problem-solving and solving complex issues. He’s strong and a man of faith, who brings me closer to God.,” Heinrich said. “He’s sweet and gentle and kind — all of the easy qualities in a person that just make him a joy to be around and life brighter.”
There’s also a handy little bonus in this pairing, as revealed on the congressman’s website: Should Heinrich find herself in need of an attorney, a certified public accountant or an emergency medical technician, she’s definitely covered, because Fitzpatrick is licensed as all three.
The global economy is on tenterhooks in the run-up to United States President Donald Trump’s July 9 deadline for dozens of countries to reach trade deals or face sharply higher tariffs.
Wednesday’s deadline comes after Trump announced in April a 90-day pause on his steepest tariffs after his “Liberation Day” plans sent markets into a tailspin.
With billions of dollars in global trade at stake, US trade partners are racing to negotiate deals to avoid damage to their economies amid continuing uncertainty over Trump’s next moves.
What will happen when the deadline expires?
The Trump administration has indicated that trade partners that fail to reach deals with the US will face higher tariffs, but there are big question marks around which countries will be hit and how hard.
On Sunday, Trump said he would begin sending letters to particular countries this week outlining new tariff rates, while also indicating that he had sealed a number of new trade deals.
Trump told reporters that he would send a letter or conclude a deal for “most countries”, without specifying any by name, by Wednesday.
In an interview with CNN on Sunday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said countries that do not reach a deal would face higher tariffs from August 1.
Bessent disputed the suggestion that the deadline had moved and said tariffs for affected countries would “boomerang back” to the levels originally announced on April 2.
On Friday, however, Trump suggested the tariffs could go as high as 70 percent, which would be higher than the 50 percent maximum rate outlined in his “Liberation Day” plan.
Adding to the uncertainty, Trump on Sunday threatened to impose an additional 10 percent tariff on countries that aligned themselves with the “anti-American policies” of BRICS, a bloc of 10 emerging economies, including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa as the founding members.
“There will be no exceptions to this policy. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“It’s getting harder to guess what might happen given conflicting information from the White House,” Deborah Elms, the head of trade policy at the Hinrich Foundation in Singapore, told Al Jazeera.
“With the lack of ‘deals’ to announce before July 9, I’m not surprised that the US is both issuing threats of new, potentially higher rates to be imposed in letters and suggesting that deadlines could be extended to some if offers are deemed to be sufficiently attractive.”
Which countries have reached trade deals with the US?
So far, only China, the United Kingdom and Vietnam have announced trade deals, which have reduced Trump’s tariffs but not eliminated them.
Under the US-China deal, tariffs on Chinese goods were reduced from 145 percent to 30 percent, while duties on US exports fell from 125 percent to 10 percent.
The deal, however, only paused the higher tariff rates for 90 days, rather than scrapping them outright, and left numerous outstanding issues between the sides unresolved.
The UK’s agreement saw it maintain a 10 percent tariff rate, while Vietnam saw its 46 percent levy replaced by a 20 percent rate on Vietnamese exports and a 40 percent tariff for “transshipping”.
A host of other key US trade partners have confirmed that negotiations are under way, including the European Union, Canada, India, Japan and South Korea.
Trump administration officials have indicated that negotiations are primarily focused on a dozen-and-a-half countries that make up the vast bulk of the US trade deficit.
On Sunday, The Washington Post reported that the EU, the US’s largest trading partner, was working to conclude a “skeletal” deal that would defer a resolution on their most contentious differences before the deadline to avoid Trump’s mooted 50 percent tariff.
India’s CNBC-TV18 also reported on Sunday that New Delhi expected to finalise a “mini trade deal” within the next 24-48 hours.
The CNBC-TV18 report, citing unnamed sources, said the agreement would see the average tariff rate set at about 10 percent.
Andrew K McAllister, a member of Holland & Knight’s International Trade Group in Washington, DC, said while Trump is likely to announce a small number of deals that resemble those signed with China, Vietnam and the UK, most countries are probably looking at significant across-the-board tariffs.
“My view is that tariffs are here to stay,” McAllister told Al Jazeera.
“I view the bargaining chip to be the level at which the tariff is set. For countries in which the president and administration view tariffs and other non-tariff barriers against US products as significant, he is much more likely to impose higher levels of tariffs.”
What will be the economic impact of Trump’s trade war?
Economists widely agree that steep tariffs over a sustained period would push up prices and hinder the growth of both the US and global economies.
The World Bank and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) last month downgraded their outlook for the global economy, cutting their forecasts from 2.8 percent to 2.3 percent, and from 3.3 percent to 2.9 percent, respectively.
At the same time, anticipating the impact of Trump’s trade war has been made more challenging by his administration’s repeated U-turns and conflicting signals on tariffs.
Trump’s steepest tariffs have been put on pause, though a 10 percent baseline duty has been applied to all US imports and levies on Chinese exports remain at double-digit levels.
JP Morgan Research has estimated that a 10 percent universal tariff and a 110 percent tariff on China would reduce global gross domestic product (GDP) by 1 percent, with the hit to GDP falling to 0.7 percent in the case of a 60 percent duty on Chinese goods.
So far, the fallout from the tariffs introduced has been modest, though analysts have warned that inflation may still take off once businesses burn through inventory stockpiles built up in anticipation of higher costs.
Despite fears of sharp price rises in the US, annualised inflation came in at a modest 2.3 percent in May, close to the Federal Reserve’s target.
The US stock market, after suffering steep losses earlier this year, has bounced back to an all-time high, while the US economy added a stronger-than-expected 147,000 jobs in June.
Other data points to underlying jitters, however.
Consumer spending fell 0.1 percent in May, according to the US Commerce Department, the first decline since January.
“As for the economy generally, the jury’s out on whether we’re still waiting on the worst of the tariff hit,” Dutch bank ING said in a note on Friday.
“The delay in China’s tariff levels probably came just in time to avert a more serious recessionary threat. The latest jobs report certainly doesn’t point to the bottom falling out of the labour market, though if we’re talking about time lags, this is usually the last place economic damage shows up. Sentiment remains fragile, remember.”
