A bathing ban has been slapped on one of Northern Ireland’s most popular beaches just before the bank holiday weekend – after blue-green algae was detected over 100 times across the region this year
Blue-green algae was detected in the water of Benone Beach in Co Londonderry(Image: Getty Images)
Beachgoers have been warned not to swim at one of Northern Ireland’s most popular seaside spots after “potentially toxic” blue-green algae was found in the water.
The bathing ban was put in place at Benone Beach in Co Londonderry by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) ahead of the bank holiday weekend. The north coast beach, with its seven-mile stretch of golden sand and stunning views of Benevenagh mountain and Donegal, is popular with tourists.
Daera said in a statement: “Blue-green algae was observed on part of Benone Beach on Thursday through the Daera monitoring programme for bathing waters.
Blue-green algae bloom are seen at Battery Harbour in Cookstown, Northern Ireland on August 18(Image: Getty Images)
“Analysis has confirmed high levels of blue-green algae and the department has issued the bathing water operator, Causeway Coast and Glens Borough council, an ‘Advice against Bathing’ notification.”
The department noted that no other north coast beaches are affected. Daera added that it “will continue to monitor these beaches for blue-green algae and provide advice to bathing water operators when required”.
The council confirmed a red-level warning had now been put in place. A spokesperson for Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council said: “A temporary Advice Against Bathing Notice has been issued for Benone Strand from Friday 22nd August 2025.
Some blue-green algae produce toxins, posing a danger to humans, pets, livestock and wildlife(Image: Getty Images)
“This is an escalation from the amber to red level in accordance with the Inter-Agency Blue Green Algae Protocol. Daera will continue to monitor Benone Strand and advise of any changes.”
Blue-green algae has been detected more than 100 times across Northern Ireland since the start of the year, Deara previously said. Large algal blooms have also covered Lough Neagh for the third summer in a row, raising concerns for pets, livestock and wildlife.
Technically known as cyanobacteria, blue-green algae are microscopic organisms naturally found in lakes and streams. They can multiply rapidly in warm, shallow, nutrient-rich waters, with some strains producing toxins.
These toxins are particularly dangerous for pets, livestock and wildlife. Humans exposed to high levels can suffer health effects such as diarrhoea, vomiting, throat irritation and breathing difficulties.
Blue-green algae are often found in warm and nutrient-rich waters (Image: Getty Images)
Nitrogen and phosphorus from agricultural fertiliser run-off and wastewater treatment are key contributors to the algae. The spread of invasive zebra mussels is also thought to play a role, as they clear the water, allowing more sunlight to fuel algal growth.
Rising water temperatures – linked to climate change – are another factor.
The Stormont Executive launched an action plan last year to tackle the environmental crisis at Lough Neagh. Earlier this week, Environment Minister Andrew Muir called for more support from colleagues to address both the blue-green algae problem and the broader environmental issues at the lough.
A gorgeous UK beach dubbed one of the best in the world and frequented by travel influencers has had its public access cut off due to health and safety concerns
This popular beach has had its public access closed off(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A Cornish beach once dubbed among the best in the world and which featured in BBC’s Poldark has had its public access cut off.
Situated in the far west of Cornwall, Pedn Vounder is known for its turquoise waters, secluded cove and unofficial capacity as a nudist beach. However, tourists and swimmers looking forward to enjoying its pristine waters during the heatwave were met with a rope cordoning the beach off.
A red sign by the National Trust, which manages the path down to the beach but not the beach itself, reads: “Danger. No Access.” According to the National Trust, the path has been closed off due to erosion, which has made the path unstable and has now resulted in a “near vertical” six-metre climb down.
Access to Pedn Vounder has been closed off due to safety concerns(Image: Getty Images)
It also added the sea at the beach is “dangerous due to rip currents” and that there have been “regular serious incidents involving the emergency services”.
Pedn Vounder has long been notorious for its difficulty to access, with a long walk from any parking spots followed by a steep pathway down.
The beach’s closure during the peak summer period has been met with dismay by locals in the nearby village of Treen, who said the beauty spot has been drawing a large number of visitors in recent years.
It was recently voted one of the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world by EnjoyTravel.com, and has been a favourite stop for travel influencers.
Meanwhile, this July, the annual Times and Sunday Times Best UK Beaches guide featured it amongst its best beaches in the south west and it was also named the sixth best nudist beach in the UK, according to KAYAK.
The beach also featured on TV screens as the fictional Nampara Cove in the BBC’s historical drama Poldark, starring Aidan Turner. Rebecca Ley, 46, who visited the beach recently and grew up nearby, told The Times that the closure was “a real shame.”
She said: “Getting down was always a bit challenging, it’s definitely not one for flip flops, but I can’t say I noticed a massive difference from when I was a child.” She added that her nine-year-old had made it down “without difficulty”, as had about 100 other visitors that day.
A National Trust spokesperson told The Mirror: “Due to increasing coastal erosion, an unofficial and steep pathway across National Trust land leading to Pedn Vounder beach (not cared for by the National Trust) in Cornwall has become increasingly unsafe and is now temporarily closed.
“This decision has been made due to the significant increase in potential for serious injury and has been made in consultation with local authorities, emergency services and other partners.
“We understand this closure may disappoint visitors and the local community and have not taken the decision lightly. As a charity that promotes access to nature and culture we always try and maintain access wherever it’s possible to do so, but due to the increasing erosion undercutting the cliff we have made the difficult decision to close it.
