march

WASHINGTON — Thousands of protesters are rallying Friday on the National Mall in support of voting rights and racial justice ahead of the midterm elections, following a wave of changes to voting laws and redistricting that civil rights groups have condemned as detrimental to Black Americans.

The 2026 “Defend the Vote” March on Washington, organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, echoes the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 march. The event follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark April decision in Louisiana v. Callais that reinterpreted key provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, allowing Southern states to redraw their congressional maps in a way that erodes equal representation in Black communities.

“We’ve been doing these marches for years, but this is probably the most important because this is the first year we are marching that the voting rights bill has been nullified by the Supreme Court,” Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“Marches are designed to grab attention and then go into the trenches and organize around that,” he said.

The march opened with prayer and statements from Interfaith Alliance representatives. They spoke on diversity, equity and inclusion practices, voting rights and systemic racism.

“Creator of all, let us draw on each other, with love and mercy, and hold each other up as we march, wipe each other’s tears, heal each other’s wounds,” Ambereen Kahn, an Interfaith Alliance representative, said. “Most compassionate, protect our leaders who guide, instill in their hearts the values of our shared humanity.”

This year’s march, which Sharpton’s group is co-hosting with King’s Drum Major Institute, a progressive think tank and community action group, features dozens of speakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Sharpton said thousands of civil rights activists from across the southeastern U.S. were traveling to the capital by bus for the rally.

Event echoes iconic Lincoln Memorial rally

On Thursday, Courtney Pope, 48, was marching across the King Bridge to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. But on Friday, she and other members of the National Handmaid Army were at the Washington march with plans to travel to New York and New Jersey over the next few days.

For Pope, the rally is about finding community alongside promoting voting rights.

“I know that we’ll only be successful if we band together despite our differences,” Pope said.

Friday’s event harkens back to King Jr.’s historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, when more than 200,000 people gathered at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. That march, an inflection point in the Civil Rights Movement, came at a fraught moment for the country, when economic headwinds, civil unrest, political division and the Vietnam War bitterly divided Americans.

Sharpton said the Trump administration’s immigration policy for Haitians and white South Africans, as well as cuts to social programs like Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s health subsidies, are unifying policies for this year’s ideologically diverse march attendees. But the redistricting efforts by Republican-led states set to reduce the number of Black lawmakers in Congress loom large over Friday’s march.

“This march is about people who refuse to be counted out. When the courts and the legislature broke apart District 6, they did not just redraw lines,” Rep. Cleo Fields, D-La., said in a texted statement. “They told hundreds of thousands of Black families from Baton Rouge up through the Delta that their voice could be taken away at any moment.”

Fields was the central character in the Supreme Court decision that hollowed out the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The court ruled that his district, created just one term ago to permit a second majority-Black district in a state where Blacks make up 33% of the population, was unconstitutional because it relied too heavily on race.

The court has held that maps can be redrawn for partisan reasons.

Louisiana’s legislature rushed to redraw the district after the high court’s decision, reshaping Fields’ district to cluster it around predominantly white communities in the Baton Rouge area and southern Louisiana.

Fields has opted not to seek reelection to Congress and instead is pursuing a seat in the state Senate.

“The people taking part in this historic march are answering back, and history will remember that they did,” Fields said.

Embattled Black lawmakers see need for continued rights push

Rep. Shomari Figures, an Alabama Democrat whose majority-Black district was targeted by the state’s Republican-led redistricting effort, said the original voting rights fight required local movements, national figures, lots of coordination and strategy. He sees this year’s march as a continuation of that legacy.

“My district includes Montgomery, which was the birthplace of it all. It started with a bus boycott in 1955 and that, ultimately, morphed into a broader struggle for civil rights and led to a more broad Civil Rights Movement,” Figures told the AP.

“It led to a Civil Rights Act, led to the Fair Housing Act, led obviously to the Voting Rights Act, and the voting rights movement,” Figures added.