Dinosaurs ruled the box office once again this weekend as “Jurassic World Rebirth” hauled in a strong $147.3 domestically over the five-day Fourth of July period to kick off what industry insiders hope will be an impressive month at movie theaters.
The holiday total for “Jurassic World” in the U.S. and Canada exceeded industry expectations. Universal Pictures’ “Jurassic World” reboot was expected to gross $120 million to $130 million during its long opening weekend, according to analyst and studio projections.
The movie unseated Apple’s Brad Pitt racing film “F1 The Movie,” which landed in second place with $26.1 million domestically, bringing its total to $109.5 million in North America, according to distributor Warner Bros.
“Rebirth’s” 2022 predecessor, “Jurassic World: Dominion,” debuted with $145 million from its first three days of release and went on to collect $1 billion globally. The new movie carries an estimated production budget of $180 million, not counting marketing costs.
Big-budget creature features have global appeal, as the numbers showed. Opening in 82 countries outside the U.S. and Canada, “Rebirth” grossed $171 million internationally. That included $41.5 million from China, proving that Hollywood movies can still do well in the Middle Kingdom despite the dominance of local production in the populous country.
The global total for “Rebirth’s” opening was $318.3 million.
Directed by Gareth Edwards (“The Creator,” “Rogue One”) and starring Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, “Rebirth” earned unenthusiastic reviews from critics, notching a 52% approval rating on aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
The “Jurassic” franchise has seen multiple iterations since Steven Spielberg’s 1993 blockbuster “Jurassic Park,” based on the popular Michael Crichton science fiction novel, wowed audiences with its combination of practical and computer-generated effects that gave the T. rex and other killer dinos their stunning realism. That film spawned not only sequels but toys, theme park attractions, animated series and video games.
Although the sequels, starting with Spielberg’s own “The Lost World,” never achieved the acclaim of the original, they continued to mint money for Universal and Spielberg’s production company, Amblin.
Prior to “Rebirth,” the “Jurassic” movies had grossed a total of roughly $6 billion worldwide, not adjusting for inflation, according to box office website The Numbers. The first “Jurassic Park” grossed $978 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, which is equal to $1.86 billion in today’s dollars.
The latest “Jurassic” movie did not get a slot at Imax theaters, since those were taken up by “F1.” Next week, the valuable Imax real estate will be taken up by Warner Bros. and DC Studios’ “Superman.” Films shown on Imax often reap bigger box office numbers, aided in part by the higher ticket prices at those theaters, and because they’re viewed as more of a must-see event.
“Jurassic World” is the first of three big tentpole films arriving this month in theaters. In addition to “Superman,” Walt Disney Co. and Marvel Studios’ “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” opens in a few weeks.
July has historically been one of the strongest summer months at the box office, putting more pressure on these three films to deliver.
Despite big box office gains in April and May, June saw a string of underperforming films such as Lionsgate’s “John Wick” spinoff “Ballerina,” Sony Pictures’ “Karate Kid: Legends” and Disney and Pixar’s original animated effort “Elio.”
Theatrical business in June was 25% lower compared to the pre-pandemic average of June 2017, 2018 and 2019, according to David A. Gross’s FranchiseRe movie industry newsletter. It was also down 5.3% compared to last June, which saw big hits like Disney and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” and Sony’s “Bad Boys: Ride or Die.”
“We see this ebb and flow,” said Shawn Robbins, founder of the website Box Office Theory. “These next four to five weeks will certainly give us a sense of how to grade the summer overall.”
In 1854, the Republican Party was formally established at a meeting in New York City.
In 1885, French bacteriologist Louis Pasteur inoculated a human being for rabies for the first time — a boy, who had been bitten by a dog. The youngster didn’t develop rabies.
In 1919, a British dirigible landed at New York’s Roosevelt Field to complete the first airship crossing of the Atlantic. Six hours into the flight, the R-34’s commander discovered a stowaway.
In 1923, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed.
In 1942, diarist Anne Frank and her family took refuge in a secret section of an Amsterdam warehouse where they hid from the Nazis for two years. Finally discovered, they were sent to concentration camps. Anne died in a camp.
In 1944, a fire in the big top of the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus in Hartford, Conn., killed 167 people, two-thirds of them children, and injured 682 others.
In 1971, Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, one of the 20th century’s most influential American musicians, died at age 69.
Music legend Louis Armstrong entertains his wife, Lillian, in front of the Sphinx during a trip to Egypt in 1961. Photo by UPI
In 1976, women were first admitted to the U.S. Naval Academy. The other military academies soon followed suit.
In 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in a TV interview, said it was a “probability” that many young people now paying into Social Security “will never be able to receive as much as they’re paying.”
In 1994, Forrest Gump opened in U.S. theaters, earning actor Tom Hanks his second Oscar for Best Actor.
In 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama met in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, and announced an agreement to reduce nuclear arsenals.
In 2013, an Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 carrying more than 300 people hit a sea wall in front of a runway on approach at San Francisco International Airport — a crash that resulted in three fatalities and scores of injuries.
In 2021, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Mary Simon would be the country’s first Indigenous governor general.
However you might be feeling about the state of our country this long holiday weekend (me: angry, troubled, resolute in staying aligned with the progressive values that truly move our nation forward), I hope you have time to rest and regroup. Here are three suggestions for eating and drinking this weekend: They’re places that brought me some recent, needed joy.
Bar Benjamin
Not long after the Benjamin opened in Hollywood early last summer, I showed up hoping for a couple unreserved seats at the bar, situated in the center of the restaurant’s posh Art Deco room. No go. The staffer put us on a wait list and suggested we hang out at the Moon Room bar located above the restaurant.
We climbed the stairs and peeked in. I could roll with the New York 1970s nostalgia vibe — parquet floors with checkered tiles around the bar counter, wild art, a baby grand. That night, though, the place was so empty it looked lonely. We took a walk until the Benjamin called us back.
Riding on the success of the glamour downstairs, owners Ben Shenassafar, Kate Burr and Jared Meisler reintroduced Moon Room (which Meisler had opened last spring) as Bar Benjamin, replicating the same tasteful woods, moss-colored velvets and dim chandelier lighting as the restaurant below. Much, much improved.