“In the meantime, we encourage visitors to use nearby Porthcurno beach and to follow all local signage and safety advice. ”
Aug. 19 (UPI) — Some of the Jeffrey Epstein files will be made public after the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform receives them from the Justice Department.
The committee subpoenaed the Justice Department to obtain some of the files and will redact some information to protect alleged victims and other sensitive information, a committee spokesperson told CNN on Tuesday.
The panel anticipates receiving the first batch of Epstein files on Friday, but its members do not know when they might be made public.
“The committee intends to make the records public after a thorough review to ensure all victims’ identification and child sexual abuse material are redacted,” the unnamed committee spokesperson said.
“The committee will also consult with the DOJ to ensure any documents released do not negatively impact ongoing criminal cases and investigations.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Tenn., on Monday said the DOJ is cooperating with the committee’s subpoena, which came with an Aug. 19 deadline to comply, CBS News reported.
“There are many records in the DOJ’s custody,” Comer said in a prepared statement.
“It will take the department time to produce all of the records and ensure the identification of victims and any child sexual abuse material are redacted,” he added.
The Trump administration is committed to providing transparency regarding the Epstein files to inform the public, Comer said.
The committee also subpoenaed former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and several former attorneys general and FBI directors to obtain their testimonies.
Former Attorney General William Barr testified before the committee in a closed session on Monday.
Barr was the attorney general from 2018 to 2020 during Trump’s first term and from 1991 to 1993 during former President George H.W. Bush‘s administration.
When an explosion killed three L.A. County sheriff’s deputies last month, Mike Fratantoni thought about 1857.
A horse thief named Juan Flores broke out of San Quentin State Prison, joined a posse that called itself Las Manillas — the handcuffs — and headed south toward Southern California. They robbed stores along the way and murdered a German shopkeeper in San Juan Capistrano. Los Angeles County Sheriff James R. Barton was warned about them but ignored the danger. He and his men were ambushed. Four were killed — Barton, Deputy Charles Daly and constables Charles Baker and William Little. The spot, near the interchange where State Route 133 and the 405 Freeway meet in Irvine, is now called Barton Mound.
Orange County was still a part of L.A. County then, the population was just over 11,000, California was a newly minted state, and the Mexican period was giving way to the Wild West.
“They all died alone with no help coming,” said Fratantoni, the Sheriff’s Department’s staff historian. “Today, you know your partner is coming to help you. People say the job’s dangerous now — it’s never not been dangerous.”
So as Sheriff Robert Luna prepared to hold a news conference hours after the accident at a department training facility in East L.A. took the lives of Dets. Joshua Kelley-Eklund, Victor Lemus and William Osborn, Fratantoni sent over notes about what happened to Barton and his men. That’s how Luna was able to tell the public that the latest line-of-duty deaths to befall the department happened on its deadliest day in more than 160 years, a line quickly repeated by media across the country.
Fratantoni describes himself as the “default button” whenever someone has a question about the Sheriff’s Department’s past, whether it’s a colleague or the public, whether it’s about the positive or the scandalous. He can tell you why female deputies stopped wearing caps (blame the popularity of beehive hairdos in the 1960s) and reveal why longtime Sheriff Eugene Biscailuz was a pioneer in trying to rehabilitate addicts (his father was an alcoholic).
It’s a job the Long Island native has officially held for a decade. He assumed the position with the blessing of then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell to tap into a passion Fratantoni had dabbled in on his own almost from the moment he joined the department in 1999.
“You can’t talk about L.A. County history without us,” Fratantoni said when we met at the Hall of Justice. Outside, the flags remained at half-staff in honor of the dead detectives. He was taking me on a tour of the building’s basement museum, which showcased the histories of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, district attorney’s office and coroner. “We’ve been there from Day 1. We were here before the Board of Supervisors. We were here before LAPD. We’ve never closed. We’ve survived it all.”
“We check with Mike on everything,” Luna told me in a phone interview. Last year, the sheriff joined Fratantoni and other current and retired Sheriff’s Department members for the dedication of a plaque to commemorate the 1857 Barton Mound massacre. “You get 10 minutes with him, and wow.”
I was able to get two hours.
Fratantoni is burly but soft-spoken, a trace of a New York accent lingering in his by-the-books cadence. All around us were books, poster boards and newspaper headlines of criminals that Angelenos still remember and those long forgotten, people such as Winnie Ruth Judd, who murdered two friends in Phoenix in 1931 then traveled to Los Angeles by train with their bodies in trunks.
We passed through a row of original L.A. County jail cells that were brought down piece by piece from their original location on the 10th floor of the Hall of Justice. He pointed out a display case of makeshift weapons, tattoo needles and fake IDs created by inmates over the department’s 175 years. I stared too long at a black jacket and AC/DC hat worn by the Night Stalker — serial killer Richard Ramirez.
Fratantoni shows off vintage items used for illegal gambling.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
The museum receives free rent from L.A. County but is otherwise funded and maintained by the Sheriffs’ Relief Foundation and the dollar a month pulled from the paychecks of Sheriff’s Department employees who sign up to support — “We don’t want to be a burden,” Fratantoni explained. It’s not open to the general public, but he frequently hosts deputies, prosecutors, law students and even school field trips.