Ahead of Friday, organizations participating in the march, including the NAACP, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Black Voters Matter, filed new claims in federal court in their existing lawsuit against President Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting. The Supreme Court cleared a path Monday for possible implementation of the order, though it remains unclear how much can be put in place before the midterms.

“We will not stand idly by while the voices of the people are silenced,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement Thursday. “We must protect every eligible citizen’s right to cast their ballot.”

Brown and Junkroski write for the Associated Press. AP writers Gary Fields in Washington and Kimberly Chandler in Montgomery, Ala., contributed to this report.

Hundreds of people marched on Saturday in the town of Soller, in the island of Mallorca against mass tourism. Protesters exclaimed that tourism has had an impact on the cost of living for locals, and that access to housing has become more difficult.

Paramount Skydance must wait until March to defend its proposed $111-billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — a blockbuster deal that would reshape Hollywood by uniting two storied studios.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín scheduled a March 2 trial to decide the merits of an antitrust challenge brought by 12 state attorneys general, led by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta. The states are teaming up to try to derail Paramount’s merger, and have snared preliminary victories — prompting a concession from Paramount to put the merger on hold until after the trial.

Paramount had asked for a Nov. 4 trial date.

Tech scion David Ellison wants to add HBO, CNN, HGTV, Food Network and the Warner Bros. studio to his smaller stable of Paramount properties. The trial will span 12 days and conclude March 19, the judge wrote in her order.

“We will continue to vigorously defend the transaction and remain committed to closing as soon as possible so its benefits for the creative community and consumers can be realized,” Paramount said in a statement.

The Writers Guild of America has separately sued to block the merger.

Friday marks the one-year anniversary of Ellison’s purchase of Paramount.

“Looking back on the past twelve months, I’m incredibly proud of how our team has turned those priorities into measurable progress, reflecting their talent, hard work, and dedication,” Ellison wrote in a Tuesday letter to shareholders as the company released its second-quarter earnings.

Results were mixed.

Revenue inched up 1% to $6.91 billion compared to the year-ago period, when Paramount was controlled by media heiress Shari Redstone.

The company’s studios and streaming divisions turned in stronger performances but costs, including $153 million in merger-related expenses, weighed on the corporate entity.

Profit declined 28% to $41 million, or 4 cents a share, compared to $57 million in the year-earlier period.

Paramount said it now has 81.6 million streaming customers, an increase of 2 million from the first quarter.

Streaming operations produced $2.5 billion in revenue, a 9% boost from the same quarter a year ago. Paramount+, which boasts the Taylor Sheridan-produced “Landman” and “Dutton Ranch,” also televised President Trump’s birthday extravaganza, the UFC Freedom 250 fights in June from the White House lawn.

Coverage of the FIFA World Cup in some Latin American countries assisted the streaming results. (Fox and Telemundo broadcast the highly rated soccer matches in the U.S.)

Studios revenue increased 16% to $1.3 billion, boosted by Paramount’s television studios and its licensing deals as well as the ability to consolidate revenue from Skydance properties. During the quarter, the Melrose Avenue film studio released “Scary Movie,” which brought in $231 million in global ticket sales, surpassing expectations.

Television media, which includes the CBS network, TV stations and the company’s struggling cable channels, declined 9% to $3.1 billion. Advertising revenue fell 14% and the company felt the loss of South American television operations, Telefe and Chilevision, which it divested after the Ellison takeover.

The company revenue during the current quarter should come in around $7 billion. It also released its full-year guidance, saying it expects $30 billion in revenue, up 4% over 2025.

Paramount released the earnings after markets closed Tuesday. During regular trading, shares gained nearly 2% to close at $8.38.

All-Pro wide receiver Puka Nacua has had a massive contract extension put on hold by the Rams. His reputation has been questioned, and he has gone through in-patient rehab at a facility that addresses mental health, wellness and behavioral issues.

And with training camp beginning Saturday, attention again has been diverted to the incident that remains unresolved — an allegation that Nacua left bite marks on a woman’s shoulder during an evening of revelry.