Last Laugh and Everything Gibson cocktails at Bar Benjamin in Hollywood
(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
The group brought in two ace bartenders: Chad Austin and Jason Lee. I’m particularly a fan of Lee: A few years back he crafted a summertime cocktail at n/soto of ice, shaved to order, over watermelon juice laced with amaro and lime juice. Then he moved on to Baroo, masterfully devising drinks around Korean spirits or kombucha that synched with Kwang Uh’s singular cooking.
At Bar Benjamin, he and Austin distill many of the cuisines that define Los Angeles (Mexican, Thai, Sichuan, Persian) into liquid odes. To work backwards, there’s a fun play on the ubiquitous Iranian stew fesenjoon that includes Granada Vallet pomegranate liqueur and walnut-rice orgeat that’s sweet enough to qualify as dessert. To start, I’d lean more toward the bumblebee-yellow, mezcal-spiked Last Laugh bright with saffron, pineapple, bell pepper and mango.
A Gibson infused with the essence of an everything bagel? A bit intense in its pickled flavors for me. But then again, I lean purist in the martini realms. I’ll choose the lemony Ben’s Martini that also happens to nicely match the very edited selection of small plates, including mustardy beef tartare and dilled shrimp salad in a brioche bun.
An ikura-topped shrimp roll at Bar Benjamin.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
A fun, fizzing crowd filled the space on a recent weeknight visit. But even if I came upon Bar Benjamin with few customers, the new cocooned atmosphere would be one I’d be happy to have to myself.
Fusion Kitchen
How might a bowl of warm borscht appeal in summertime temperatures?
The broth at the version served at Fusion Kitchen in Mid-Wilshire is light, for starters. Chunks of stewed tomato and grated beets and carrot gently vary the textures. Every third or fourth spoonful catches a few strands of beef. Taste first, and then stir in a couple splotches of sour cream. On the side are toasted triangles of rye bread and several slices of melt-on-the-tongue salo — salt pork, similar to Italian lardo, that is ubiquitous to Ukrainian culture.
I’ve been hungering for more tastes of Eastern European food since writing about Noroc, a restaurant in Sacramento that serves Moldovan dishes, for the 101 Best Restaurants in California guide.
With a name as unfortunately generic as Fusion Kitchen, you need to know what you’re looking for. This was previously known as the second location of Mom, Please, the Ukrainian draw in Playa Vista opened by Oleksii Kochetkov, his wife, Inna Kochetkova, and his mother, Olena Kochetkova. The same owners run Fusion Kitchen; only the name changed.
Borsht (center) and other Ukrainian dishes at Fusion Kitchen LA
(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
After blitzing through the menu, I have a few strong recommendations beyond borscht. Cabbage rolls show off the same gravity-defying sleight of hand, improbably delicate wrappers bundling minced beef and vegetables scented with basil. Among varenyky and pelmeni, the half-moon dumplings filled with mashed potato and dressed in mushroom sauce turned out to be the most compelling.
And among many options for desserts, zero in on the medovic, or honey cake. It doesn’t have the zillion layers of, say, Michelle Polzine’s fame-making version at her now-closed 20th Century Cafe in San Francisco. Its sour cream frosting zings, though, with the crucial sweet-smokiness of burnt honey.
Manila Inasal
I’m ordering too much as usual, calling out chef Natalia Moran’s modern takes on Filipino standards: lumpia, sisig, lechon, adobo, kare kare, garlic rice … .
When I’m done, the server studies me. “You forgot to order the signature dish,” she says. “There’s a reason our name is Manila Inasal.”
Oops. Thanks goodness she steered me right.
Chicken may be the traditional choice for this class of thoroughly marinated and grilled dishes, but the bungus inasal, made with silvery milkfish, is particularly wonderful here. Achiote stains the fish, which has also absorbed the aromatics of lemongrass, ginger and sharply citrusy calamansi juice. Swipe forkfuls through two sauces, one based on green chile and the other on coconut vinegar. With a bit of cucumber salad spooned on the plate, it’s a refreshing warm weather meal.
A spread of dishes at Manila Inasal in Silver Lake
(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
To dive deeper: start with always-easy-to-crunch lumpia or, even better, laing, taro leaves creamed in coconut milk with seasonings like garlic, ginger and shrimp paste. Moran’s take is restrained, but pleasantly so, and she presents it as an appetizer dip surrounded by focaccia baked with taro leaves. The vegetable pancit satisfyingly mingles egg and glassy vermicelli noodles in a soy-based sauce with thrumming umami.
Meatier dishes I tried like the kare kare with ultra-tender cuts of beef (including oxtail) and lechon could have been punchier in their flavors; it’s hard not to compare them with the masterful versions Maynard Llera prepares at Kuya Lord. As my colleague Stephanie Breijo reported in June, the restaurant opened two months in Silver Lake Plaza, in the same complex on Virgil Avenue that houses Daybird. So it’s still settling in and calibrating.
The namesake inasal? I’m already all in.
Also …
Karla Marie Sanford reports on the fear gripping the restaurant community in aftermath of ICE’s arrival in Los Angeles. This quote states the crisis succinctly: “The industry is deeply confused,” said Corissa Hernandez, the owner of Nativo, a Mexican bar and restaurant in Highland Park. “We’re alarmed. We’re frustrated about the lack of transparency, especially legal clarity. We’re business owners, we’re not immigration experts.”
Sanford also reports on the reopening of Gladstones, the iconic seafood restaurant in Pacific Palisades, that closed for six months after sustaining damage in the Palisades fire.
July 4 (UPI) — American tariffs on dozens of countries will come into effect next Wednesday as scheduled, although several deals could still be worked out before then, President Donald Trump confirmed Friday.
“They’ll range in value from maybe 60% or 70% tariffs to 10% and 20% tariffs, but they’re going to be starting to go out sometime tomorrow. We’ve done the final form, and it’s basically going to explain what the countries are going to be paying in tariffs,” Trump told reporters after landing at Joint Base Andrews.
Trump first announced the so-called reciprocal tariffs of different sizes in April before issuing a 90-day pause which expires on July 9. The levies are separate from a 10% “baseline” U.S. tariff on all countries.