“The kids come and love this one for some reason,” he said with a chuckle as we passed a narcotics display. “Not my favorite one.”
Fratantoni never rushed me and turned every question I had into a short story that never felt like a lecture. He frequently apologized for random artifacts strewn around — plaques, movie posters, a biography of mobster Mickey Cohen — or displays not lit to his liking. “Am I putting you to sleep yet?” he joked at one point.
The 45-year-old is more than a curator or nerdy archivist. Luna, like his predecessors Alex Villanueva and McDonnell, has entrusted Fratantoni to not just help preserve the department’s history but also imprint its importance on the men and women who are its present and future.
“I have always been a fan of history,” said Luna, who has organized lunchtime lectures about the department and civil rights. For Black History Month in February, Fratantoni spoke about the troubles faced by deputies William Abbott and John Brady, who in 1954 became the department’s first integrated patrol unit.
The recriminations against Abbott, who was Black, and Brady didn’t come from within but rather the residents in West Hollywood they served. “I believe it’s important to teach our deputies where we’ve been and some of the challenges we’ve faced. You can’t help but to want to listen to his stories,” Luna said of Fratantoni.
“Mike is just phenomenal,” said Deputy Graciela Medrano, a 25-year-veteran who was also at the museum the day I visited. A black ribbon stretched across her badge — a sign of mourning, law enforcement style. “I’ll ask him about cases that happened when I was just starting, and he immediately knows what I’m talking about. He makes us all appreciate our department more.”
Every year, Fratantoni speaks to the latest class of recruits about the department’s history. “They know it’s been around but nothing else. So I share photos, I tell stories. And I tell them, ‘You’re getting a torch passed to you, and you’re going to run the next leg.’ You can see their reactions — our history gives them a sense of purpose.”
He’ll also attend community events with other deputies in vintage uniforms or old department cars. “Someone will see it and say, ‘That’s my granddad’s car’ and smile. We can have conversations with the public we otherwise wouldn’t be able to.”
Fratantoni was supposed to focus this year on the department’s 175th anniversary. Another goal was to seek out an interview with Shirley MacLaine, one of the last surviving queens of the Sheriff’s Championship Rodeo, an annual event that used to fill up the Memorial Coliseum and attract Hollywood A-listers.
But 2025 got in the way. We spoke a week before the burials of Osborn and Kelley-Eklund (the services for Lemus have yet to be announced). Fratantoni also sits on the committee charged with putting names on the Los Angeles County Peace Officers’ Memorial.
“I don’t like doing it, and I hope I don’t have to fill out paperwork for it ever again, but if that’s what I have to do, I’m honored to be a part of it,” he said. “I hold it close to my heart.”
Fratantoni in front of a section of the museum that highlights the history of the L.A. County district attorney’s office.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
Even the work commemorating what happened during the Barton Mound massacre remains unfinished. The victims were buried at the old City Cemetery downtown but were moved to Rosedale Cemetery in Mid-City in 1914. No one bothered to mark their new graves, which were lost until researchers discovered them a few years ago. Fratantoni and others are fundraising for new tombstones for their slain predecessors.
He mentioned Daly’s story: Born in Ireland. Came to California for the Gold Rush. Became a blacksmith — he put the shoes on the horses that Barton and his constables were going to use to pursue Las Manillas. A strong, able man whom Barton deputized so he could join them on the day they would all die.
“It’s sad to see people who lost their life be forgotten,” Fratantoni said. “That’s just…”
The historian tasked with talking shook his head in silence.
On August 6, 1945, the United States became the first and only country in history to carry out a nuclear attack when it dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
While the death toll of the bombing remains a subject of debate, at least 70,000 people were killed, though other figures are nearly twice as high.
Three days later, the US dropped another atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing at least 40,000 people.
The stunning toll on Japanese civilians at first seemed to have little impact on public opinion in the US, where pollsters found approval for the bombing reached 85 percent in the days afterwards.
To this day, US politicians continue to credit the bombing with saving American lives and ending World War II.
But as the US marks the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, perceptions have become increasingly mixed. A Pew Research Center poll last month indicated that Americans are split almost evenly into three categories.
Nearly a third of respondents believe the use of the bomb was justified. Another third feels it was not. And the rest are uncertain about deciding either way.
“The trendline is that there is a steady decline in the share of Americans who believe these bombings were justified at the time,” Eileen Yam, the director of science and society research at Pew Research Center, told Al Jazeera in a recent phone call.
“This is something Americans have gotten less and less supportive of as time has gone by.”
Tumbling approval rates
Doubts about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the advent of nuclear weapons in general, did not take long to set in.
“From the beginning, it was understood that this was something different, a weapon that could destroy entire cities,” said Kai Bird, a US author who has written about Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
His Pulitzer Prize-winning book, American Prometheus, served as the basis for director Christopher Nolan’s 2023 film, Oppenheimer.
Bird pointed out that, even in the immediate aftermath of the bombing, some key politicians and public figures denounced it as a war crime.
Early critics included physicist Albert Einstein and former President Herbert Hoover, who was quick to speak out against the civilian bloodshed.
“The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul,” Hoover wrote within days of the bombing.
Survivors of the atomic explosion at Hiroshima in 1945 suffered long-term effects from radiation [Universal History Archive/Getty Images]
Over time, historians have increasingly cast doubt on the most common justification for the atomic attacks: that they played a decisive role in ending World War II.