The latest twist is a color photo of well-defined teeth marks that the plaintiff in a civil lawsuit against Nacua says he left on her shoulder. The lawsuit was filed in March, but the plaintiff’s attorney, Joseph M. Kar, sent copies of the photo to The Times and other outlets this week before discovery and other evidence sharing in the case has begun.

A black-and-white photo of the teeth marks was included in the civil complaint filed by Kar in March asking a Los Angeles Superior Court judge for monetary damages for gender violence, assault and battery and negligence.

Nacua’s attorney Levi McCathern acknowledges a bite occurred in a sprinter van while Nacua and the woman were part of a group celebrating on New Year’s Eve. But he describes it as the result of “horseplay” in the van and questions the timing of the plaintiff producing the color photo, speculating that her attorney wanted to give the lawsuit a headline on the eve of training camp.

He also said the authenticity of the bite marks on the photo — which form a circular shape with an absence of bruising — could be challenged in court by an expert in tooth reconstruction.

An image present in a court filing as evidence shows an impression on a woman’s back. The plaintiff’s lawyer sent the photo to The Times. Puka Nacua’s attorney Levi McCathern acknowledged the bite but described it as “horseplay.”

(Law Office of Joseph M. Kar, PC)

“The marks look more like her back pressed against his face than an actual bite,” said McCathren, pointing out that video from the van published by TMZ shows a woman identified as the plaintiff twerking above Nacua, who appears to be sleeping.

In March, McCathern questioned the lawsuit being filed on the heels of the Seattle Seahawks’ Jaxon Smith-Njigba signing a record four-year, $168.6-million extension that Nacua could mirror, suggesting that Nacua’s impending wealth motivated her to seek monetary damages.

“That further underscores the complete lack of credibility behind these accusations,” McCathern said.

Kar described the incident as a vicious attack, saying that Nacua “bit her on her scapula leaving an impression of all his teeth, as well as he would not release [her] for what seemed to be 10-20 seconds, while Plaintiff was folded over and started crying and suffering severe physical and emotional pain.”

“Frankly, the color vs. the black/white [photo] was a non-sequitur for me,” Kar said. “A man attacked and bit a woman severely, he acted provocatively before, and had cursed at dinner.”

Nacua faced possible misdemeanor battery charges, but the Los Angeles city attorney’s office indicated in an email that “the matter is currently on track to be resolved through pre-filing diversion,” a program that allows eligible defendants to avoid criminal prosecution and jail time. The court agrees to dismiss the charges entirely if the defendant completes the required terms — such as community service, counseling or restitution.

The Rams were sufficiently alarmed to put the brakes on a contract extension that could have paid Nacua, 25, up to $160 million over four years. Instead, he will remain under the terms of the final year of his rookie contract, making about $5.8 million in 2026. Nacua led all NFL receivers with 129 receptions in 2025.

The incident came shortly after another behavioral issue involving Nacua that alarmed the Rams. He criticized NFL officials during a livestream and made a gesture regarded as antisemitic. Nacua apologized, but after the Rams’ loss to the Seahawks a few days later, Nacua criticized officials in a social media post from the locker room. The NFL fined him $25,000.

In March, Nacua checked into a rehab facility in Malibu. A few days later, Rams coach Sean McVay said, “I trust this kid’s heart” but that Nacua had some growing up to do and needed to represent the Rams just as well off the field as on.

“The play on the field is amazing [but] there is a responsibility in terms of representing all things not exclusive to just that,” McVay said. “He knows that those are expectations, and we are hopeful this will be an opportunity for him to learn and grow, and we are hopeful that he’s a Ram for a really long time.”

Nacua participated in a Rams team activity workout in May after leaving rehab and reflected on the experience.

“Something that I feel like I’ve learned is, it’s OK to ask for support,” he said. “And then to recognize the platform that I have in being a professional football player, and trying to use that for the betterment of myself and for those around me.”

Chaos erupted outside India’s parliament as thousands attempted to storm the building, amid growing protests challenging Modi’s government. The ‘Cockroach Janta Party’ began as a satirical online movement. Now it’s become something far bigger.