Earlier this week, Trump announced a deal with Vietnam that will see the Southeast Asian country pay a 20% tariff on “any and all goods.” He also said a deal with Japan seems “unlikely” at this point.
Malaysia, India and the European Union are among the more than 50 nations that have so far failed to reach an agreement with American negotiators.
Trump said Friday, his administration will start sending letters immediately to every country that has yet to make a deal with the United States, informing it of the exact percentage it will pay when the tariffs kick in. Letters will continue until the pause ends next week.
The tariffs are calculated using a formula that takes into account the trade imbalance between the trading partner and the United States.
India faces a 26% tariff, while South Korea’s rate is 25%. Japan’s rate is slightly lower at 24% and European 20% against the 27 member states making up the European Union.
Trump said Friday, smaller countries could expect to see their U.S. tariffs kick in last, with first payments scheduled for the start of August.
“It’s a lot of money for the country, but we’re giving them a bargain,” Trump told reporters Friday.
European Union officials said this week they are not hopeful of reaching a comprehensive deal before the deadline.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called reaching such a deal over a short 90-day period “impossible.”
“What we are aiming at is an agreement in principle,” Von der Leyen told reporters earlier this week, adding a framework deal was the best thing to aim for with less than a week remaining before the deadline.
Lawrence Herrera started carrying a folded-up copy of his birth certificate in his wallet last week. He also saved a picture of his passport on his phone’s camera roll.
For the 67-year-old Atwater Village resident who was born and raised here, the precaution felt silly. But he’s not taking any chances.
“I started hearing, ‘He’s taking anyone and everyone,’” Herrara said, referrring to President Trump’s immigration crackdown. “I thought, ‘You know what? That could be me.’”
Herrera was one of hundreds of protesters who spent Fourth of July in downtown Los Angeles to rally against the immigration raids that have roiled the region and the surge in federal funding approved this week to keep them going. Many on the street said they were skipping the barbecues and fireworks this year. Instead, they showed up at City Hall, some in costumes or wrapped in flags. A 15-foot balloon of Trump in a Russian military uniform sat in Grand Park.
Erica Ortiz, 49, was dressed as Lady Liberty in shackles. Herrera wore a Revolutionary War outfit covered in anti-Trump pins that he said was appropriate for the occasion.
“Guess what? We have no independence right now,” he said. “That’s why we’re out here.”
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1.Elizabeth Natividad wears a dress representing Lady Justice on the steps of City Hall .2.Nancy Gonzalez poses in an outfit showing her Mexican heritageon the steps of City Hall.3.A protester wearing a dress representing Lady Liberty holds her fist in the air on the steps of City Hall at a rally against the ongoing ICE raids taking place in the city on Friday, July 4, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA.
They marched through Olvera Street and outside the Federal Building, which houses the immigration court, waving signs. Several police officers were monitoring the protest but kept their distance during the gathering, which lasted a few hours.
“No more occupation! No more deportation!” the protesters chanted.
At the Federal Building, military personnel members lined up shoulder-to-shoulder guarding the property with shields and guns.
Jacob Moreno, a high school English teacher from Rialto, held a sign that called the day a “funeral for the freedom we pretend” still exists. He said the mood felt more solemn than the “No Kings” demonstration last month, which he attributed to the passage of Trump’s budget bill. The so-called Big Beautiful Bill adds roughly $150 billion to carry out mass deportations and fund border enforcement.
“This situation, this occupation is only going to get worse,” Moreno said. The 50-year-old said some of his students and their family members are undocumented. He and his daughter, a 16-year-old student, are helping set up a program to provide school supplies and hygiene items to students whose parents may be too afraid to go to work.
“I’m here to support my students, my community, and ultimately to stand on the right side of history,” he said.
Cristina Muñoz Brown, of North Hollywood, shared a similar sentiment.
“I’m desperate for my people, I’m desperate to show up,” she said. Since the raids began, she said, the Fashion District where she works in the costume industry is a “ghost town.”
An American flag passes by marines standing guard during a rally against the ongoing ICE raids taking place in the city at the Federal Building on Friday, July 4, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stand guard during a rally against the ongoing ICE raids taking place in the city at the Federal Building on Friday, July 4, 2025.
Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) addressed the crowd outside City Hall, calling the budget bill the “Big Beautiful Scam.”
“Immigration spending in this country is now more than the military spending of 165 countries around the world. ICE has more money than the city of Los Angeles 10 times over,” he said as the crowd booed. “That’s not what we want our tax dollars going toward.”
The city is still reeling from weeks of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across the Southland and the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to respond to the protests that followed.
There have been sweeps targeting day laborers at local car washes and Home Depot parking lots.
“There’s too many things to protest right now,” said Hunter Dunn of the 50501 Movement, which organized the July 4 rally. Many immigrants, he said, are “afraid to go to work, afraid to go to school.”
Federal agents, often shielding their identities with face masks and sometimes driving unmarked cars, have been carrying out aggressive raids since early June, triggering widespread protests.
Trump sent more than 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the L.A. area to protect federal buildings and workers during the unrest, which garnered pushback from state and local officials who complained that the military presence exacerbated the situation. Earlier this week, about 150 Guard members were released from the protest assignment.
The immigration enforcement actions in L.A. have heightened tensions between city and state leaders and the Trump administration. The public sparring has played out on social media and in court.
Angelenos march near Los Angeles City Hall on the Fourth of July in a demonstration against the ongoing ICE raids taking place in the city.
Mayor Karen Bass renewed her calls this week for Trump to end the ICE raids, saying in a post on X that his administration is “causing the fear and terror so many in L.A. are feeling.”
“They came for our neighbors in unmarked vans. Raided workplaces. Ripped apart families. Even U.S. citizens. This is not law enforcement — it’s political theater with human costs,” she wrote in another post.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is battling the Trump administration in court over the deployment of Guard troops without his consent. And this week, the Trump administration sued the city of L.A., Bass and City Council members, saying the city’s sanctuary law is illegal. The law generally prohibits city employees or city property to be used to investigate or detain anyone for the purpose of immigration enforcement.
On Wednesday, immigrants rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and Public Counsel sued the Trump administration in federal court seeking to block what the suit describes as the administration’s “ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law” during immigration raids in the L.A. area.
