Retirees are getting a Social Security raise in 2026. How will it compare to the benefits bump they got in 2025?
In most years, Social Security retirees receive a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), and that’s likely to happen in 2026. COLAs are critical because without them, benefits would remain unchanged while the price of goods and services increase over time. Retirees would be left with far less buying power, and many would struggle to make ends meet since Social Security is an important income source for seniors.
COLAs aren’t the same from one year to the next, though. While the 2026 COLA hasn’t been announced, there are good estimates of what it’s going to be. Based on the existing data, it looks like the amount of the benefits increase is going to be different from the raise retirees got in 2025.
Here’s what next year’s COLA is likely to be, compared with the benefits bump you got in 2025.
Image source: The Motley Fool.
How will next year’s Social Security COLA compare?
The 2026 COLA will officially be announced on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. The Senior Citizens League estimates the cost-of-living adjustment will result in a 2.7% benefits increase.
A 2.7% increase would be a bit larger than the raise retirees got in 2025, when benefits rose 2.5%. However, it will be smaller than COLAs from recent memory, including the 3.2% benefit increase in 2024, the 8.7% raise in 2023, and the 5.9% COLA in 2022.
Unfortunately, while the COLA is on track to be larger in 2026 than in 2025, retirees may not see the full 2.7% increase in their payment because Medicare premiums are going to be rising as well — and by much more than they did in 2025.
In 2025, the standard premium for Medicare Part B rose $10.30, jumping from $174.70 in 2024 to $185.00 in 2025. In 2026, projections from the Medicare Board of Trustees suggest that Part B premiums will go up $21.50, from the current $185.00 all the way up to $206.50. This is one of the biggest year-over-year increases in the history of the program.
Unfortunately, since most people have Medicare premiums taken directly out of their Social Security checks, a good portion of the extra money that seniors get from the COLA will disappear.
For example, if someone had a $2,000 monthly benefit in 2024, this year’s 2.5% COLA would have given them around a $50 monthly raise, and they’d have lost $10.30 of it. Their check would have gone up by around $39.70.
Someone with a $2,000 check in 2025, on the other hand, could see their payments rise by 2.7% in 2026, or $54 per month. A $21.50 Medicare premium increase would leave them with only $32.50 extra each month.
This means the “bigger” benefits bump this year may be nothing but a mirage, and retirees could find themselves struggling to maintain buying power based on current levels of inflation.
Is a larger COLA good news or bad news?
The reality is, even aside from the Medicare issue, it isn’t good news that Social Security retirees are on track for a bigger COLA. That’s because cost-of-living adjustments are directly tied to a formula that measures how much the cost of goods and services is going up. A bigger raise means there are higher levels of inflation, and inflation generally isn’t good for older people on fixed incomes.
Many seniors also have money saved in retirement plans, and since people tend to be conservative with their investments during retirement, their returns may not outpace inflation by much when inflation is high.
For now, seniors will need to simply wait and see what the official COLA announcement brings on Oct. 24. The news will offer insight into what their finances will look like in the coming year, but retirees should prepare for potential disappointment, even if the COLA amount looks good on paper.
On The Crisis Room, we’re following insecurity trends across Nigeria.
Every week at HumAngle, we track the state of insecurity across Nigeria: the attacks, abductions, armed clashes, displacements, and the lives caught in between.
All of it feeds into the HumAngle Insecurity Tracker, a data-driven project documenting trends, patterns, and stories behind the numbers.
Today, we ask: What does an insecurity tracker reveal about the state of a country? What do these numbers say about security policies, responses, and the future of communities at risk? Our guests are two journalists who live at the intersection of data, storytelling, and accountability: Adejumo Kabir and Abdussamad Yusuf.
One-hundred thirty-two points are a lot of points.
USC receiver Ja’Kobi Lane evades Georgia Southern defensive back Tracy Hill Jr. during the Trojans’ win Saturday at the Coliseum.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
That’s how much USC has scored in its two games this season, including its blowout victory over Missouri State the week before.
If you want to believe the Trojans are better than they were in their previous two seasons, there are developments that could further convince you that you’re right. If you want to believe Lincoln Riley has elevated his team from mediocrity, there are statistics you could cite to support your observations.
There is also evidence to the contrary, of course.
The two games USC has played this season were more or less Rorschach tests.
The only indisputable truth to emerge was that Trojans receivers Makai Lemon and Ja’Kobi Lane would be serious problems for every one of their opponents.
Everything else remained up for debate.
When you watched the Trojans trample over former Clay Helton’s Eagles at the Coliseum, were you encouraged by how quarterback Jayden Maiava threw for 412 yards or concerned how badly he misfired on some of the handful of passes he didn’t complete?
Was your breath taken away by how Waymond Jordan changed direction in his 167-yard performance or did you gasp in horror when he fumbled on the opening drive?
Were you heartened by how USC scored every time it was in the red zone or alarmed by its three separate illegal-use-of-hands penalties on defense?
Did you see the 39-point margin of victory as an indication the Trojans are ready to take on the big boys or Georgia Southern’s four consecutive drives into their territory in the first half as a sign they will encounter trouble when the level of competition improves?
Riley was more measured in praising his team than he was a week ago.
“Definitely a lot of positives to take out of it,” Riley said.
However …
“Several things we have to clean up,” he said. “We had a couple of errors, I thought, especially with penalties where we have to be better as a football team, more disciplined as a football team.”
Riley warned his team of the consequences of failing to improve.
“It’s like I told the guys last night, there were plays we made last week that some weeks where if we’re not cleaner when we play more talented teams, the results are going to look like that,” he said. “And, so, we have to look at it through the lens of, ‘Did we do our best?’ We’re still a long ways off our best. That’s the No. 1 thing that showed up.”
Riley has sounded tone deaf at times during his three-plus years at USC, but this wasn’t one of them.
Mistakes could be punished by Michigan State, which will present the Trojans with their first real test on Sept. 20.
Mistakes could be punished by Illinois and Notre Dame and Oregon.
USC coach Lincoln Riley directs his team from the sideline during the Trojans’ win over Georgia Southern Saturday.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
Mistakes probably won’t be punished by UCLA, which has been turned into a complete Dumpster fire by athletic director Martin Jarmond, but that’s another story for another day.
For what it’s worth, Georgia Southern’s coach offered an optimistic view of USC’s ceiling. Helton was the Trojans’ head coach for five-plus seasons and still follows the program.
“I’ll tell you what, it’s a better personnel team than last year, especially, I think, offensively,” Helton said.
He pointed specifically to receivers Lemon and Lane, and running backs Jordan and Eli Sanders.
“And the quarterback [Maiava] is playing really, really within himself. You can see reps and experience matter,” Helton continued. “I’ve always thought that, and the experience he had last year, you see his growth.
“They’ve got a good situation here. You can see the changes that have been made from last year’s personnel group to this year’s personnel group, and talking with Coach Riley, I know he’s happy. He’s getting the opportunity to coach a lot more, he said, and you can see it. You can see it on tape.”
Helton still considers himself a champion of USC, and what he saw the Trojans do against his team on Saturday night gave him hope for what they might be able to accomplish this season.
£1.308 billion (Powerball) on January 13 2016 in the US, for which three winning tickets were sold, remains history’s biggest lottery prize
£1.267 billion (Mega Million) a winner from South Carolina took their time to come forward to claim their prize in March 2019 not long before the April deadline
£633.76 million (Powerball draw) from a winner from Wisconsin
£625.76 million (Powerball) Mavis L. Wanczyk of Chicopee, Massachusetts claimed the jackpot in August 2017
£575.53 million (Powerball) A lucky pair of winners scooped the jackpot in Iowa and New York in October 2018
WASHINGTON — For all of President Trump’s promises of an economic “golden age,” a spate of weak indicators last week told a potentially worrisome story as the effects of his policies are coming into focus.
Job gains are dwindling. Inflation is ticking upward. Growth has slowed compared with last year.