Al Jazeera’s @avawarrinerr explains.

Police used batons and tear gas to disperse protesters as tens of thousands of people joined the Cockroach Janta Party’s march on parliament in New Delhi. Protesters have been demanding the resignation of India’s Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan following exam scandals that have triggered nationwide outrage.

Hundreds gather near the border as coalition figures push to rebuild communities evacuated in 2005.

Israeli cabinet members and parliamentarians have joined a march towards Gaza to call for the rebuilding of Jewish settlements in the besieged Palestinian territory.

The march on Sunday defied a military order that restricted their route at the last minute over concerns that some participants planned to cross the fence into the besieged Palestinian territory.

The rally is the latest sign of how calls to resettle Gaza have moved from the political margins into Israel’s mainstream political discourse.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party was listed among the rally’s sponsors, despite his insistence that Gaza will not be resettled.

Earlier, the Israeli army designated the surrounding area a closed military zone for 24 hours, saying it was meant to stop marchers from crossing into Gaza.

Nachala, the settler group behind the event, called it the “March of Thousands” and said more than 10,000 attended, although Israeli media reports estimated the crowd at only a few hundred.

Nachala is led by Daniella Weiss, who has long advocated Israel resettling Gaza. Speaking at a Likud party conference, she said Palestinians would “disappear” from the territory.

Some marchers bypassed checkpoints through nearby hillsides to reach the Gaza border. Video verified by Al Jazeera’s verification unit showed dozens of Israelis gathered at the border fence.

Also on the march were Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also oversees settlement affairs, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and more than two dozen ministers and legislators, Israeli media reported.

Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have been sanctioned by several European countries.

Marching under the banner “returning home after 21 years,” they demanded the reconstruction of Elei Sinai, Dugit and Nisanit, three settlements evacuated when Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005.

Ben-Gvir, a member of Netanyahu’s cabinet, posted a video of himself among the marchers with a caption: ‘Gaza is ours’. Fellow cabinet minister Smotrich also a called on Israelis not to miss a “historic opportunity” to rebuild settlements in Gaza.

Palestinian lawyer and analyst Diana Buttu told Al Jazeera that Israel’s settlement drive has been enabled by a lack of accountability.

“Because Israel has never been punished for its crimes, it’s only natural that a country that commits genocide and ethnic cleansing feels emboldened to steal more land”, she said.

In December, a group of Nachala activists briefly crossed into Gaza and planted an Israeli flag before soldiers brought them back across the fence.

“Remake” has a tragic tale to tell and director Ross McElwee wastes no time revealing its grieving heart. Near the start of this funereal documentary, the filmmaker addresses his subject directly: “It’s been seven years since you died,” he says to his late son Adrian through voice-over, “and I still miss you every day.”

Across McElwee’s 50-year career, he has worked intimately without a crew to make sense of his own life by diligently recording it. In the process, he turned his friends and loved ones into the unlikely stars of his acclaimed independent documentaries.

With “Remake,” he looks back at that footage, concentrating on the images he shot of Adrian since his birth in 1989. Adrian died on Christmas Eve 2016 of a drug overdose and McElwee clearly remains shattered. For a documentarian who specializes in personal movies, “Remake” feels especially revealing — both in terms of the glimpses we get of this father-son relationship and of unsolved mysteries that linger just outside the frame.

The film’s title ostensibly refers to a surprising phone call McElwee received about 20 years ago, when he was approached by Steve Carr, the director of broad comedies like “Paul Blart: Mall Cop,” who was eager to adapt McElwee’s 1986 documentary “Sherman’s March” into a movie. That landmark picture features McElwee, then in his mid-30s, as he tries to chronicle the exploits of Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who laid siege to the South during the Civil War. Except, in the midst of that project, McElwee’s focus shifts, delightfully, to his disastrous love life and the fascinating women he meets in his travels, becoming a deeply humane examination of modern courtship.