We’ve all eaten an extra hot dog at a Fourth of July barbecue — but only the greats can stomach 50 dogs in rapid fire.
Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest brings the world’s top competitive eaters to Coney Island, N.Y., to see how many hot dogs they can eat in 10 minutes. Here’s what you need to know about this year’s competition.
Is Joey Chestnut competing?
Joey Chestnut, the competition’s most decorated eater, is returning to the Coney Island stage this year after a sponsorship conflict barred him from competing in 2024. Banned after signing a sponsorship deal with Impossible Foods, Chestnut got his fill competing at a different contest in El Paso, Texas. Major League Eating eventually ceded the sponsorship issue with Chestnut, who posted on X in June that he is “grateful we’ve been able to find common ground.”
Who are the eaters?
Chestnut — ranked No. 1 in the country — is the favorite to win again, boasting a Major League Eating record of 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes. Other eaters to watch are the 2024 winner and No. 2-ranked Patrick Bertoletti, No.-3 ranked eater Geoffrey Esper, No.-4 ranked eater James Webb and No.-6 ranked eater Nick Wehry.
Miki Sudo is the front-runner in the women’s competition. The reigning champ with a 10-year winning streak, Sudo will be aiming to top her personal record set in 2024 of 51 hot dogs.
When is the contest?
The 2025 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest will take place July 4 outside the original Nathan’s Famous on the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y. ESPN will continue its annual broadcast of the Fourth of July contest this year, with coverage beginning at 7:45 a.m. PT/10:45 a.m. ET. The main hot dog eating contest is expected to begin at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET.
How can I watch?
The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN2 at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET. It will air again on ESPN at 2 p.m. PT/5 p.m. ET and 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET, and at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET on ESPN2. This will give fans some timing options as they iron out their Fourth of July plans.
The women’s competition will air on ESPN3 at 7:45 a.m. PT/10:45 a.m. ET and will be recapped around 12 p.m. ET.
How did the contest come to be?
In 1916, Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker used a $300 loan and his wife’s secret recipe to open a nickel hot dog stand — it wasn’t until 1972 that the first hot dog eating contest began.
What was initially a lighthearted challenge has become a physically taxing sport, formalized by Major League Eating and extensive media attention. Many see the contest as emblematic of America’s obsession with spectacle and excess. Nathan’s is also not shy about its original goal of self-promotion. Every Independence Day, tens of thousands of fans flock to Coney Island with millions more watching on ESPN.
So, what’s on the table?
The winner receives the highly coveted and bejeweled Mustard Belt, a $10,000 grand prize and the esteemed champion title.
Today, you turn 249 and, honestly, you don’t look a day over 248. (Ha ha.)
Seriously, it’s perfectly understandable why there’s more gray on your scalp and deeper worry lines on your face. This last year has been challenging, to say the least.
Medicaid, the program that serves millions of the needy, elderly and disabled, is on the chopping block. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which helps Americans weather the worst times after natural disaster, has been drastically depleted just as we’re heading into the fire and hurricane seasons.
But no one ever said this representative democracy thing was going to be easy, or endlessly uplifting.
America, you’re a big, boisterous nation of more than 342 million people, with all sorts of competing impulses and interests, and no end of certitude to go around.
In our last presidential election, we split nearly evenly, with Trump squeaking past Harris in the popular vote 49.8% to 48.3%. It was one of the narrowest margins of victory in the last century, though you wouldn’t know it from Trump’s radical actions and the servility of the Republican-run Congress.
In a recently completed deep dive on the state of our democracy, researchers at UC Berkeley found an almost even divide over how to measure our political system’s success.
Slightly more than half of those surveyed said a successful democracy is one that’s adaptable and has the capacity for change, while nearly half said success stems from adherence to long-standing principles.
With that kind of stark disagreement on such a fundamental question, is it any wonder we struggle to find consensus on so much else?
But, heck, if it’s any consolation on this star-spangled holiday, the country has been through worse. Much worse. And you, America, have not only survived but also in many ways grown stronger by facing down your flaws and overcoming some knee-buckling challenges.
That sordid history won’t necessarily make anyone feel better about the current state of affairs, nor should it. But it does give some perspective.
All of that said, today’s a day to celebrate the good things and the bright, shining place you aspire to be, with liberty and justice for all. So, chin up, America! Have another slice of birthday cake, and don’t worry about the calories — you really do look terrific for 249!
In 1776, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming U.S. independence from Britain.
In 1826, in one of history’s notable coincidences, former U.S. Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died, 50 years to the day after the Declaration of Independence was adopted.
In 1863, Union troops defeated Confederate forces in a battle at Vicksburg, Miss.
In 1895, the poem “America the Beautiful,” by Wellesley College Professor Katherine Lee Bates, was published. The poem with music by Samuel A. Ward was published as a song in 1910.
In 1910, American boxer Jack Johnson took on former undefeated heavyweight champion James J. Jeffries, beating him in 15 rounds, to stake his claim as the as the greatest heavyweight in the world.
File Photo by Library of Congress/UPI
In 1939, Lou Gehrig gave his “luckiest man on the face of the Earth” speech in announcing his retirement from the New York Yankees. Gehrig had been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a debilitating motor neuron disease. United Press writer Jack Cuddy wasn’t impressed with the Yankees’ “Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day,” saying doctors made up his ailment to explain his unexpected retirement.
In 1976, Israeli commandos raided the airport at Entebbe, Uganda, rescuing 103 hostages held by Arab militants.
In 1986, more than 250 sailing ships and the United States’ biggest fireworks display honored the Statue of Liberty in its 100th birthday year.
In 1995, the British Parliament reconfirmed John Majors as prime minister.
In 1997, NASA’s Pathfinder reached Mars to become the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the planet in more than two decades. Pathfinder returned more than 16,000 images and some 8.5 million measurements back to Earth before its final transmission on September, 27, 1997.
File Photo courtesy of NASA
In 2006, North Korea test-launched seven ballistic missiles in what it called “routine military exercises,” causing a firestorm of anger among its neighbors and the United States.