Some academics point out that other factors likely played a larger role in the Japanese decision to surrender, including the Soviet Union’s declaration of war against the island nation on August 8.
Others have speculated whether the bombings were meant mostly as a demonstration of strength as the US prepared for its confrontation with the Soviet Union in what would become the Cold War.
Accounts from Japanese survivors and media reports also played a role in changing public perceptions.
John Hersey’s 1946 profile of six victims, for instance, took up an entire edition of The New Yorker magazine. It chronicled, in harrowing detail, everything from the crushing power of the blast to the fever, nausea and death brought on by radiation sickness.
By 1990, a Pew poll found that a shrinking majority in the US approved of the atomic bomb’s use on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Only 53 percent felt it was merited.
Rationalising US use of force
But even at the close of the 20th century, the legacy of the attacks remained contentious in the US.
For the 50th anniversary of the bombing in 1995, the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, had planned a special exhibit.
But it was cancelled amid public furore over sections of the display that explored the experiences of Japanese civilians and the debate about the use of the atomic bomb. US veterans groups argued that the exhibit undermined their sacrifices, even after it underwent extensive revision.
“The exhibit still says in essence that we were the aggressors and the Japanese were the victims,” William Detweiler, a leader at the American Legion, a veterans group, told The Associated Press at the time.
Incensed members of Congress opened an investigation, and the museum’s director resigned.
The exhibit, meanwhile, never opened to the public. All that remained was a display of the Enola Gay, the aeroplane that dropped the first atomic bomb.
Erik Baker, a lecturer on the history of science at Harvard University, says that the debate over the atomic bomb often serves as a stand-in for larger questions about the way the US wields power in the world.
A pair of protesters march with a ‘Free Palestine’ banner past the Atomic Bomb Dome on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the US attack on Hiroshima on August 5 [Richard A Brooks / AFP]
“What’s at stake is the role of World War II in legitimising the subsequent history of the American empire, right up to the current day,” he told Al Jazeera.
Baker explained that the US narrative about its role in the defeat of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan — the main “Axis Powers” in World War II — has been frequently referenced to assert the righteousness of US interventions around the world.
“If it was justifiable for the US to not just go to war but to do ‘whatever was necessary’ to defeat the Axis powers, by a similar token, there can’t be any objection to the US doing what is necessary to defeat the ‘bad guys’ today,” he added.
A resurgence of nuclear anxiety
But as the generations that lived through World War II grow older and pass away, cultural shifts are emerging in how different age groups approach US intervention — and use of force — abroad.
The scepticism is especially pronounced among young people, large numbers of whom have expressed dissatisfaction with policies such as US support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
In an April 2024 poll, the Pew Research Center found a dramatic generational divide among Americans over the question of global engagement.
Approximately 74 percent of older respondents, aged 65 and up, expressed a strong belief that the US should play an active role on the world stage. But only 33 percent of younger respondents, aged 18 to 35, felt the same way.
Last month’s Pew poll on the atomic bomb also found stark differences in age. People over the age of 65 were more than twice as likely to believe that the bombings were justified than people between the ages of 18 and 29.
Yam, the Pew researcher, said that age was the “most pronounced factor” in the results, beating out other characteristics, such as party affiliation and veteran status.
The 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing also coincides with a period of renewed anxiety about nuclear weapons.
US President Donald Trump, for instance, repeatedly warned during his re-election campaign in 2024 that the globe was on the precipice of “World War III”.
“The threat is nuclear weapons,” Trump told a rally in Chesapeake, Virginia. “That can happen tomorrow.”
“We’re at a place where, for the first time in more than three decades, nuclear weapons are back at the forefront of international politics,” said Ankit Panda, a senior fellow in the nuclear policy programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a US-based think tank.
Panda says that such concerns are linked to geopolitical tensions between different states, pointing to the recent fighting between India and Pakistan in May as one example.
The war in Ukraine, meanwhile, has prompted Russia and the US, the world’s two biggest nuclear powers, to exchange nuclear-tinged threats.
And in June, the US and Israel carried out attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities with the stated aim of setting back the country’s ability to develop nuclear weapons.
But as the US marks the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombings, advocates hope the shift in public opinion will encourage world leaders to turn away from nuclear sabre-rattling and work towards the elimination of nuclear weapons.
Seth Shelden, the United Nations liaison for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, explained that countries with nuclear weapons argue that their arsenals discourage acts of aggression. But he said those arguments diminish the “civilisation-ending” dangers of nuclear warfare.
“As long as the nuclear-armed states prioritise nuclear weapons for their own security, they’re going to incentivise others to pursue them as well,” he said.
“The question shouldn’t be whether nuclear deterrence can work or whether it ever has worked,” he added. “It should be whether it will work in perpetuity.”
The Corp. for Public Broadcasting, which helps pay for PBS, NPR, 1,500 local radio and television stations as well as programs like “Sesame Street” and “Finding Your Roots,” announced last week that it would close after the U.S. government withdrew funding.
The organization told employees that most staff positions will end with the fiscal year on Sept. 30. A small transition team will stay until January to finish any remaining work.
The private, nonprofit corporation was founded in 1968 shortly after Congress authorized its formation. Its demise ends nearly six decades of supporting the production of renowned educational programming, cultural content and emergency alerts about natural disasters.