Carr doesn’t seem like an obvious choice to oversee a narrative remake, but McElwee decides to sell him the rights anyway. Soon in “Remake,” though, it becomes apparent that this is just one chapter of the story — and hardly the most essential. McElwee’s last film, 2011’s “Photographic Memory,” dealt with his increasingly frayed connection to Adrian, who was already fighting substance-abuse issues. “Remake” retraces Adrian’s childhood while filling in the details of the director’s life after “Photographic Memory,” including brain surgery and the dissolution of his 24-year marriage.

But Adrian is never far from his thoughts or absent from the screen: this smiling, happy boy slowly transforming into an edgy, troubled young man whose sweetness still occasionally shines through.

The passage of time is central to McElwee’s work, but he’s rarely scrutinized the topic as aggressively as he does here. It’s not simply that we watch Adrian age or revisit some of McElwee’s “Sherman’s March” subjects. (“Sherman’s March” is now screening in a new 4K restoration at the Laemmle Royal with “Remake.”) It’s also in the way that McElwee’s formerly wry narration now sounds far more resigned, his voice grown froggy and hushed as he nears 80. McElwee has often pondered the downside of essentially treating himself like a human camera, observing the world rather than fully engaging in it. But in “Remake,” he openly questions his artistic approach and, fittingly, he lets his son be his loudest critic.

As a boy, Adrian is enchanted by McElwee’s filming. In childhood, he paints an abstract picture of God in which the Almighty eerily resembles a movie camera. But although Adrian soon picks up a camera as well, increasingly interested in being a filmmaker himself, he resents how his father intrudes on their time together by constantly shooting their conversations. McElwee’s scenes of them at the Venice Film Festival for the “Photographic Memory” premiere are especially fraught, Adrian’s prickly reaction to a movie about his drug abuse creating tension between the two men at the subsequent press conference.

In “Remake,” McElwee laments that he didn’t do enough to help him navigate addiction and the mental-health issues that exacerbated it. (Adrian was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.) Was McElwee too consumed with his own career to be there for his son? The question haunts “Remake” — he includes an indelible sequence from “Sherman’s March” in which his longtime friend Charleen upbraids him for always having the camera out. “This isn’t art,” she hollers. “This is life!” Did McElwee never come to appreciate the difference?

A eulogy that also serves as an apology, a reckoning and a confession, “Remake” is filled with moments that are crushing because of how understated they are, none more brutal than when McElwee visits Adrian near the end of his life, when he’d moved to Colorado to get a fresh start. “He seemed to be doing OK,” McElwee recalls thinking. “But I always leave knowing I’m probably not seeing the whole picture.”

Even now, poring through his footage, desperately looking for clues, McElwee pines for that larger view — the one that might somehow bring the boy back to his inconsolable father.

Hundreds of masked white nationalists marched on Washington DC waving Confederate flags and chanting anti-immigrant slogans on the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

Wednesday’s win over Bosnia-Herzegovina in San Francisco Bay Area Stadium was thoroughly deserved and earned Pochettino’s side a date with Belgium in Seattle on Monday evening (01:00 BST on Tuesday).

It did not, however, come without a price.

Folarin Balogun, the 24-year-old former Arsenal youngster, who inspired the US to a thumping win over Paraguay with two goals to begin their campaign, added his third of the tournament to break the deadlock shortly before half-time.

He might have had a hat-trick, firing one effort wide of the near post, seeing an effort ruled out for offside and slicing a shot onto the bar from close range, but just after the hour mark his night, and potentially his World Cup was ended.

What looked an innocuous tussle with Bosnia defender Tarik Muharemovic for a looping ball down the left channel ended with the forward being shown a straight red card.

As Balogun attempted to shield the ball, Muharemovic managed to get in front of him, and as the forward’s boot returned to the ground it landed on the back of the Bosnian’s ankle, causing it to twist gruesomely.

In real time, and in all likelihood in reality, it looked entirely accidental, but Brazilian referee Raphael Claus was sent to the monitor to watch a super slow-motion replay, which gave him little choice but to brandish the red card.

It etched Balogun’s name further into the record books.