More than six months into his term, Trump’s blitz of tariff hikes and his new tax-and-spending bill have remodeled America’s trading, manufacturing, energy and tax systems to his liking. He’s eager to take credit for any perceived wins and is hunting for someone else to blame if the financial situation starts to totter.
But as of now, this is not the boom the Republican president promised, and his ability to blame his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for any economic challenges has faded as the world economy hangs on his every word and social media post.
When Friday’s monthly jobs report turned out to be decidedly bleak, Trump ignored the warnings in the data and fired the head of the agency that produces the report.
“Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes,” Trump said on his social media platform, without offering evidence for his claim. “The Economy is BOOMING.”
It’s possible that the disappointing numbers are growing pains from the rapid transformation caused by Trump and that stronger growth will return — or they may be a preview of even more disruption to come.
A political gamble
Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs, executive actions, spending cuts and tax code changes carry significant political risk if he is unable to deliver middle-class prosperity. The effects of his new tariffs are still several months away from rippling through the economy, right as many Trump allies in Congress will be campaigning in the midterm elections.
“Considering how early we are in his term, Trump’s had an unusually big impact on the economy already,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist at Firehouse Strategies. “The full inflationary impact of the tariffs won’t be felt until 2026. Unfortunately for Republicans, that’s also an election year.”
The White House portrayed the blitz of trade frameworks leading up to Trump’s tariff announcement Thursday as proof of his negotiating prowess. The European Union, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and other nations that the White House declined to name agreed that the U.S. could increase its tariffs on their goods without doing the same to American products. Trump simply set rates on other countries that lacked settlements.
The costs of those tariffs — taxes paid on imports to the U.S. — will be most felt by American consumers in the form of higher prices, but to what extent remains uncertain.
“For the White House and their allies, a key part of managing the expectations and politics of the Trump economy is maintaining vigilance when it comes to public perceptions,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist.
Just 38% of adults approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, according to a July poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. That’s down from the end of Trump’s first term when half of adults approved of his economic leadership.
The White House paints a rosier image, casting the economy as emerging from a period of uncertainty after Trump’s restructuring and repeating the economic gains seen in his first term before the pandemic struck.
“President Trump is implementing the very same policy mix of deregulation, fairer trade, and pro-growth tax cuts at an even bigger scale — as these policies take effect, the best is yet to come,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said.
Hints of trouble
The economic numbers over the last week show the difficulties that Trump might face if the numbers continue on their current path:
— Friday’s jobs report showed that U.S. employers have shed 37,000 manufacturing jobs since Trump’s tariff launch in April, undermining prior White House claims of a factory revival.
— Net hiring has plummeted over the last three months with job gains of just 73,000 in July, 14,000 in June and 19,000 in May — a combined 258,000 jobs lower than previously indicated. On average last year, the economy added 168,000 jobs a month.
— A Thursday inflation report showed that prices have risen 2.6% over the year that ended in June, an increase in the personal consumption expenditures price index from 2.2% in April. Prices of heavily imported items, such as appliances, furniture and toys and games, jumped from May to June.
— On Wednesday, a report on gross domestic product — the broadest measure of the U.S. economy — showed that it grew at an annual rate of less than 1.3% during the first half of the year, down sharply from 2.8% growth last year.
“The economy’s just kind of slogging forward,” said Guy Berger, senior fellow at the Burning Glass Institute, which studies employment trends. “Yes, the unemployment rate’s not going up, but we’re adding very few jobs. The economy’s been growing very slowly. It just looks like a ‘meh’ economy is continuing.”
Attacks on the Fed
Trump has sought to pin the blame for any economic troubles on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, saying the Fed should cut its benchmark interest rates — even though doing so could generate more inflation.
Trump has publicly backed two Fed governors, Christopher Waller and Michelle Bowman, for voting for rate cuts at Wednesday’s meeting. But their logic is not what the president wants to hear: They were worried, in part, about a slowing job market.
But this is a major economic gamble being undertaken by Trump and those pushing for lower rates under the belief that mortgages will also become more affordable as a result and boost homebuying activity.
His tariff policy has changed repeatedly over the last six months, with the latest import tax numbers serving as a substitute for what the president announced in April, which provoked a stock market sell-off. It might not be a simple one-time adjustment as some Fed board members and Trump administration officials argue.
‘Universal tariffs’
Of course, Trump can’t say no one warned him about the possible consequences of his economic policies.
Biden, then the outgoing president, did just that in a speech in December at the Brookings Institution, saying the cost of the tariffs would eventually hit American workers and businesses.
“He seems determined to impose steep, universal tariffs on all imported goods brought into this country on the mistaken belief that foreign countries will bear the cost of those tariffs rather than the American consumer,” Biden said. “I believe this approach is a major mistake.”
US President Trump alleged that the data had been manipulated to make him look bad.
United States President Donald Trump has removed the head of the agency that produces the monthly jobs figures after a report showed hiring slowed in July and was much weaker in May and June than previously reported.
Trump, in a post on his social media platform on Friday, alleged that the figures were manipulated for political reasons and said that Erika McEntarfer, the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, should be fired. He provided no evidence for the charge.
“I have directed my Team to fire this Biden Political Appointee, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump said on Truth Social. “She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified.”
Trump later posted: “In my opinion, today’s Jobs Numbers were RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”
After his initial post, Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said on X that McEntarfer was no longer leading the bureau and that William Wiatrowski, the deputy commissioner, would serve as the acting director.
“I support the President’s decision to replace Biden’s Commissioner and ensure the American People can trust the important and influential data coming from BLS,” Chavez-DeRemer said.
Friday’s jobs report showed that just 73,000 jobs were added last month and that 258,000 fewer jobs were created in May and June than previously estimated. The report suggested that the economy has sharply weakened during Trump’s tenure, a pattern consistent with a slowdown in economic growth during the first half of the year and an increase in inflation during June that appeared to reflect the price pressures created by the president’s tariffs.
“What does a bad leader do when they get bad news? Shoot the messenger,” Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said in a Friday speech.
Revisions to hiring data
Trump has sought to attack institutions that rely on objective data for assessing the economy, including the Federal Reserve and, now, the BLS. The actions are part of a broader mission to bring the totality of the executive branch – including independent agencies designed to objectively measure the nation’s wellbeing – under the White House’s control.
McEntarfer was nominated by Biden in 2023 and became the commissioner of the BLS in January 2024. Commissioners typically serve four-year terms, but since they are political appointees, they can be fired. The commissioner is the only political appointee of the agency, which has hundreds of career civil servants.
The Senate confirmed McEntarfer to her post 86-8, with now Vice President JD Vance among the yea votes.
Trump focused much of his ire on the revisions the agency made to previous hiring data. Job gains in May were revised down to just 19,000 from 125,000, and for June they were cut to 14,000 from 147,000. In July, only 73,000 positions were added. The unemployment rate ticked up to a still-low 4.2 percent from 4.1 percent.
“No one can be that wrong? We need accurate Jobs Numbers,” Trump wrote. “She will be replaced with someone much more competent and qualified. Important numbers like this must be fair and accurate, they can’t be manipulated for political purposes.”
The monthly employment report is one of the most closely-watched pieces of government economic data and can cause sharp swings in financial markets. The disappointing figure sent US market indexes about 1.5 percent lower on Friday.
While the jobs numbers are often the subject of political spin, economists and Wall Street investors – with millions of dollars at stake – have always accepted US government economic data as free from political manipulation.
THE draw for tonight’s National Lottery EuroMillions (August 1, 2025) has taken place, with life-changing cash prizes at stake.
Check the results to see if you have just won a fortune and bagged enough to start that jet-set lifestyle you always dreamed of.
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Have you got the winning EuroMillions ticket?
Every EuroMillions ticket also bags you an automatic entry into the UK Millionaire Maker, which guarantees at least one player will pocket £1million in every draw.
You can find out if you’re a winner by checking your ticket against tonight’s numbers below.
Tonight’s National Lottery EuroMillions winning numbers are: 04, 16, 25, 29, 30 and the Lucky Stars are: 02, 10.
The UK Millionaire Maker Selection winner is: TGLL13138.