In 2010, U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus took command of the Afghan war, acknowledging the “tough fight” ahead for NATO forces while pledging “We are in this to win.”
In 2013, the Statue of Liberty reopened to the public nine months after it was closed because of damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.
In 2018, Hong Kong’s high court ruled unanimously that same-sex couples are entitled to spousal visas like married heterosexual couples.
In 2022, seven people died and dozens others were injured in a mass shooting during an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Ill., near Chicago. Far-right activist Robert Crimo III, then 22, was charged with murder for the shooting.
A participant of the March Fourth rally to ban assault weapons holds a sign for Eduardo Uvaldo, a victim of the Highland Park shooting, outside the Senate office buildings at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on July 13, 2022. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI
July 3 (UPI) — Immigration raids and enforcement actions have prompted some Southern California communities to cancel their annual Independence Day fireworks displays, officials announced Thursday.
Organizations opposed to the Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions have said they plan to carry out planned demonstrations on Friday in Los Angeles, regardless.
Last month, several protests turned violent, prompting President Donald Trump to dispatch National Guard troops and Marines to the city, where local police and Gov. Gavin Newsom said the soldiers were not needed to help them enforce the law.
The city announced that it would postpone its annual Fourth of July block party “in light of recent events affecting a portion of downtown Los Angeles and the ongoing circumstances impacting the region,” NBC News reported.
More than 1,600 people have been arrested during ICE enforcement operations since the National Guard and Marines arrived in the city to bolster local efforts to remove undocumented immigrants from businesses and locations that knowingly hire or harbor them.
The Los Angeles chapter of 50501, a group that organized a “No Kings” rally last month in opposition to Trump’s enforcement tactics, has said it plans an all day demonstration outside City Hall on Friday, pushing back on the administration’s immigration actions.
“This isn’t a celebration, ” the group said in a statement. “It’s a stand.”
Prompted by high profile immigration enforcement-related arrests, other, smaller communities that have large immigrant populations are also reconsidering Independence Day celebrations, including East Los Angeles, the Boyle Heights neighborhood, Lincoln Heights and El Sereno, all of which have historically been home to large immigrant populations.
More than 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines remain stationed at federal office buildings in Los Angeles while other Guard soldiers have been redeployed to prepare for a busy wildfire season as hot, windy weather and low humidity have combined to create tinder dry vegetation and other dangerous conditions.
Legal action to remove more federal troops from Los Angeles remains pending in court.
Fear and uncertainty of surprise ICE enforcement actions have cast a shadow of fear and uncertainty over events that still remain planned in Southern California and other places with a high concentration of immigrant populations, including cities in the Midwest and on the East Coast.
Alabama Gov. George Wallace (L) and Sen. Edward Kennedy are shown together on July 4, 1973, in Decatur, Ala., during a July Fourth “Spirit of America” celebration. Photo by UPI | License Photo
Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who needs something to watch while complaining about the annoying people shooting off fireworks well past the celebratory window.
In anticipation of the long holiday weekend, we’re forgoing the usual Screen Gab format this week to give you an extended list of home viewing recommendations that our pop culture experts at The Times plan to binge — or what they think you should binge. It’s an eclectic guide of new and old favorites, comforting and under-the radar picks — and there’s cats too!
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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times
Michael B. Jordan in a scene from “Sinners.”
(Warner Bros. Pictures)
“Sinners” (Max, beginning Friday)
Anybody who has yet to see “Sinners”: It’s time. Ryan Coogler’s Mississippi-set period vampire horror film stars Michael B. Jordan as twin brothers who’ve come back to their hometown to open a new juke joint together. They bring their musically gifted cousin, played by Miles Caton, along for the ride. And it’s quite a ride! Audiences were so excited to see this original film that some people traveled across state lines just to catch it in Imax 70mm — in fact, the demand was so high, the genre-bending hit received a second run at these larger-than-life Imax 70mm theaters. Even a standard format showing at my local suburban multiplex was packed on a weeknight the first time I went to see it. So while my TV is a poor substitute for a movie theater, I’ll definitely be watching “Sinners” again this weekend. And in a step toward accessibility, at-home viewers have the option to watch a version with Black American Sign Language. — Tracy Brown
Andor (Diego Luna) in Season 2 of “Andor.”
(Des Willie / Lucasfilm Ltd.)
“Andor” (Disney+)
As a kid of the original “Star Wars” generation — a wide-eyed 5-year-old when “A New Hope” opened in 1977 — I often imagined what this galaxy might look like in a more grown-up light: complex, morally messy, beyond good and evil. “Andor” comes as close as anything — maybe a little too close. As compelling as its second season is, I’ve found myself needing to take it slow: In an age of endless conflict, deepening divides and the shadows of authoritarianism, it cuts deep. The season traces the brutal machinery of empire: propaganda, collaborators, betrayal and the looming massacre of civilians on Ghorman, a peaceful planet crushed for daring to protest. At the recent nationwide “No Kings” protests, some demonstrators carried “Andor”-inspired signs that read “We are the Ghor” and “The galaxy is watching.” Finishing it on the Fourth feels right — like binge-watching as an act of civic reflection. — Josh Rottenberg
A still from Netflix’s “Trainwreck: Poop Cruise.”
(Photo from Netflix)
“Trainwreck: Poop Cruise” (Netflix)
At a time when the headlines have you wondering — “Has everything gone to s—?” — we’re reminded of a 2014 maritime disaster where that sentiment very much applied. This installment of Netflix’s “Trainwreck” docuseries tells the tale of the infamous cruise ship disaster involving an engine fire on the Carnival Triumph that left 4,000 people aboard without electricity and plumbing. You can imagine where things go from there. If you always thought cruises were a terrible idea, this documentary will be validating. It’s a wild and bizarre 55 minutes that’ll forever change the way you look at lasagna. And it’ll make you ask an existential question you never thought to consider: Would you be this dramatic about pooping in red biohazard bags if you were stranded out at sea? — Yvonne Villarreal
Matt Bomer and Nathan Lane in Hulu’s “Mid-Century Modern.”