On the night when he became just the third American to score three goals in a World Cup edition, he also became the fourth player to both score and be sent off in a knockout match, following Brazil’s Garrincha in the 1962 semi-final, his compatriot Ronaldinho in the 2002 quarter-final against England, and France’s Zinedine Zidane in the infamous 2006 final against Italy.

The sending-off brings an immediate one-game ban, ruling him out of the Belgium match, but it could yet be extended by Fifa officials to potentially rule him out of the quarter-final and semi-final, should the Americans make it.

Long-time Fulham target Ricardo Pepi is the man most likely to fill Balogun’s boots , though he has not scored in his 184 minutes on the pitch at this tournament, nor in the four friendly games before it.

The PSV man’s last international goal came in a Nations League game in November 2024.

Crystal Palace and US defender Chris Richards said the players were supporting Balogun.

“We told him we have got his back,” he said. “We are a team of 26, not just one.

“Ultimately we are going to miss him for the next game but we know whoever is going to step up is going to do a job just as well as he did.

“I think it’ll keep us stronger. One man is down, the next guy steps up. We are a team, we are more than just one player, we are more than just 11 players.”

Pochettino added: “When Balogun received the red card, I thought that is the moment we need to show we are a team and the eyes of the players were [saying], ‘Coach, we are ready to go and fight’ and that is amazing.

“These guys are creating a legacy in this country and with our amazing fans everything is possible. Why not us?”

Former Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger and Thrive Capital founder Joshua Kushner have hired investment bankers and discussed making a bid for the National Basketball Assn. expansion team in Las Vegas, according to people familiar with their plans.

The bid would be for a majority investment in the team, according to the people, who asked to not be identified because the discussions are private. The NBA’s board of governors approved the exploration of a potential franchise expansion in Las Vegas and Seattle in March.

Iger and Kushner are discussing making the bid through Thrive Eternal, a company set up by Kushner’s firm to invest in iconic brands and cultural assets. The company operates as a holding company, structured to raise new capital and make investments into businesses without a set exit timeline. Iger is involved with Thrive as an advisor.

It’s unclear what the size of the bid and the valuation of the franchise would be. Representatives for Thrive Capital and Iger declined to comment.

Iger, who took over as CEO of Disney from 2005 to 2020 and then again from 2022 to March of this year, had a tenure marked by acquiring marquee entertainment franchises and expanding them, including Pixar, Marvel Entertainment, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox. The executive previously bought a controlling stake in Angel City Football Club, a women’s soccer team, with his wife, Willow Bay. A big basketball fan, he’s had a lot of experience with the NBA through Disney’s ESPN sports networks.

Kushner, meanwhile, has been building an investment portfolio of tech startups for decades, from investing early into OpenAI and Instagram, and working on dozens of incubations through his venture firm, Thrive Capital. The venture firm has total assets under management of more than $50 billion, according to a regulatory filing. Earlier this year, the firm raised more than $10 billion for its largest fund ever. The NBA discussions show the latest iteration in how Thrive is expanding beyond its roots of investing in technology startups, into also influencing culture through entertainment and sports.

Announced in April, Thrive Eternal, which operates a permanent capital vehicle, raised its initial capital from existing Thrive investors. “These are assets with qualities that cannot be replicated by technology,” Kushner said in a social media post. “In a world shaped by abundant intelligence where creation scales and distribution fragments, we believe they will matter even more.”

Thrive Eternal’s first investment, though not a controlling stake, was backing a Major League Baseball team, the San Francisco Giants. The capital of that deal is set to go toward the Giants’ Oracle Park and its surrounding real estate, according to a person familiar with the matter, Bloomberg previously reported.

Mascarenhas writes for Bloomberg.

It’s no joke: John Oliver of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight” is checking into “General Hospital,” the ABC soap opera.

The host of the weekly series that takes sharply comedic aim at government and institutions announced during his June 28 episode that he will appear on the daytime soap “General Hospital” on July 2, 3 and 6. No details about his role were revealed except that it will be a “substantial guest role.”