Here’s what to know:
Losing funding
President Trump signed a bill July 24 canceling about $1.1 billion that had been approved for public broadcasting. The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense, and conservatives have particularly directed their ire at NPR and PBS.
Lawmakers with large rural constituencies voiced concern about what the cuts could mean for some local public stations in their state. They warned that some stations will have to close.
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday reinforced the policy change by excluding funding for the CPB for the first time in more than 50 years as part of a broader spending bill.
How it began
Congress passed legislation creating the body in 1967, several years after then-Federal Communications Commission Chair Newton Minow described commercial television as a “vast wasteland” and called for programming in the public interest.
The corporation doesn’t produce programming and it doesn’t own, operate or control any public broadcasting stations. The CPB, PBS and NPR are independent of one another, as are local public television and radio stations.
Rural stations hit hard
Roughly 70% of the corporation’s money went directly to 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations across the country. The cuts are expected to weigh most heavily on smaller public media outlets away from big cities, and it’s likely some won’t survive. National Public Radio’s president estimated that as many as 80 NPR stations may close in the next year.
Mississippi Public Broadcasting has already decided to eliminate a streaming channel that airs children’s programming 24 hours a day, including “Caillou” and “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.”
Maine’s public media system is looking at a hit of $2.5 million, or about 12% of its budget, for the next fiscal year. The state’s rural residents rely heavily on public media for weather updates and disaster alerts.
In Kodiak, Alaska, KMXT estimated the cuts would slice 22% from its budget. Public radio stations in the sprawling, heavily rural state often provide not just news but alerts about natural disasters such as tsunamis, landslides and volcanic eruptions.
From Big Bird to war documentaries
The first episode of “Sesame Street” aired in 1969. Child viewers, adults and guest stars alike were instantly hooked. Over the decades, Big Bird, Cookie Monster and Elmo have become household favorites.
Entertainer Carol Burnett appeared on that inaugural episode. She told the Associated Press she was a big fan.
“I would have done anything they wanted me to do,” she said. “I loved being exposed to all that goodness and humor.”
“Sesame Street” said in May it would get some help from a Netflix streaming deal.
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. started “Finding Your Roots” in 2006 under the title “African American Lives.” He invited prominent Black celebrities and traced their family trees into slavery. When the paper trail ran out, they would use DNA to see which ethnic group they were from in Africa. Challenged by a viewer to open the show to non-Black celebrities, Gates agreed and the series was renamed “Faces of America,” which had to be changed again after the name was taken.
The show is PBS’ most-watched program on linear TV and the most-streamed nondrama program. Season 10 reached nearly 18 million people across linear and digital platforms and also received its first Emmy nomination.
Grant money from the nonprofit has also funded lesser-known food, history, music and other shows created by stations across the country.
Documentarian Ken Burns, celebrated for creating the documentaries “The Civil War,” “Baseball” and “The Vietnam War,” told “PBS NewsHour” that the corporation accounted for about 20% of his films’ budgets. He said he would make it up but projects receiving 50% to 75% of their funding from the organization won’t.
Influence of shows
Children’s programming in the 1960s was made up of shows like “Captain Kangaroo,” ’’Romper Room” and the cat-and-mouse skirmishes on “Tom & Jerry.” “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” mostly taught social skills.
“Sesame Street” was designed by education professionals and child psychologists to help low-income and minority students ages 2 to 5 overcome some of the deficiencies they had when entering school. Social scientists had long noted white and higher-income kids were often better prepared.
One of the most widely cited studies about the effects of “Sesame Street” compared households that got the show with those that didn’t. It found that the children exposed to “Sesame Street” were 14% more likely to be enrolled in the correct grade level for their age in middle and high school.
Over the years, “Finding Your Roots” showed Natalie Morales discovering she’s related to one of the legendary pirates of the Caribbean, and former “Saturday Night Live” star Andy Samberg finding his biological grandmother and grandfather. It revealed that drag queen RuPaul and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker are cousins, as are actors Meryl Streep and Eva Longoria.
“The two subliminal messages of ’Finding Your Roots,’ which are needed more urgently today than ever, is that what has made America great is that we’re a nation of immigrants,” Gates told the AP. “And secondly, at the level of the genome, despite our apparent physical differences, we’re 99.99% the same.”
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a nonprofit that distributes federal funds to public radio and television stations in the United States, has announced it would be shutting down as the result of funding cuts under President Donald Trump.
On Friday, the group issued a statement saying it had launched an “orderly wind-down of its operations” in response to recent legislation that would cut nearly $1.1bn of its funding.
“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” its president, Patricia Harrison, wrote.
According to the statement, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would remain in operation for the next six months, albeit with a reduced staff.
The majority of its employees will be let go on September 30. Then, a “small transition team” will remain through January 2026 to “ensure a responsible and orderly closeout”.
The death knell for the nonprofit came last month in the form of two legislative actions.
The first was the passage of the Rescission Act of 2025, which was designed to revoke funding that Congress approved in the past. The Rescission Act targeted federal programmes that Trump sought to put on the chopping block, including foreign aid and federal funding for public broadcasters.
The Senate voted to pass the act by a margin of 51 to 48, and the House then approved it by a vote of 216 to 213.
The second legislative wallop came on July 31, as the Senate Appropriations Committee unveiled its 2026 funding bill for labour, health and human services, education and related agencies.