Tonight’s National Lottery Thunderball winning numbers are: 02, 09, 20, 23, 27 and the Thunderball is 13.
TOP 5 BIGGEST LOTTERY WINS IN THE WORLD
£1.308 billion (Powerball) on January 13 2016 in the US, for which three winning tickets were sold, remains history’s biggest lottery prize
£1.267 billion (Mega Million) a winner from South Carolina took their time to come forward to claim their prize in March 2019 not long before the April deadline
£633.76 million (Powerball draw) from a winner from Wisconsin
£625.76 million (Powerball) Mavis L. Wanczyk of Chicopee, Massachusetts claimed the jackpot in August 2017
£575.53 million (Powerball) A lucky pair of winners scooped the jackpot in Iowa and New York in October 2018
The first EuroMillions draw took place on February 7, 2004, by three organisations: France’s Française des Jeux, Loterías y Apuestas del Estado in Spain and the Camelot in the UK.
One of the UK’s biggest prizes was up for grabs on December, 4, 2020 with a whopping £175million EuroMillions jackpot, which would make a winner richer than Adele.
Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in Scotland, netted a huge £161,653,000 in the July 12, 2011.
Adrian and Gillian Bayford, from Haverhill, Suffolk, picked up £148,656,000 after they played the draw on August, 10, 2012, while Jane Park became Britain’s youngest lottery winner when she scooped up £1 million in 2013.
Could tonight’s jackpot of £145 million see you handing in your notice and swapping the daily commute for slurping champagne on a super yacht or lying back on a private beach in the Bahamas?
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EuroMillions tickets come with an automatic entry into the UK Million Maker too
WASHINGTON — Eric Hildenbrand has noticed prices continue to rise this year with President Trump in the White House.
The San Diego resident doesn’t blame Trump, however, his choice for president in 2024, but says Gov. Gavin Newsom and other Democrats who control the state are at fault.
“You can’t compare California with the rest of the country,” said Hildenbrand, 76. “I don’t know what’s going on in the rest of the country. It seems like prices are dropping. Things are getting better, but I don’t necessarily see it here.”
Voters like Hildenbrand, whose support of the Republican president is unwavering, help explain Trump’s polling numbers and how they have differed from other presidents’ polling trajectory in significant ways. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in March found that 42% of U.S. adults approved of Trump’s job performance. That is a lower rating than those of other recent presidents at the beginning of their second terms, including Democrat Barack Obama and Republican George W. Bush.
The most recent AP-NORC poll, from July, puts Trump at 40% approval. While that is not a meaningful change from March, there is some evidence that Trump’s support may be softening, at least on the margins. The July poll showed a slight decrease in approval of his handling of immigration since earlier in the year. Some other pollsters, such as Gallup, show a downward slide in overall approval since slightly earlier in his term, in January.
But even those shifts are within a relatively narrow range, which is typical for Trump. The new AP-NORC polling tracker shows that Trump’s favorability rating has remained largely steady since the end of his first term, with between 33% and 43% of U.S. adults saying they viewed him favorably across more than five years.
Those long-term trends underscore that Trump has many steadfast opponents. But loyal supporters also help explain why views of the president are hard to change even as he pursues policies that most Americans do not support, using an approach that many find abrasive.
Persistently low approval numbers
Trump has not had a traditional honeymoon period in his second term. He did not in his first, either.
An AP-NORC poll conducted in March 2017, two months into his first term, showed that 42% of Americans “somewhat” or “strongly” approved of his performance. That is largely where his approval rating stayed over the course of the next four years.
The recent slippage on immigration is particularly significant because that issue was a major strength for Trump in the 2024 election. Earlier in his second term, it was also one of the few areas where he was outperforming his overall approval. In March, about half of U.S. adults approved of his handling of immigration. But the July AP-NORC poll found his approval on immigration at 43%, in line with his overall approval rating.
Other recent polls show growing discontent with Trump’s approach on immigration. A CNN/SSRS poll found that 55% of U.S. adults say the president has gone too far when it comes to deporting immigrants who are living in the United States illegally, an increase of 10 percentage points since February.
“I understand wanting to get rid of illegal immigrants, but the way that’s being done is very aggressive,” said Donovan Baldwin, 18, of Asheboro, N.C., who did not vote in the 2024 election. “And that’s why people are protesting, because it comes off as aggression. It’s not right.”
Ratings of Trump’s handling of the economy, which were more positive during his first term, have been persistently negative in his second term. The July poll found that few Americans think Trump’s policies have benefited them so far.
Even if he is not a fan of everything Trump has done so far, Brian Nichols, 58, of Albuquerque is giving him the benefit of the doubt.
Nichols, who voted for Trump in 2024, likes what he is seeing from the president overall, though he has his concerns both on style and substance, particularly Trump’s social media presence and his on-again, off-again tariffs. Nichols also does not like the push to eliminate federal agencies such as the Education Department.
Despite his occasional disagreements with Trump, though, Nichols said he wants to give the president space to do his job, and he trusts the House and Senate, now run by Republicans, to act as a safeguard.
“We put him into office for a reason, and we should be trusting that he’s doing the job for the best of America,” Nichols said.
Overall views are steady
Trump has spent the last six months pushing far-reaching and often unpopular policies. Earlier this year, Americans were bracing themselves for higher prices as a result of his approach to tariffs. The July poll found that most people think Trump’s tax and spending bill will benefit the wealthy, while few think it will pay dividends for the middle class or people like them.
Discomfort with individual policies may not translate into wholesale changes in views of Trump, though. Those have largely been constant through years of turmoil, with his favorability rating staying within a 10-percentage point range through his widely panned handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, a felony conviction and an attempted assassination.
To some of his supporters, the benefits of his presidency far outweigh the costs.
Kim Schultz, 62, of Springhill, Fla., said she is thrilled with just about everything Trump is doing as president, particularly his aggressive moves to deport anyone living in the country illegally.
Even if Trump’s tariffs eventually take effect and push prices up, she said she will not be alarmed.
“I’ve always had the opinion that if the tariffs are going to cost me a little bit more here and there, I don’t have a problem with that,” she said.
Across the country, Hildenbrand dislikes Trump’s personality and his penchant for insults, including those directed at foreign leaders. But he thinks Trump is making things happen.
“More or less, to me, he’s showing that he’s on the right track,” he said. “I’m not in favor of Trump’s personality, but I am in favor of what he’s getting done.”
Thomson-Deveaux and Cooper write for the Associated Press and reported from Washington and Phoenix, respectively.
News about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and arrests seems to flow as if emanating from an unending tap.
That makes it difficult, at times, to pick up on important topics and issues.
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I’m going to use this space to highlight a few articles from my colleagues focusing on the potential growth of ICE in the coming years, new tools that federal agents can use to expand crackdowns, and what the actual numbers say.
The massive funding bill signed into law this month by President Trump earmarks about $170 billion for border and immigration enforcement, including tens of billions for new deportation agents and other personnel.
During his first term, when Trump called for ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to hire 15,000 people collectively, a July 2017 report by the Homeland Security inspector general found significant setbacks.
In 2017, ICE hired 371 deportation officers from more than 11,000 applications and took 173 days on average to finalize hires, the news outlet Government Executive reported. According to Cronkite News, Border Patrol shrunk by more than 1,000 agents after Trump left office in 2021.
The Homeland Security inspector general concluded that to meet the goal of 10,000 new immigration officers, ICE would need more than 500,000 applicants. For CBP to hire 5,000 new agents, it would need 750,000 applicants.
Castillo added that past and potentially future corruption, the prospect of lowering hiring standards and competition with other police agencies make Trump’s hiring goal an uphill battle.
My colleagues Jenny Jarvie and Hannah Fry noted that the Trump administration is forging ahead with a plan to hand over the personal data of millions of Medicaid recipients to Homeland Security personnel seeking to track down people living in the U.S. illegally.
The huge trove of private information includes home addresses, Social Security numbers and ethnicities of 79 million Medicaid enrollees.