And that’s not the only soap he’ll be in this summer. He will also have a role on “Days of Our Lives,” streaming on Peacock, on Aug. 11, 12 and 14.

The appearances are the culmination of Oliver’s pleas to soap opera producers during the March 8 installment of his show that they consider him for a part. An unapologetic devotee of the outrageous antics and high melodrama which characterize the genre, Oliver said, “Write me a role and I will be on your set so fast it will make your head swim.”

In a statement, Oliver celebrated the realization of his dream: “‘General Hospital’ was everything I hoped it would be. It’s a true honor to be a small stain on the history of this illustrious show.”

The series’ executive producer Frank Valentini said in a separate statement that Oliver made an offer they could not refuse.

“When John Oliver publicly threw down the gauntlet and said he wanted to appear on a soap, we didn’t hesitate for a second,” he said. “He was everything you’d hope he’d be: prepared, professional, funny, and genuinely kind to everyone on set. He plays an integral character in the story, and I can’t wait for fans to see who he crosses paths within Port Charles.”

“General Hospital,” which airs weekdays on ABC and streams on Hulu, is in its 64th year and stands as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production.

On the March 8 episode, Oliver said he was jealous of celebrities such as Katy Perry, Snoop Dogg and Smokey Robinson who would pop up on various soaps. He was particularly envious of sports pundit Stephen A. Smith who has had a recurring role on “General Hospital,” playing a shady figure known only as “Brick.”

Oliver made it clear that he was not interested in a brief walk-on playing himself. He wanted to play a character, and have a “juicy role” that involved murder or “slapping.” He also required that there be a close-up of his face.

June 26 (UPI) — The District of Columbia and the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday settled a lawsuit over the wrongful arrest of a man for protesting the National Guard’s presence in the capital.

Sam O’Hara, who was arrested last year for repeatedly playing the “Imperial March” — Darth Vader‘s theme music in the Star Wars movie franchise — behind members of the Guard who were on patrol in the District, will be paid an undisclosed amount of money in exchange for dropping his lawsuit.

The ACLU filed the finalized settlement on behalf of O’Hara on Friday, ending a months-long negotiation with officials in Washington, D.C., and its Metropolitan Police Department, but a suit against the Ohio National Guard sergeant who had him cuffed and detained was still in litigation, USA Today reported.

“Our right to free speech grants us the freedom to criticize the government,” Scott Michelman, legal director for the ACLU’s Washington, D.C., chapter, told The New York Times.

“Government officials don’t have to like it, but they can’t punish someone for their speech,” Michelman said, noting that O’Hara’s settlement was “not a significant amount” and that the number will not be disclosed.

O’Hara had for months been protesting President Donald Trump‘s deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C., by playing Vader’s theme music toward members of the Guard and recording the interactions.

On Sept. 11, however, an Ohio National Guard sergeant told O’Hara that if he continued his protest the MPD would be called to “handle” the situation.

When O’Hara ignored the command, MPD officers were called to the scene and handcuffed him in an effort to end the protest and accused him of harassing members of the Guard, but later released him without charges.

In a statement, O’Hara said the law enforcement effort to end his protest “ultimately backfired and brought more attention to the unjust deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C.”

“This settlement serves as a reminder that constitutional freedoms are worth defending, especially when those in power would prefer we stay quiet,” O’Hara said.

The MPD said in a statement after the settlement was announced that its internal affairs bureau is investigating the incident, but also noted that its department policies would not change.

“MPD recognizes the importance of upholding First Amendment rights of individuals to peacefully express their views and is dedicated to facilitating lawful demonstrations while maintaining public safety and order,” the department said in its statement.

Netflix Inc. is under contract to buy Radford Studio Center, a historic Los Angeles movie studio space, for a fraction of its 2021 $1.85-billion sale price after lenders including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. repossessed the property.

The price is close to $400 million, according to two people with knowledge of the transaction, which is expected to close in the third quarter.

The Times reported in April that Netflix had plans to buy the studio property.

The one-time silent movie lot has been home to many popular TV series over the decades, including “Gunsmoke,” “Gilligan’s Island” and “Seinfeld.”