That bill earmarked $197bn in discretionary funding, but none of it went to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Never in five decades had the corporation been excluded from the appropriations bill, according to the nonprofit.
Both houses of Congress are controlled by Republicans, and party members have largely fallen in line with Trump’s legislative priorities.
Defunding public media has long been a priority of Republicans, stretching back to President Richard Nixon’s feud in the 1970s with public broadcasting personalities like Sander Vanocur.
Nixon, like Trump, had an adversarial relationship with the media, and in 1972, he vetoed a public broadcasting funding bill, forcing Congress to return with a slimmed-down version of its funding. That move helped establish a trend of Republicans seeking to whittle down federal support for public, non-commercial TV and radio.
Trump, during his second term, has made it a priority to slash at what he considers government “bloat”, and that includes reducing federal spending.
He and his allies have accused news outlets like National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) of being left-wing soapboxes.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting distributes its funds to NPR and PBS member stations. NPR boasts a weekly audience of 43 million. PBS, meanwhile, reaches 130 million people each year through its television offerings alone, not counting its online presence.
Still, in the lead-up to the passage of the Rescissions Act, Trump threatened to yank his support from any Republican who opposed his efforts to defund the corporation.
Trump also said public broadcasting was worse than its commercial counterparts, including MSNBC, which he frequently misspells as “MSDNC” to imply alleged bias towards the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
“It is very important that all Republicans adhere to my Recissions Bill and, in particular, DEFUND THE CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (PBS and NPR), which is worse than CNN & MSDNC put together,” Trump wrote on social media on July 10.
“Any Republican that votes to allow this monstrosity to continue broadcasting will not have my support or Endorsement. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
But Harrison, the president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, framed the organisation’s closure as a loss for education and civic engagement.
“Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country,” Harrison said.
“We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people.”
About ten times each day, giant freight trains pass along a narrow section of track along the Sacramento River in far northern California where engineers on the locomotives regularly tense up with stress.
“Every single time, it’s a near miss” of a train hitting a person, said Ryan Snow, the California State Chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. “Multiple near misses, every single run. My nightmare is that a family that isn’t paying attention gets hit.”
This particular stretch of track, which wends north from the town of Dunsmuir, is a renegade route for hikers to one of northern California’s most enchanting natural sights, Mossbrae Falls. Fed from glaciers on Mount Shasta, the water pours out of lava tubes and down mossy cliffs, forming a verdant and ethereal cascade into a calm, shaded swimming hole.
It appears magical. It is also inaccessible —unless visitors trespass more than a mile on on the tracks or wade across the river. Accidents have happened. Two people have been struck by trains in the last few years (although both survived.) In May a Southern California woman drowned after trying to reach the falls via the river. But the tourists keep coming. Drawn by Instagram and Tiktok, increasing numbers of people have taken to visiting the falls — nearly 30,000 according to a city study, the majority of them by trespassing up the train tracks.
For years, outdoor enthusiasts in and around Dunsmuir have pushed Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the tracks, to work with the city to create a safe, accessible, legal path. But the effort has been dogged by delays.
This week, the train workers union decided to enter the fray, issuing a press release decrying the slow progress and calling on Union Pacific to do more to make the long-held dream of a trail a reality.
“Each month that goes by without a real construction timeline, lives are put at risk,” Snow said in a statement. The statement also accused Union Pacific of “slow-walking” the project, saying railroad officials have called for meeting after meeting, but has never produced a right-of-way commitment or a clear construction timeline.
Many engineers, Snow said, are frustrated and feel the delay “unfairly endangers both railroad personnel and the public.”
In a statement, Union Pacific said that the railroad had “approved the concept of a trail into Mossbrae Falls years ago, and we have been working with the City of Dunsmuir and the Mount Shasta Trail Association to find solutions that address everyone’s safety concerns.”
Earlier this summer, Dunsmuir city officials held a “summit” with Union Pacific officials to tour the falls and talk about the proposed trail connection.
City officials said the summit, which included representatives from local elected officials offices as well as railroad officials from Omaha and Denver, marked “a new milestone in the slow but steady process.” A city press release noted that “key Union Pacific officials had the opportunity to see the falls for the first time, recognizing the importance of building public access to this beautiful natural resource.”
But some longtime trail advocates said they were not convinced that the dream is any closer. John Harch, a retired surgeon with the Mount Shasta Trail Assn. and has been working with others for years on public access, said he still didn’t see evidence of concrete progress.
“Here we sit, as before, while people risk their lives to see the falls,” he wrote in an email.
Snow said he hopes the public can put pressure on the parties to make concrete progress.
“We’ve been lucky that we haven’t had any fatalities caused by a trespasser strike,” he said. “The worst thing an engineer can do is hit somebody. It’s stressful.”
Meanwhile, he said, the route is only becoming more popular. “It’s in hiking magazines, and on the internet everywhere. It’s attracting more and more people.”
The Corp. for Public Broadcasting said Friday it was shutting down, about one week after President Trump signed legislation stripping its funding.
The group, which administers funds for PBS TV affiliates and NPR radio stations, said it would “begin an orderly wind-down of its operations.” A majority of staff positions will be cut Sept. 30, when the group’s fiscal year ends.