The plan, which has not been announced publicly, is the latest step by the Trump administration to deliver on its pledge to crack down on illegal immigration and arrest 3,000 undocumented immigrants a day.
Undocumented immigrants are not permitted to enroll in Medicaid, a joint federal and state program that helps cover medical costs for low-income individuals.
However, federal law requires states to offer emergency Medicaid, coverage that pays for lifesaving services in emergency rooms to everyone, including non-U.S. citizens.
Homeland Security says it arrested 2,800 undocumented people between early June and July
Colleagues Michael Wilner and Rachel Uranga reported on the number of people picked up in the Greater Los Angeles area by Homeland Security.
Federal authorities said earlier that 1,618 undocumented immigrants had been detained between June 6 — the start of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security operation in Los Angeles — and June 22. That total increased by nearly 1,200 arrests in just over two weeks. Trump deployed the National Guard and U.S. Marines in the city days after the operation began amid heated protests.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and local officials have repeatedly criticized federal operations for terrorizing immigrant communities, where business has slowed and many have holed up in their homes.
The president’s immigration crackdown in Los Angeles has been a test case for his administration as it presses the bounds of executive authority, deploying federal agents and the military to a major metropolitan city with leadership hostile to its cause.
(Illustrations by Lindsey Made This; photograph by Richard Shotwell / Invision / AP)
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July 10 (UPI) — A third of all U.S. counties do not have full-time journalists, according to a new report by the non-profit Rebuild Local News and journalism aggregator Muck Rack.
The United States averaged 40 full-time journalists for every 100,000 residents in 2002, but that average has dropped to 8.2 in 2025, according to the Local Journalist Index of 2025 report.
“In 2000, many Americans lived in a community with journalists … whose job it was to cover school board decisions, announce small business openings and closures, root out corruption at city hall, warn commuters about road work and trumpet the exploits of high school teams,” Muck Rack said.
“Today, most of those journalists are gone,” Muck Rack said. “Even as the country has grown, we’ve lost journalists.”
The report by Muck Rack and RLN is among the first to address the loss of journalists across the United States instead of focusing on the loss of news outlets, The Hill reported.
Researchers collected byline data from Muck Rack, which in turn gathers such information from news reports that are published online.
The study identified profiles of local journalists and adjusted the numbers based on the number of articles published, freelancers and other factors.
Results show a lack of coverage in many communities.
“Thousands of rural, urban and suburban communities are being left without the basic reporting they need to stay informed, connectedand civically engaged,” RLN President Steven Waldman told CNN.
Many larger metropolitan areas also are lacking journalists’ coverage of important local matters, including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston and Las Vegas.
Los Angeles has 3.6 local journalists per 100,000, according to the study.
“Your neighborhood might be covered if there’s a serious crime but not much else,” Muck Rack reported.
“You may get little reliable information on local candidates in many of L.A. County’s cities, whether the schools in your neighborhood are improving, whether the hospital nearby has a bad mortality rate or how inspiring people might be working to repair your playground,” Muck Rack said.
“The crisis is more severe and widespread than previously thought,” it added.
Today the UK’s busiest airport, Heathrow, has revealed its £10billion, five-year plan designed to turn the “extraordinary airport” into one “fit for the future”
The airport has said £10billion will be invested over the next five years(Image: Getty Images)
Heathrow has unveiled a huge expansion plan that will see billions of pounds poured into the airport, capacity increased by 10 million passengers, and a terminal demolished.
Today, the UK’s busiest airport revealed its £10billion, five-year plan designed to turn the “extraordinary airport” into one “fit for the future.”
Once complete, Heathrow will be able to serve 10 million more passengers a year—a 12% increase in capacity compared to now. Cargo handling will also get a significant boost, with plans to increase freight capacity by 20%.
A redevelopment of the Central Terminal Area is also planned, with new lounges, shops, and restaurants to be installed in several terminals. Heathrow has said space equivalent to ten football pitches will be opened up to passengers across the terminals.
In a major change, Heathrow bosses will seek planning permission to demolish the old Terminal 1, extend Terminal 2, and build a new southern road tunnel to improve access.
In April 1969, Queen Elizabeth opened the new Heathrow Airport Terminal 1 on the site, then the largest airport terminal in Western Europe. It was used by commercial aviation customers until its closure in 2015.
The terminal has played an important role in the running of Heathrow since then. “The building is still maintained to a very high standard, and the entire building has to be kept fit for purpose for safety and escape route reasons,” the airport’s website explains. The site also houses the baggage system for Terminal 2.
The plan will have to account for the loss of Terminal 1’s current functions, presumably by moving these facilities and operations into the expanded Terminal 2.
Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye said: We’re making good progress on our strategy to become an extraordinary airport—having become Europe’s most punctual major airport so far this year. But our customers want us to improve our international rankings further, as do we. To compete with global hubs, we must invest.
“Our five-year plan boosts operational resilience, delivers the better service passengers expect, and unlocks the growth capacity airlines want—with stretching efficiency targets and a like-for-like lower airport charge than a decade ago. With Heathrow’s UK-based supply chain, this private investment will create jobs and drive national growth during this Parliament. We are ready to deliver the more efficient, sustainable Heathrow that will keep Britain connected to the world.”
By the end of the five years, Heathrow aims to have 80% of flights leaving on time and 95% of passengers waiting less than five minutes at security.
“The CAA will now review and evaluate our plan. We will support this process alongside our airline partners and look forward to getting started with delivering improvements to make Heathrow an extraordinary airport, fit for the future,” a statement from the airport read.
No surprise, 2025 has been an eventful year so far in Hollywood.
In addition to the megahits and epic bombs at the box office, the entertainment industry has been roiled by chaotic forces.
The second Trumpadministration. The ongoing Blake Lively–Justin Baldoni legal saga. The federal trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, resulting in a mixed verdict in which the hip-hop mogul was acquitted of the most serious charges — racketeering and sex trafficking. And of course, the devastating wildfires that ravaged the Los Angeles area, particularly Pacific Palisades and Altadena, back in January.
But in terms of the actual business of movies, TV and streaming, there’s plenty of serious stuff to dig into that could shape the future of entertainment — from streaming’s continued ascent, to Disney and Universal’s lawsuit against Midjourney, to the race for state tax credits to save California’s beleaguered production economy.
Here’s our Wide Shot midyear review, by the numbers.
The box office has been on a roller-coaster ride since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the release schedule feeling the effects of the industry’s broader retrenchment. Although the 2023 strikes that thinned out the release schedule are in the rearview mirror, the uncertainty has very much continued.
After a brutal first quarter (ouch, “Snow White”), sales have rebounded thanks to hits including “Minecraft,” “Sinners” and “F1,” with grosses reaching $4.43 billion so far domestically, according to Comscore. That’s up 15% from the same period last year, but still down 26% from 2019. Attendance is up 6.5% from 2024 with about 350 million tickets sold, according to Steve Buck at EntTelligence.
The challenges remain the same.
Studios struggle to draw crowds with much other than the biggest blockbusters and whatever they can convince Gen Z is an “event” movie. And the films themselves are so expensive that even big numbers don’t guarantee that an action spectacle with a robust audience will break even during its theatrical run. Even horror movies aren’t really low-budget anymore (see “Final Destination: Bloodlines” and “28 Years Later”).
After years of shortened theatrical windows, audiences know they can wait to see a new movie at home, often after just a few weeks. That’s why theater owners at the industry convention CinemaCon called on studios to commit to a longer standard gap between a movie’s theatrical release and its availability for home viewing. Meanwhile, audiences face ever longer preshows, with ads now playing between the trailers at AMC. With so much debt, the chain sure needs the money.
The slate for the rest of the year is lumpy.
July is looking strong after “Jurassic World Rebirth’s” $147-million Fourth of July weekend opening, with Warner Bros. and DC’s “Superman” reboot, and Disney and Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” hoping to reinvigorate the superhero genre. Prerelease tracking for “Superman” is all over the place, but an opening of $125 million is a fair target. “Fantastic Four” is poised for a debut in the ballpark of $100 million. But August is lacking in obvious hits. Maybe Paramount’s “The Naked Gun” will bring pure comedy back — but we’ll see.