Netflix wants to consolidate its real estate footprint in one place and has been considering relocating from a group of Hollywood buildings it leases from Hudson Pacific Properties Inc. The Hudson Pacific leases expire in 2031.

Radford’s current owner, Hackman Capital Partners, defaulted on $1.1 billion of bondholder debt and turned the property over to lenders led by Goldman after it was unable to reach a refinancing deal last year. The sale will wipe out close to two-thirds of the debt.

The value of Los Angeles studio real estate has tumbled since interest rates climbed and production plummeted following strikes in 2023 by unions representing writers and actors. Landlords unaffiliated with studios, such as Hackman, have been hit particularly hard as production moved to space owned by the entertainment giants. Occupancy of L.A. soundstages fell to 62% in the first half of last year, according to FilmLA, a local permitting group.

Representatives of Goldman and Netflix declined to comment. A Hackman representative didn’t immediately provide a comment.

Netflix, which has historically leased rather than owned real estate, has stepped up investing in studio lots. It’s currently developing a $1-billion production center in Fort Monmouth, N.J. The streaming service reported $12.3 billion in cash and equivalents in its most recent quarter. Netflix was paid a $2.8-billion breakup fee by Paramount Skydance Corp., which won a bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

Before the recent slowdown, Hackman went on a buying spree of movie lots, banking on ever-growing demand for streaming TV production. In March, Deutsche Bank AG sued Hackman to foreclose on its Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York. Hackman-owned Television City in Los Angeles and Manhattan Beach Studios in nearby Manhattan Beach are both being marketed after lenders led by Deutsche Bank pushed for the sale, Bloomberg reported in May.

Brokerage Cushman & Wakefield Ltd. is selling the $240-million loan on the 22-acre Manhattan Beach property, which it describes in a marketing document as “one of the most strategically positioned opportunities in coastal Los Angeles, combining an institutional-quality operating asset with some of the most irreplaceable underlying land in the South Bay.”

The Radford Studio lot was only 71% leased as of March, according to mortgage filings.

Gittelsohn writes for Bloomberg.

TIJUANA — Iran’s soccer team arrived in Mexico on Sunday morning for training ahead of the World Cup, before its first two group matches at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood later this month.

Ehsan Hajsafi was the first player to exit the plane with markings for German charter airline USC, which arrived at about 5:05 a.m. He led the team, dressed in blue blazers over white T-shirts, through a brief security check with Mexican officials and dogs before boarding a bus.

The bus stopped briefly at the entrance to the Tijuana airport, where around 20 or so Iran fans waved flags.

The team’s participation in the World Cup, jointly hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, has been complicated by the Iran war. Problems with processing visas earlier led Iran to move its training base from Tucson to Tijuana.

The team has been training in the Turkish city of Antalya. It flew directly to Mexico on a private jet from the Mediterranean city’s airport.

Some members of their entourage were reportedly still without U.S. visas, according to Iranian state television Saturday. Those include the Iranian Football Federation’s secretary-general, Hedayat Mombeini, and its vice president, Mehdi Mohammad Nabi.

Iran plays its first two games at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood against New Zealand on June 15 and Belgium on June 21, then heads to Seattle to face Egypt on June 26. Iran and the U.S. could meet in the Round of 32 on July 3 in Arlington, Texas, if both teams finish second in their groups.

In March, President Trump discouraged Iran from participating in the tournament, saying he didn’t think it was “appropriate” and raising concerns over players’ “life and safety.” A day later, Iran’s national team countered, saying “no one can exclude” it from playing.

Iran finalized its team on Monday, including 17 home-based players whose clubs haven’t played since February because of the war. Star forward Sardar Azmoun was dropped in March, reportedly because of a social media post that angered Iranian authorities during the war.

Iran’s sports minister said in March that it would “not be possible” for the team to participate in the World Cup, but the Islamic Republic’s soccer federation said in May that it was moving ahead with a team. The federation had insisted that all players and staff be granted visas, including those who had military service in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.