“A small transition team will remain through January 2026 to ensure a responsible and orderly closeout of operations,” the nonprofit said in a statement. “This team will focus on compliance, final distributions, and resolution of long-term financial obligations, including ensuring continuity for music rights and royalties that remain essential to the public media system.”
Since returning to office, Trump has made a priority of yanking federal funding for public broadcasters as part of a wider campaign against media outlets that he dislikes. The president derided PBS and NPR as government-funded “left-wing propaganda.” Congress fell into line.
It passed a measure in mid-July that clawed back $1.1 billion that previously had been allocated for public broadcasting for two years.
Separately, lawmakers introduced a Senate appropriations bill for 2026 that excludes funding for the Corp. for Public Broadcasting for the first time in more than 50 years. Conservatives have long wanted to strip funding from public media because of its perceived liberal bias.
The actions left the group without a steady source of operating money — and little hope that more would be on the way.
“Despite the extraordinary efforts of millions of Americans who called, wrote, and petitioned Congress to preserve federal funding for CPB, we now face the difficult reality of closing our operations,” Corp. for Public Broadcasting Chief Executive Patricia Harrison said in a statement.
The organization dates back nearly 60 years and has helped nurture such notable programs as “Sesame Street,” “PBS NewsHour,” “NOVA,” numerous Ken Burns documentaries and “Antiques Roadshow.” Through its partnerships with local stations and producers, the nonprofit made a mission of supporting educational and cultural programming, local journalism and emergency communications.
The move could cripple smaller public stations, including those in rural areas that struggle to mount high-dollar local membership campaigns. The Corp. for Public Broadcasting helps support more than 1,500 local public television and radio stations nationwide.
PBS SoCal, which operates member stations KOCE and KCET in Orange and Los Angeles counties, respectively, was set to lose more than $4 million in federal funding, Andy Russell, president and chief executive of the stations, previously told The Times.
NPR has two large affiliates serving Los Angeles: KCRW-FM (89.9) and LAist/KPCC-FM (89.3).
LAist, based in Pasadena, will lose about 4% of its annual budget — $1.7 million. Alejandra Santamaria, the station’s chief executive, told The Times last month that funding helped pay for 13 journalist positions in its newsroom.
KCRW in Santa Monica had been expecting $1.3 million from the Corp. for Public Broadcasting.
The stations have asked listeners to donate in order to compensate for the shortfall.
“Public media has been one of the most trusted institutions in American life, providing educational opportunity, emergency alerts, civil discourse, and cultural connection to every corner of the country,” Harrison said in the statement. “We are deeply grateful to our partners across the system for their resilience, leadership, and unwavering dedication to serving the American people.”
Speakers at Los Angeles City Council meetings will be banned from using the N-word and the C-word, the council decided Wednesday.
The ban comes after years of tirades by a few speakers who attack officials’ weight, sexual orientation or gender and who sometimes use racial slurs.
Speakers will now receive a warning for using either word — or any variation of the word. If they continue with the offensive language, they will be removed from the room and possibly banned from future meetings.
Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who is Black, has said that the use of the words during public comment has discouraged people from coming to meetings.
“It is language that, anywhere outside this building where there aren’t four armed guards, would get you hurt if you said these things in public,” he said earlier this year.
The council’s decision to ban the words could be challenged in court, with some legal scholars saying it could violate speakers’ 1st Amendment free speech rights.
In 2014, the city paid $215,000 to a Black man who was ejected from a meeting for wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood and a T-shirt with the N-word on it.
Attorney Wayne Spindler, who often uses offensive language at council meetings, said Wednesday that he plans to sue the city over the ban. He said he will read Tupac Shakur lyrics, including offensive curse words, until he is banned from a meeting.
“I’m going to file my $400-million lawsuit that I already have prepared and ready to file. If you want to make me the next millionaire, vote yes,” he said during public comment Wednesday.
Spindler was arrested in 2016 after submitting a public comment card showing a burning cross and a man hanging from a tree. On the card, he also wrote “Herb = [N-word],” referring to Herb Wesson, the council president at the time, who is Black. Prosecutors declined to press charges against Spindler.
Armando Herman, who attended the City Council vote Wednesday, is also a frequent offender.
At a City Council meeting earlier this month, Herman said the council was trying to suppress his speech, repeatedly referring to himself as a white N-word. He also used the C-word to describe an official in the room.
In 2023, a judge barred Herman from attending in person any public meetings at the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, where the L.A. County supervisors meet, after he allegedly sent sexually suggestive emails to four female supervisors. He denied sending the emails.
Numerous other members of the public have spoken against the new rule, saying it violates their freedom of speech.
“You’re so weak you have to curb freedom of speech for everyone, and you know this is going to bring lawsuits,” said Stacey Segarra-Bohlinger, a member of the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council who often punctuates her remarks with singing, at the council meeting earlier this month.
Washington, DC – A new poll from the research firm Gallup suggests that only 32 percent of Americans approve of Israel’s military action in Gaza, a 10-point drop from September 2024, as anger over atrocities against Palestinians continues to rise.
The survey, released on Tuesday, also showed an enormous partisan divide over the issue. Seventy-one percent of respondents who identified as members of the Republican Party said they approve of Israel’s conduct, compared with 8 percent of Democrats.
Overall, 60 percent of respondents said they disapprove of Israel’s military action in Gaza.
Shibley Telhami, a professor at the University of Maryland and the director of the Critical Issues Poll, said the latest survey shows a trend of growing discontent with Israel that goes beyond the war on Gaza.