(Chris Haston / Disney)
“Mid-Century Modern” (Hulu)
Three gay men “of a certain age,” one of whom is named Bunny and played by Nathan Lane, move in together in Palm Springs under the gimlet eye of Bunny’s mother, played by the late, great Linda Lavin? Honestly, I couldn’t explain under oath why I haven’t watched this series yet. An increasingly rare multi-cam comedy filmed in front of a live audience, it promises the comfort of nostalgia — remember when you knew it was a comedy because you could hear people laughing? — and the bittersweet pleasures of lived-in lives. And though Bunny’s claim that he and his friends Jerry (Matt Bomer) and Arthur (Nathan Lee Graham) are all in the same boat life-cycle-wise (Bomer and Graham are, respectively, 22 and 13 years younger than Lane), well, “The Golden Girls” had a similar grouping and look how well that turned out. — Mary McNamara
Nathan Fielder in Season 2 of “The Rehearsal.”
(John P. Johnson / HBO)
“The Rehearsal” (Max)
Confession time: Whenever I’m preparing for an event that requires me to speak in front of a large crowd, I write it out, practice and keep the notes handy as I’m doing said activity. That’s what makes Nathan Fielder’s “The Rehearsal” refreshing — I’m not the only one who rehearses something — though he goes to some extremes with his stunts. The replica of Alligator Lounge in Season 1, which he creates so a man named Kor Skeete can reveal his education status to his trivia buddy, was nothing short of remarkable — I remember walking past the actual bar many times when I lived in Brooklyn. And the rest of the season was just as wild; one simulation has Fielder rehearsing to be a parent with Angela, a woman who is considering motherhood, leading to many awkward moments and conversations. Season 2 is no different, focusing on plane crashes and pilot communication, which sounds serious, but like the first season, Fielder takes many interesting tangents along the way. I’ll take a cue from our awards columnist Glenn Whipp, who wrote about the show, and not spoil the conclusion, but you’ll want to come along for the ride. — Maira Garcia
Crowd Scene at Live Aid on July 8, 1985, in London.
(FG/Bauer-Griffin / Getty Images)
Live Aid (YouTube)
July 13, 1985, was a formative day of TV for millions of Gen-Xers, sincerity and irony swirling on the biggest concert stage imaginable. Phil Collins made a stink about flying transatlantically on the Concorde so he could play both in London and, later that night, in Philadelphia. But even though he had the No. 1 album in the country (“No Jacket Required”), now he seems like the least significant presence there.
Return to the show for its two high points: Queen somehow condensed the whole of its grandeur into 21 unforgettable minutes. It’s been called the greatest live set in rock history, but that actually happened earlier in the day when U2 played the hypnotic “Bad” and Bono leapt into the crowd to hug a fan in danger of getting crushed, photographers circling them like it was a peace summit. It was everything I wanted pop to be. My band (average member age: 14) learned the song the next day. — Joshua Rothkopf
“Superman and the Mole Men,” released in 1951, starred George Reeves as the superhero from Krypton.
(LMPC via Getty Images)
“Superman and the Mole Men” (VOD)
How else can Superman rewind time without flying so fast he reverses the planet’s spin? By whisking fans back to his feature film debut in 1951’s “Superman and the Mole Men,” a kitschy adventure with an unexpectedly moving moral compass. This black-and-white indie launched George Reeves’ short and tragic career as the hero from Krypton. The producers considered it a teaser for his more famous TV series, “Adventures of Superman,” which was released the next year. The plot is simple: Clark Kent and Lois Lane trek to a rural oil town to investigate a well that’s drilled all the way to the center of the Earth. Small, hairy hominids emerge — but the twist is that Superman must protect these Mole Men from the prairie mob who want to shoot the outsiders on sight. It’s rousing to watch this classic defender of truth, justice and the American way bend guns, take bullets and huff: “I’m going to give you one last chance to stop acting like Nazi stormtroopers.” — Amy Nicholson
Damson Idris as Franklin Saint, left, and DeRay Davis as Peaches in FX’s “Snowfall.”
(Ray Mickshaw / FX)
“Snowfall” (FX on Hulu)
The race car epic “F1” is as hot as burning rubber at the box office, and is expected to bring in large crowds over the Fourth of July weekend as it re-establishes Brad Pitt as a top movie star. Pitt is joined in the winner’s circle by Damson Idris, who plays rookie driver Joshua Pearce. Idris’ star turn is a sharp departure from his portrayal of Franklin Saint, a ruthless drug kingpin in “Snowfall,” the FX drama streaming on Hulu about the rise of crack cocaine in South Los Angeles during the ‘80s. The series was one of the most popular shows in FX history, and was a vivid showcase for Idris, as Saint evolved from ambitious, charming entrepreneur to lethal thug. Although he was born in Peckham, London, Idris was cast in “Snowfall” by co-creator John Singleton, who believed that he could convincingly portray the demeanor of a youth growing up in the rough streets of South Los Angeles. When “Snowfall” completed its six-season run in 2023, the actor said in a Times interview that he was “obviously focused on movies. I want people to see me on the big screen.” — Greg Braxton
Emilia Schule stars as the titular French queen in “Marie Antoinette” on PBS.
(Caroline Dubois / Capa Drama / Canal Plus)
‘Marie Antoinette’ (PBS.org)
History’s punching bag and France’s last queen, Marie Antoinette, is reimagined as a wily, independent thinker in this inventive, lush and revisionist drama. Season 1 of “Marie Antoinette” opens in 1770, when at 14, she’s married to Louis Auguste, the Dauphin who later became King Louis XVI. The beauty of France and opulence of Versailles play a starring role though out the series, as does actor Emilia Schüle, who masterfully portrays the queen as she learns how to deal with the pressures of her role.
Released earlier this year, Season 2 finds the royal couple at the height of power but on the precipice of danger when France drops into alarming debt, the royal’s political enemies launch a misinformation war against the crown (thus the fabricated “Let Them Eat Cake!” line) and the starving masses are ready to revolt. Antoinette becomes a de facto leader when her meek husband crumbles under pressure. It’s a must for those who love a fresh takes on oft-trod chapters of history. — Lorraine Ali
A scene from “Nyaight of the Living Cat.”