Paramount caved, reaching a $16-million deal to settle President Trump’s lawsuit over CBS News’ “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris. Trump declared victory over the “Fake News media,” while 1st Amendment advocates and journalists howled, fuming that the owner of one of TV’s most respected brands chose to buy peace rather than fight the case — widely considered frivolous — and stand up for press freedom.
There are still unanswered questions. In the aftermath of the deal, a source close to Trump‘s world said the president’s team is also anticipating millions of dollars in airtime for PSAs related to MAGA-friendly causes and antisemitism — an alleged side deal that Trump himself referenced after the fact. Paramount said its deal with the Trump team did not include PSAs.
In any event, Paramount’s leaders — not to mention its incoming owners at Skydance Media and RedBird — are eager to move on. David Ellison and Shari Redstone are now counting on the Federal Communications Commission to finally approve the $8-billion merger so they can get to work reshaping the storied entertainment firm.
Speaking of Paramount, one of the company’s biggest franchises is causing headaches for the new owners — and vice versa — as the company wrangles with the creators of “South Park” over the future of the long-running, foulmouthed cartoon.
Skydance balked at a proposed overall deal worth at least $2.5 billion for the “South Park” guys, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, sources have said. (Their current $900-million deal is still in place.) Separately, the two sides are trying to work out the streaming rights to the show. Paramount wants to run the episodes on Paramount+, but it also wants to share the rights (and the costs) with another streamer — perhaps the 300-plus episodes’ current home, HBO Max. The streaming rights are expected to fetch north of $200 million a year.
In Hollywood’s current era of downsizing, Skydance may have legitimate reasons to not want to overpay for a show entering its 27th season. But Parker and Stone still have leverage: Without “South Park,” the cupboard at Comedy Central is pretty bare.
Parker and Stone’s lawyers have gone to the mat, accusing David Ellison’s allies — namely former NBCUniversal boss and current RedBird executive Jeff Shell — of overstepping their authority in the negotiations. The “South Park” team expressed its displeasure in a way only the makers of Cartman and Kenny could. After Comedy Central announced a delay for the new season premiere, the show’s X profile tweeted a statement saying the Skydance deal was “a s—show and is f— up South Park.”
Hollywood got its long-sought lifeline from Sacramento, as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a beefed-up film and television tax credit program, allocating $750 million annually for productions in the state.
That’s more than double the previous program, which was capped at $330 million a year. Shortly afterward, the state legislature passed a law to increase the tax credit to as much as 35% of qualified expenditures for movies and TV series shot in the Greater Los Angeles area — and up to 40% for productions shot outside the region. It also expanded the types of productions that could qualify.
California currently provides a 20% to 25% tax credit to offset qualified production expenses, such as money spent on film crews and building sets. The plan does not cover above-the-line expenses, such as actor and director salaries, which remains a disadvantage as California tries to compete with other states and countries. New York and Texas are both ramping up their own incentive programs.
The Golden State’s production economy has been devastated by competition. Boosting the tax incentives is one lever the state can pull to lure shoots back. There’s also been a push to overhaul red tape at the local level in Los Angeles. Whatever good all this does, it’s sure to be more effective than Trump’s now-largely forgotten call for tariffs on movies produced abroad.
Streaming hit a major symbolic milestone earlier this year, as television usage for YouTube, Netflix and their brethren overtook broadcast and cable for the first time in May, according to Nielsen. Streaming services combined to attract 44.8% of all TV set viewing, representing the largest share to date for direct-to-consumer platforms. Viewership for linear networks was just behind at 44.2%.
Nielsen’s regular viewership report — the Gauge — is a useful snapshot of the state of television today. Combined with the rapid decline of cable and satellite bundle subscriptions, the drop-off in viewing explains much of what’s going on at the legacy media companies.
Firms including Disney and Paramount are still cutting hundreds of jobs to adjust to the new realities. Warner Bros. Discovery — which has been on a yearslong quest to reduce its heavy debt load — said it will split its operations in two, cleaving the studios and streaming business from its global networks. That decision followed NBCUniversal’s move to spin off its cable nets into a new company called Versant.
Those plans are gambles. Cable networks are in decline, but they’re profitable. For most media companies, streaming is growing but has only just gotten into the black after years of losing billions.
Honorable mentions:
$417.5 million: Alcon Entertainment, the production company known for “The Blind Side” and “Blade Runner 2049,” gained a prized asset by acquiring the film library of bankrupt Village Roadshow. The $417.5-million deal gives the firm Village’s stakes in movies including “Joker” and “Mad Max: Fury Road,” both released by Warner Bros. Village Roadshow declared bankruptcy amid a brutal legal battle with Warner Bros. over its release of “The Matrix Resurrections,” which went to streaming and theaters at the same time.
$400 million: “It Ends With Us” director Justin Baldoni’s lawsuits against actress Blake Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds, the New York Times and others were tossed last month, with a judge ruling that the claims — including defamation, extortion and breach of contract — failed to pass legal muster. U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman granted motions to dismiss both a $400-million countersuit against Lively, Reynolds and others and a $250-million defamation claim against The Times.
$2 billion: The biggest movie of the year isn’t from Hollywood at all. It’s “Ne Zha 2,” an animated Chinese film that grossed more than $2 billion, the vast majority of which came from its home country. Despite trade wars and the dominance of local productions, though, U.S. movies can still do well in China. “Jurassic World Rebirth” opened with $41.6 million there.
$20 million: Walt Disney Co. and Universal are suing AI firm Midjourney for allegedly ripping off and copying their intellectual property with its image-generating technology. With 150 violations cited in the lawsuit, at a statutory $150,000 per infringing item, that’s a total of more than $20 million in potential damages.
$300 billion: The eye-popping valuation for privately held OpenAI, the San Francisco company behind ChatGPT and Sora.
$9.2 billion: The amount Disney ultimately paid for Comcast’s Hulu stake, valuing the service at $27.6 billion. After a mediation process, Disney paid less for the stake than Comcast wanted.
— Times staff writers Meg James, Samantha Masunaga, Wendy Lee, Stephen Battaglio, Stacy Perman and Josh Rottenberg contributed to this article.
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An insatiably popular city on the French Riviera has revealed it is clamping down on over-tourism with a bold cap on cruise passengers – in a huge blow to UK holidaymakers
The city is serious about tackling over-tourism(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
A popular EU hotspot is clamping down on over-tourism after unveiling a brutal visitor cap.
Every year, around three million tourists flock to the ultra-chic city of Cannes, lured in by its golden sandy beaches, designer shops, and A-list-studded film festival. The influx is largely attributed to cruise passengers travelling through the French Riviera, who get dropped off in huge crowds for day-trips.
In fact, in 2024, a staggering 460,000 cruise passengers flocked to Cannes – resulting in concerns of pollution and overcrowding, as well as straining local amenities for permanent residents. However, in a major crackdown confirmed by the council – this could all soon change.
Cannes has long been a popular tourist destination – especially among celebs(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Starting next year, a maximum of 6,000 cruise passengers will be allowed to disembark in Cannes per day. The number of mega ships carrying more than 5,000 passengers will also be cut by 48 per cent, with a long-term aim of banning all vessels carrying more than 1,300 people by 2030.
The harsh limit follows in the footsteps of the nearby city of Nice, which vowed to ban ships more than 190m long and with a capacity of more than 900 passengers from docking in its port, as well as the neighbouring Villefranche-sur-Mer from next summer. However, authorities have since backtracked on the ruling, now permitting ships carrying up to 2,500 people to dock in Villefranche-sur-Mer, but only one at a time, with a cap of 65 per year.
The city hosts one of the biggest film festivals in the world(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
According to EuroNews, cruise operators have criticised the move in Cannes – arguing such restrictions are ‘damaging’ to tourist destinations and holidaymakers. Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) says such a strict cap ‘imposes unjustified restrictions on a sector that enables millions of people to discover the world’.
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The company argued that cruises ‘actively contribute to the vitality of port cities’ by bringing in income to the area. However, Mayor David Lisnard was quick to defend the decision and double down on the cap.
Boulevard de la Croisette is one of the most popular sights in the city(Image: AP)
“Cannes has become a major cruise ship destination, with real economic benefits,” the politician said in a statement. “It’s not about banning cruise ships, but about regulating, organising, setting guidelines for their navigation.”
As reported by the Express, Mayor Lisnard has already imposed an environmental charter on cruise companies back in 2019. Back then, he threatened to block passenger excursions if they failed to comply.
Other popular cities including Venice, Barcelona and Amsterdam have also capped cruise ships in recent years – following a string of anti-tourist protests that have erupted across the continent. While it puts the future of Brits’ cruise holiday into jeopardy – it’s likely the move will be well received by fed-up locals, who have long demonstrated against overcrowding and spikes in holiday rentals.
What do you think of the tourist cap? Let us know in the comments section below
The United States economy has added 147,000 jobs in June, beating analyst expectations, as the labour market remains stable despite economic uncertainty driven by President Donald Trump’s policies.
The Department of Labor released the numbers on Thursday. The data, which was released a day early because the Independence Day holiday falls on Friday, showed the unemployment rate ticked down from May by 0.1 percentage points to 4.1 percent. The average workweek was shorter last month, suggesting businesses were probably reducing hours amid rising economic headwinds.
Government jobs at the state and local levels led the gains, adding 73,000 positions in June. State governments added 47,000 jobs, led by 40,000 in education. Local government jobs grew by 23,000. A downward turn continues at the federal level with a loss of 7,000 jobs, which accounts for 69,000 jobs lost since January.
Gains in government jobs were followed by the healthcare sector, which added 39,000 jobs. Social assistance employment increased by 19,000 jobs.
“On net, it was a good report,’’ Sarah House, senior economist with Wells Fargo, told The Associated Press news agency.
“But when you dig underneath the surface, it was another jobs report that didn’t look quite as good as first meets the eye.’’
Looming uncertainty driven by Trump’s tariffs and immigration policies led to little change across much of the private sector in terms of hiring, including in construction, mining, oil and gas extraction, wholesale and retail trade, transportation, financial services, professional and business services, and leisure and hospitality.
Trump’s constant changes in tariffs policy, announcing and suspending import taxes and then coming up with new ones, has left businesses bewildered and hesitant to make decisions about hiring and investment.
Layoffs have started, but they are still relatively low. The Labor Department’s weekly jobless claims report, which also came out on Thursday said claims fell by 4,000 to 233,000. The ADP private payroll report out on Wednesday showed a net loss of 33,000 jobs.
“Though layoffs continue to be rare, a hesitancy to hire and a reluctance to replace departing workers led to job losses last month,” said Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP.
Thursday’s jobs report also showed average hourly wages came in cooler than forecasters expected, rising 0.2 percent from May and 3.7 percent from a year earlier.
The year-over-year number is inching closer to the 3.5 percent year-over-year number considered consistent with the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent inflation target.
“For the FOURTH month in a row, jobs numbers have beat market expectations with nearly 150,000 good jobs created in June,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
“The economy is booming again and it will only get better when the One, Big, Beautiful Bill is passed and implemented,” she said, referring to Republican legislation to cut taxes, food assistance and the Medicaid health insurance programme for low-income Americans.
Growth slowdown
Despite the White House’s characterisation, the US job market has cooled significantly in the past year. This year, employers have added an average of 130,000 jobs per month, down from an average of 186,000 in 2024. From 2021 to 2023, the US economy added an average of 400,000 jobs per month as it made up for jobs shed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other data show the US economy contracting. Last week, a report from the Department of Commerce found the US economy shrank by 0.5 percent in the first quarter.
The US labour force – the count of those working and looking for work – fell by 130,000 last month after a drop of 625,000 in May. Economists expected Trump’s immigration deportations – and the fear of them – to push foreign workers out of the labour force.
The Labor Department said the number of workers who believe no jobs are available for them rose by 256,000 last month to 637,000.
Wells Fargo expected monthly job growth to fall below 100,000 in the second half of the year. “We’re bracing for a much lower pace of job growth,” House said. ”There’s still a lot of policy uncertainty.”
On May 21, the forest department of the western Indian state of Gujarat released results of the country’s first lion population estimation since 2020. According to the census, India’s wild lion population – exclusively concentrated in Gujarat – has risen by 32 percent over the past five years to 891 lions.
India’s lion conservation efforts have long been focused on the Gir forest and surrounding areas of Gujarat, especially since the creation of the Gir National Park and Sanctuary in 1965. Today, lions have dispersed and established separate satellite populations outside the Gir region and are found in 11 districts in Gujarat.
But for the first time, the census counted more lions across nine satellite populations (497) than the core population (394) in Gir. These include three new populations in neighbouring districts of Gir, including the Barda Wildlife Sanctuary, areas around Jetpur city, and areas around Babra and Jasdan towns — all in Gujarat.
The census report has earmarked Barda Wildlife Sanctuary as a “second home” for the big cat in Gujarat, echoing the stance of the state and central governments, which also have argued in favour of developing and managing Barda to host more lions. Indeed, that is one of the primary goals of the 29,277 million Indian rupee ($341m) Project Lion conservation programme announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in March.
But the surging number of lions masks challenges that confront the future of the species in India, say experts, and questions remain over whether the country is doing enough to minimise human-animal conflict and ensure the long-term conservation of the animal. On June 25, a lion mauled a five-year-old boy to death in Gujarat’s Amreli district, after dragging the child away from a farm.
We unpack the key findings of the census and the key battles ahead for the big cat in India.
In this Sunday, June 9, 2013, photo, endangered Asiatic lions rest at the Gir Lion Sanctuary at Sasan in Junagadh district of Gujarat state, India [Ajit Solanki /AP]
How were the lions counted?
As per the Gujarat Forest Department, the lion population estimation was conducted over two 24-hour recording schedules from May 11-13. The state’s lion landscape was divided into 735 sampling regions, each entrusted to an enumerator and two assistant enumerators. Lions were located and photographed with digital cameras, and cross-verified with adjacent sampling regions to avoid duplication, according to the report.
Yadvendradev Jhala, an expert on big cat conservation and formerly with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), however, cautioned that “double counting” cannot be ruled out, and at the same time, some lions might have been missed “due to the time constraint” imposed by the two-day exercise.
Ravi Chellam, a veteran wildlife biologist involved with lion conservation since 1985, questioned the logic of a methodology that required field staff to stay alert for 24 hours on two consecutive days. “One can well imagine the fatigue levels and diminished state of alertness of the field staff,” he said. “I find it difficult to believe that reliable and accurate data can be collected with such an approach.”
According to both experts, there are more robust and reliable scientific methods, like combining photographs of lions with the use of whisker patterns – similar to human fingerprints – to identify individual lions.
Still, Jhala said that the actual count is likely not very different from the census number.
Forest guard Rashila Ben holds a lion cub inside an animal hospital located in the Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary in the western Indian state of Gujarat, on December 1, 2014 [Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters]
What’s behind the sharp rise in lion numbers?
Experts say that a combination of the Gujarat state government’s policies and the adaptability of lions has contributed to the successful rise in the numbers.
According to Jhala, lions will continue to expand their population as long as there is food and cover available, and the animals aren’t attacked. “There is food in the form of livestock, dead carcasses for scavenging, as well as feral cattle for predation,” he said.
The Gujarat government’s “compensation for livestock loss is almost near market value and is revised regularly to reflect current market rates,” Jhala said. This has allowed continued human-lion coexistence.
Meanwhile, the new census shows that the coastal Gujarat district of Bhavnagar and adjacent areas along the state’s coast – far from the dry deciduous habitats of Gir – are now home to 212 lions. The thorny shrubs of the invasive Prosopis juliflora species (a kind of mesquite) along the coast provide “refuge for lions through the day, and they can come out at night to feed in agropastoral landscapes,” Jhala said.