(Crunchyroll)
“Nyaight of the Living Cat” (Crunchyroll, starting Sunday)
If you’ve ever watched “The Last of Us” or “The Walking Dead” and thought “this would be so much better with cats,” “Nyaight of the Living Cat” is the show for you. The anime series is set in a world where a mysterious virus turns humans into cats after they come into contact with afflicted felines, making places like cat cafés the ultimate danger zones. I can’t say I’ve ever wondered about a cat version of a zombie apocalypse, but now that this show is on my radar, I can’t wait for its premiere. And considering “nya” is Japanese for “meow,” I am hoping the show will lean into cat-related puns as it traces the fallout of this catastrophic viral outbreak. — T.B.
Philip Michael Thomas as Det. Ricardo “Rico” Tubbs and Don Johnson as Det. James “Sonny” Crockett in a promo shot for “Miami Vice.”
(NBC / NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
“Miami Vice” (VOD)
Legend has it that NBC programming exec Brandon Tartikoff scrawled “MTV Cops” on a cocktail napkin, setting the template for what became “Miami Vice.” It’s not true, but it’s a good story. Watch the two-hour pilot episode and wait for the moment, near the end, when Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” comes on while Crockett (Don Johnson) and Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) are driving the black Ferrari Daytona Spyder en route to take down a Colombian drug lord. The lighting, the editing, the integration of images and the music … yeah, it’s “MTV Cops.” But it’s “MTV Cops” made by Michael Mann, who, as executive producer, signed off on every aspect of the series in its first two seasons, using the show as a sandbox to hone techniques and themes that would show up in his 1986 crime thriller “Manhunter” and “Heat” and pretty much everything else he has done. My son once asked me what the Eighties were like. I played him Jan Hammer’s synth-laden “Miami Vice” theme. And, yes, with the pastels, the Wayfarers and contemporary music, it’s a Reagan-era time capsule. But those first two seasons are really timeless — thrilling, ambitious, outrageous to this day. Watch the pilot and then the two-parter “Calderone’s Return.” You’ll be hooked. — Glenn Whipp
Jason Schwartzman, left, Ted Danson, Zach Galifianakis in “Bored to Death.”
(HBO)
“Bored to Death” (Max)
Before streaming ate the world, I could measure my love for a series by whether I bought the seasons on video, and I am happy to say I am the proud owner of all three seasons of this excellent, quirky, nonjudgmental 2009 comedy, starring Jason Schwartzman, Zach Galifianakis and Ted Danson. Set against, of all things, the New York literary world, it features Schwartzman as writer Jonathan Ames — also the name of the series’ creator, adapting his own “long short story” into this fairy tale of Brooklyn — who, suffering after a breakup, fueled by an excess of Raymond Chandler, white wine and pot and unable to finish a second novel, advertises himself as an “unlicensed private detective.” Adventures follow, taking the very formal, very serious Jonathan into odd corners of the city and odder corners of humanity. With Galifianakis as best friend Ray, an angry comic book artist, and Danson as other best friend George, a hedonistic magazine publisher (and later restaurateur, publishing being even then what it is), rounding out television’s greatest three-way bromance. — Robert Lloyd
1. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine Books: $30) A story of friendship, love and adversity during the 1980s Space Shuttle program.
2. James by Percival Everett (Doubleday: $28) An action-packed reimagining of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
3. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab (Tor Books: $30) A vampiric tale follows three women across the centuries.
4. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press: $30) An unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond.
5. So Far Gone by Jess Walter (Harper: $30) A reclusive journalist is forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.
6. The Wedding People by Alison Espach (Henry Holt & Co.: $29) An unexpected wedding guest gets surprise help on her journey to starting anew.
7. My Friends by Fredrik Backman (Atria Books: $30) The bond between a group of teens 25 years earlier has a powerful effect on a budding artist.
8. Nightshade by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown & Co.: $30) A cop relentlessly follows his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina Island.
9. Among Friends by Hal Ebbott (Riverhead Books: $28) What begins as a celebration at a New York country house gives way to betrayal, shattering the trust between two close families.
10. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (Berkley: $29) Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of an heiress.
…
Hardcover nonfiction
1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House: $30) How to stop wasting energy on things you can’t control.
2. Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $30) A study of the political, economic and cultural barriers to progress in the U.S. and how to work toward a politics of abundance.
3. I Regret Almost Everything by Keith McNally (Gallery Books: $30) The restaurateur relates his gritty childhood and rise in the dining scene.
4. Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green (Crash Course Books: $28) The deeply human story of the fight against the world’s deadliest infectious disease.
5. How to Lose Your Mother by Molly Jong-Fast (Viking: $28) The author recalls her famed mother, writer Erica Jong.
6. Not My Type by E. Jean Carroll (St. Martin’s Press: $30) The journalist chronicles her legal battles with President Trump.
7. The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad (Random House: $30) A guide to the art of journaling, with contributions from Jon Batiste, Salman Rushdie, Gloria Steinem and others.
8. The Möbius Book by Catherine Lacey (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $27) The novelist blends truth and fiction in an exploration of faith and love.
9. Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson (Penguin Press: $32) Inside President Biden’s doomed decision to run for reelection and the hiding of his serious decline.
10. Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane (W. W. Norton & Co.: $32) The naturalist explores rivers as living beings.
…
Paperback fiction
1. All Fours by Miranda July (Riverhead Books: $19)
2. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco: $20)
3. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Vintage: $18)
4. One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune (Berkley: $19)
5. Problematic Summer Romance by Ali Hazelwood (Berkley: $20)
6. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper Perennial: $22)
7. The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $19)
8. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (Transit Books: $17)
9. Sandwich by Catherine Newman (Harper Perennial: $19)
10. Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove (Bindery Books: $19)
…
Paperback nonfiction
1. The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne (Penguin: $21)
2. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (Crown: $12)
3. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (TarcherPerigee: $20)
4. All About Love by bell hooks (Morrow: $17)
5. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi (Metropolitan Books: $20)
6. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Vintage: $18)
7. The Wide Wide Sea by Hampton Sides (Vintage: $19)
8. The White Album by Joan Didion (Farrar, Straus & Giroux: $18)
9. Sociopath by Patric Gagne (Simon & Schuster: $20)