Lionesses at the Gir Sanctuary in the western Indian state of Gujarat, India [File: Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo]
How many more lions can Gujarat host?
Since 2010, Gujarat’s lion population has more than doubled, and their territorial range has increased by 75 percent, from 20,000 to 35,000 square kilometres (7,700 to 13,500 square miles). However, only 1800sq km falls under protected areas, of which only 250sq km is exclusive to lions.
According to the census, 45 percent of lions recorded were found in non-forested areas such as wastelands, agricultural lands and near human habitats.
“They run the risk of falling into open wells, being run over by heavy vehicles and trains, getting electrocuted and also contracting infections,” Chellam said. He pointed out that lions have been regularly documented in unusual locations such as the terraces of homes, in the basement parking lots of hotels, and on busy highways.
Chellam argued that “the region as a whole has far exceeded its carrying capacity.” He says it’s not sensible to have an “increasing lion population in what are essentially human habitations”.
Jhala agreed. “The question is: How much are people willing to tolerate a large carnivore in their neighbourhood?”
Employees work on a vessel at a shipbuilding unit at Bhavnagar, about 180km (112 miles) west of the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, on July 18, 2009. The coastal district is now home to a lion population for the first time [Amit Dave/Reuters]
What is the impact of soaring lion numbers on the people of Gujarat?
According to a human-lion conflict study in the Conservation Biology journal published in November, there has been a 10 percent annual increase in the number of villages in Gujarat reporting livestock attacks and a 15 percent increase in livestock killed per year.
The paper uses data collected from 2012-2017. Jhala, who a co-author of the study, anticipates growing human-lion conflict.
“It’s not easy to live with a large carnivore,” he said. “You learn that you can’t let your kids roam around in the fields at night, that you need to clear the vegetation near your huts, that going out for defecation in the field during twilight hours is to be prevented, that you need walled corrals for your livestock.”
Chellam agreed. “While the increase in the number of lions is viewed by many, and especially the government, as a positive sign, the reality is that more and more lions are risking themselves as well as the lives of tens of thousands of people,” he said. “There have been numerous instances of people harassing lions and also an increasing trend of lions attacking people.”
A man wades through floodwaters in Vadodara, Gujarat state, India. Lions face an increased risk from natural and man-made calamities if they are all packed into one reserve, experts warn, arguing for the authorities to create a second home for the animals [AP Photo]
Is Barda a ‘second home’ for the lion?
As per the census report, for the first time since 1879, the Barda Wildlife Sanctuary has an established lion population (17) within its range. While the Gujarat government pitches Barda as a “second home” for lions, Chellam and Jhala say its small size and proximity to Gir mean that it fails the test of what qualifies as a geographically distinct habitat that can sustain a “second” lion population.
“The satellite population in Barda counts as a range expansion for lions, but it cannot be considered a separate population since they are contiguous with Gir,” Jhala said.
“The whole point in translocating lions to establish a ‘second’ free-ranging population is to ensure geographical isolation, to mitigate the risks of having the entire population of an endangered species at a single site,” Chellam explained.
Barda is 100km from Gir, and just 200sq km in size, compared with 1,400sq km of core protected area in Gir. “It [Barda] is a small area with a very low-density prey population. It is incapable of hosting a viable population of lions,” he added.
“The risks are numerous and include cyclones, floods, forest fires, disease outbreaks, political decisions, droughts, poaching, violence and wars.”
Lions Ram and Laxman play in an enclosure at the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad, India, on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 [Mahesh Kumar A/AP Photo]
Why aren’t lions being moved outside Gujarat?
That’s a question that has piqued conservationists – and frustrated even the Supreme Court of India.
In April 2013, the country’s top court ordered the Gujarat state government to translocate a few Asiatic lions to Kuno National Park in the neighbouring state of Madhya Pradesh within six months to create a geographically separate, free-ranging lion population. Kuno, with its large tracts of forests and grasslands, was identified as having the perfect landscape and prey base for lions.
Though the Gujarat government assured the top court that it would comply with the order, 12 years later, the order is still to be implemented, and neither the federal nor the state government has faced any consequences. “It is very disappointing to see the levels of impunity with which the state government of Gujarat and also the government of India have been operating when it comes to the translocation of lions to Kuno,” Chellam said.
According to Jhala, it is also a failure on the part of wildlife biologists and conservationists. “You cannot do conservation without the government. I think biologists have failed in convincing the government that Kuno is an ideal place to have a second home for lions,” Jhala said.
Two cheetahs are seen inside a quarantine enclosure before being relocated to India at a reserve near Bella Bella, South Africa, on Sunday, September 4, 2022. Three cheetah cubs, born to a big cat brought to India from Namibia last year, died in May 2023 [Denis Farrell/AP Photo]
Haven’t cheetahs been moved to Kuno?
On September 17, 2022, eight Southeast African Cheetahs were flown in from Namibia to Kuno National Park as part of India’s efforts to reintroduce the cheetah to the country. Cheetahs had previously gone extinct in India in 1952.
However, the introduction of cheetahs to Kuno set off a debate over whether that would impede plans to also move lions to the Madhya Pradesh reserve.
Jhala, who led the 2022 plan to bring cheetahs back to India, said it was “fantastic” to have the animals back in India – and that lions and cheetahs could easily coexist in Kuno.
“In no way do cheetahs prevent lions from going there. In fact, they would do better than cheetahs, the landscape and prey base in Kuno is perfect for lions,” he said.
Bringing in lions could also be helpful for cheetahs, Jhala added. Kuno has one of the highest leopard densities in the world, at 22 leopards per 100sq km. Leopards pose more of a predatory threat to cheetahs; lions can help reduce leopard density as they prey on leopards, especially the young ones.
Chellam, though, questioned the intentions of the cheetah reintroduction plan, which he alleged was “more to continue to stall and delay the translocation of lions [to Kuno] rather than to conserve cheetahs”.
Like Jhala, Chellam said that lions would do well in Kuno. “Lions are very hardy and robust animals. If the translocation is planned and carried out carefully, there is no reason for the lions not to thrive in Kuno.”
Lions once roamed all the way from Persia to eastern India. Here, people fly the Iranian flag that was used before 1979, which had a lion on it, in New York, on April 14, 2013 [Carlo Allegri/Reuters]
What’s next for the big cat?
“It [lions in Gujarat] is a wonderful conservation story,” Jhala said. “But a lot can be done for the lion as a species. Forget about Kuno; we should try and establish lion populations across its historical range, within and outside of India”. The old range of lions in Asia extended from Persia to eastern India – the last of Asia’s lions outside India were shot and killed in Iran in the 1940s.
The current concentration of lions in just Gujarat, Chellam said, was a “ticking time bomb”.
With lion numbers ballooning in human habitats, he said it was important for the government to recognise that “space and availability of good quality habitats are a severe constraint [in Gujarat].”
£1.308 billion (Powerball) on January 13 2016 in the US, for which three winning tickets were sold, remains history’s biggest lottery prize
£1.267 billion (Mega Million) a winner from South Carolina took their time to come forward to claim their prize in March 2019 not long before the April deadline
£633.76 million (Powerball draw) from a winner from Wisconsin
£625.76 million (Powerball) Mavis L. Wanczyk of Chicopee, Massachusetts claimed the jackpot in August 2017
£575.53 million (Powerball) A lucky pair of winners scooped the jackpot in Iowa and New York in October 2018
For the 20th time, there will be a Game 7 in the NBA Finals.
Indiana will play at Oklahoma City on Sunday night in the final game of the season, with the winner getting the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Home teams are 15-4 in Game 7 of the finals, but a road team — Cleveland, over Golden State — won the most recent of those games in 2016.
A look inside some numbers surrounding this matchup:
Odds are, nobody’s scoring 40
There have been only two 40-point scoring performances in Game 7 of the NBA Finals — and both came in losing efforts.
Jerry West scored 42 points in Game 7 of the 1969 series, but the Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics in Bill Russell’s final game. And Elgin Baylor scored 41 points in Game 7 in 1962 — another Lakers-Celtics matchup — but Boston prevailed in that one as well.
Bob Pettit had the third-highest scoring total in a Game 7. He had 39 for the St. Louis Hawks against the Celtics in 1957 … and Boston won that game as well.
The highest-scoring Game 7s in a winning effort? Those would be by Boston’s Tom Heinsohn in that 1957 game against St. Louis and Miami’s LeBron James in the 2013 series against San Antonio. Both had 37; Heinsohn’s was a double-overtime game, James got his in regulation.
And no team might break 100, either
Yes, these are high-scoring teams. Oklahoma City was No. 4 in points per game in the regular season (120.5 per game) and Indiana was No. 7 (117.4). The Thunder are second in that category in the playoffs (115.2), just ahead of No. 3 Indiana (115.1).
In Game 7, that might not matter much.
No team has reached 100 points in Game 7 of the NBA Finals since 1988. Or even topped 95 points, for that matter.
Coach Pat Riley, left, gets a hug from Wes Matthews after the Lakers defeated the Pistons in Game 7 of the 1988 NBA Finals.
(Bob Galbraith / Associated Press)
The last five Game 7s:
— 2016, Cleveland 93, Golden State 89
— 2013, Miami 95, San Antonio 88
— 2010, Los Angeles Lakers 83, Boston 79
— 2005, San Antonio 81, Detroit 74
— 1994, Houston 90, New York 84
The last finals Game 7 to see someone hit the century mark was when the Lakers beat the Pistons 108-105 in 1988.
Expect a close one
The average margin of victory in Game 7 of an NBA Finals: 6.9 points.
Each of the last eight such games have been decided by single digits. Only four have been double-digit wins: Boston over St. Louis by 19 in 1960, Minneapolis over New York by 17 in 1952, Boston over Milwaukee by 15 in 1974 and New York over the Lakers by 14 in 1970.
The closest Game 7 in the finals was Syracuse beating Fort Wayne 92-91 in 1955. That was one of six Game 7s decided by three points or less.
By seed
The Thunder are the 22nd No. 1 seed to play in Game 7 of an NBA Finals. Their 21 predecessors on that list are 12-9 in the ultimate game; seven of those games have been ones where both teams entered the playoffs as No. 1 seeds.
The Pacers are the fourth No. 4 seed to make Game 7 of the title round. Their three predecessors went 1-2 (Boston beat the Lakers in 1969, Seattle lost to Washington in 1978 and the Celtics lost to the Lakers in 2010).
Game 7 experience
It’ll be the fourth Game 7 for Indiana forwards Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner. Siakam’s teams have gone 2-1 in Game 7s, Turner’s have gone 1-2.
Indiana’s Aaron Nesmith is 2-0 in the pair of Game 7s in which he has played, with Indiana winning at New York last year and Boston beating Milwaukee in 2022. Both of those wins were in the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith, driving agianst Thunder forward Chet Holmgren in a Game 6 win, has twice been on teams that won Game 7s.
(Michael Conroy / Associated Press)
Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league’s reigning MVP, has averaged 27 points in two previous Game 7s. Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton scored 26 points in his lone Game 7 to this point.
No player on either side has previously been part of a Game 7 in the NBA Finals.
New for some refs, too
The NBA doesn’t announce referee assignments until game day, so it won’t be known until Sunday morning who the three-person crew is for Game 7.
This much is certain: for at least two of the referees, it’ll be the first time on the NBA Finals Game 7 stage.
Scott Foster — who would seem a likely pick this year — worked Game 7 in 2013 alongside Dan Crawford and Monty McCutchen, and Game 7 of the title series in 2010 with Dan Crawford and Joe Crawford.
The most recent Game 7 was in 2016 and the crew for that game was Dan Crawford, McCutchen and Mike Callahan.
Outside of Foster, no referee in this year’s pool has been on the court for a Game 7 in the NBA Finals.
THE draw for tonight’s National Lottery EuroMillions (June 20, 2025) has taken place, with life-changing cash prizes at stake.
Check the results to see if you have just won a fortune and bagged enough to start that jet-set lifestyle you always dreamed of.
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Have you got the winning EuroMillions ticket?
Every EuroMillions ticket also bags you an automatic entry into the UK Millionaire Maker, which guarantees at least one player will pocket £1million in every draw.
You can find out if you’re a winner by checking your ticket against tonight’s numbers below.
Tonight’s National Lottery EuroMillions winning numbers are: 05, 08, 24, 37, 47 and the Lucky Stars are: 03, 09.
The UK Millionaire Maker Selection winners are:
ZNZP75021
TNBC30976
HNBR22291
HNBG00357
XNBL07259
VNZV56928
HNBZ00729
VNBF50450
MNBC35019
ZNBP60221
JNZZ66637
HNZR99573
HMZR34844
JQDG19394
Tonight’s National Lottery Thunderball winning numbers are: 09, 17, 32, 33, 35 and the Thunderball is 06.
TOP 5 BIGGEST LOTTERY WINS IN THE WORLD
£1.308 billion (Powerball) on January 13 2016 in the US, for which three winning tickets were sold, remains history’s biggest lottery prize
£1.267 billion (Mega Million) a winner from South Carolina took their time to come forward to claim their prize in March 2019 not long before the April deadline
£633.76 million (Powerball draw) from a winner from Wisconsin
£625.76 million (Powerball) Mavis L. Wanczyk of Chicopee, Massachusetts claimed the jackpot in August 2017
£575.53 million (Powerball) A lucky pair of winners scooped the jackpot in Iowa and New York in October 2018
The first EuroMillions draw took place on February 7, 2004, by three organisations: France’s Française des Jeux, Loterías y Apuestas del Estado in Spain and the Camelot in the UK.
One of the UK’s biggest prizes was up for grabs on December, 4, 2020 with a whopping £175million EuroMillions jackpot, which would make a winner richer than Adele.
Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in Scotland, netted a huge £161,653,000 in the July 12, 2011.
Adrian and Gillian Bayford, from Haverhill, Suffolk, picked up £148,656,000 after they played the draw on August, 10, 2012, while Jane Park became Britain’s youngest lottery winner when she scooped up £1 million in 2013.
Could tonight’s jackpot of £14 million see you handing in your notice and swapping the daily commute for slurping champagne on a super yacht or lying back on a private beach in the Bahamas?
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EuroMillions tickets come with an automatic entry into the UK Million Maker too
£1.308 billion (Powerball) on January 13 2016 in the US, for which three winning tickets were sold, remains history’s biggest lottery prize
£1.267 billion (Mega Million) a winner from South Carolina took their time to come forward to claim their prize in March 2019 not long before the April deadline
£633.76 million (Powerball draw) from a winner from Wisconsin
£625.76 million (Powerball) Mavis L. Wanczyk of Chicopee, Massachusetts claimed the jackpot in August 2017
£575.53 million (Powerball) A lucky pair of winners scooped the jackpot in Iowa and New York in October 2018
The Television Academy first embraced Sterling K. Brown nine years ago and has kept him in a loose side hug ever since. Brown’s a contender for lead actor in a drama for his role as a Secret Service agent in “Paradise,” a Hulu thriller that reunites Brown with “This Is Us” creator Dan Fogelman.
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Emmy nominations Brown has received across …
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Different projects, including for narrator (“Lincoln: Divided We Stand”) and character voice-over (“Invincible”).
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Brown’s first two wins came in back-to-back years — for supporting actor in a limited series in 2016, as prosecutor Christopher Darden in “The People v. O.J. Simpson,” and lead actor in a drama series in 2017 for his performance as Randall in NBC’s big-feelings family saga “This Is Us.”
3 x 2
Brown has received two nominations in a single year three times: 2018, 2020, 2021.
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The Screen Actors Guild Awards also love Brown, who has won four times from 11 nominations, including …
2019
Twice in one year as part of both the winning film (“Black Panther”) and TV drama (“This Is Us”) ensembles.
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Brown received his first Oscar nomination in 2024 for his supporting role as the hedonistic, hurting brother of Jeffrey Wright’s novelist in “American Fiction.”