“What we’re seeing here is an entrenchment of a generational paradigm among particularly young Americans – mostly Democrats and independents, but even some young Republicans – who now perceive the horror in Gaza in a way of describing the character of Israel itself,” Telhami told Al Jazeera.
In Tuesday’s survey, only 9 percent of respondents under the age of 35 said they approve of Israel’s military action in Gaza, and 6 percent said they have a favourable opinion of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The study follows an April poll from the Pew Research Center, which found a majority of respondents – including 50 percent of Republicans under 50 years old – said they had unfavourable views of Israel.
But even as public opinion in the US continues to shift, Washington’s policy of unconditional support for Israel has been unwavering. Since the start of the war on Gaza, the US has provided Israel with billions of dollars in military aid, as well as diplomatic backing at the United Nations.
Both President Donald Trump and his predecessor, Joe Biden, have been uncompromising backers of the Israeli assault on Gaza, which human rights groups have described as a genocide.
Israel has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza, imposed a suffocating siege and flattened most of the enclave, reducing its buildings to rubble. The siege is credited with prompting deadly hunger: The UN on Tuesday said there was “mounting evidence of famine and widespread starvation”.
Nevertheless, the US Congress also remains staunchly pro-Israel on a bipartisan basis. Earlier this month, a legislative push to block $500m in missile defence support for Israel failed in a 422-to-six vote in the House of Representatives.
So, what explains the schism between the views of average Americans and the policies of their elected representatives?
Telhami cited voter “priorities”. He explained that foreign policy traditionally has not been a driving factor in elections. For example, domestic issues like abortion, the economy and gun control usually dominate the electoral agenda for Democrats.
He also noted the influence of pro-Israel groups, like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which have spent millions of dollars to defeat critics of the Israeli government, particularly progressives in Democratic primaries.
But things are changing, according to the professor.
Palestine is rising in public importance, he said, with US voters looking at the issue through the lens of “soul-searching”, as a way of questioning what they stand for.
“It’s not just Gaza. It’s that we are enabling the horror in Gaza as a country – in terms of our aid or support or, even in some cases, direct collaboration,” Telhami said.
“That it is actually creating a paradigmatic shift about who we are, not just about: ‘Do we support Israel? Do we support the Palestinians?’”
He said the victory of Palestinian rights advocate Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary last month underscores that movement.
“The rise of Zohran Mamdani in New York is giving people pause because he’s been able to generate excitement, not, as some people thought, despite his views on Israel-Palestine, but actually because of his views on Israel-Palestine.”
NASHVILLE — The private lives of public figures have increasingly become part of the national scene. Usually, they are caught in the spotlight; they do not turn it on themselves.
Not so in Nashville. Here, Mayor Bill Boner, 45, who is divorcing his third wife, is involved in a most public romance with his fiancee, Traci Peel, a 34-year-old country singer who sports a 2.2-carat engagement ring. Details of their sex life are discussed on radio talk shows, in local newspapers. And the most volatile revelations came from the couple themselves.
Last month the Nashville Banner reported that Peel and Boner, during a telephone interview, giggled and joked about their sexual prowess, saying they had been caught by the reporter “at a bad time.” At one point, Peel said Boner remained amorous as long as seven hours.
“That’s pretty good for a 46-year-old man,” Peel said.
“Forty-five,” Boner corrected, talking on an extension.
Later, Peel said she was just joking.
But that was only the beginning of the uproar here. Nationally, the tabloids, both print and television, have had a ball. The Nashville Scene, a local weekly newspaper, ran a contest to complete this sentence: “You are so Nashville if . . . “
The winner, from Maralee Self: “Your mayor is married and engaged at the same time.”
An oft-repeated joke here, which betrays some disgust with Boner, takes a feminine voice: “If he’d made love to me for seven minutes, it’d seem like seven hours, too.”
Peel complained Tuesday in a surprise telephone call to a radio talk show that the media are making Boner “look like an idiot.” In an interview with The Times, the mayor, looking like a harried man, refused to discuss the matter.
“I don’t want to get into my personal life, other than I can just tell you that we’re doing the job here and working every day,” he said. Boner said he will not seek reelection next year, but rejected calls for his resignation. “Barring some unseen event, no,” he said.
However, as the situation wears on, a lot of people around here are beginning to resent the publicity, even as they revel in the jokes. The shift comes as the bloom fades from Nashville’s economic boom.
“Nashville is really on its butt,” said Bruce Dobie, editor of the Scene. So, while on one level, “The whole thing is really a hoot,” he said, on another level, “people are really getting bitter about it. They feel he is making us look like ‘Hee Haw,’ ” the television show depicting hicks and bumpkins.
Economists say that Nashville seemed headed for super-stardom in the mid-1980s but that overbuilding created a glut of properties, a huge factor in the city’s economic slowdown. Now bankruptcies are up and housing starts are down.
In such a soured economic climate, there is little tolerance for a mayor from whom rejuvenation seems to take on a new meaning.
Boner said he met Peel in May at a golf tournament. He announced in July that he and Peel were engaged, even though he is still married to his third wife, Betty. Boner’s aides say the mayor and his wife had agreed to separate in January, but at the time his engagement was announced, the estranged Boners were living under the same roof with their 4-year-old son.
Peel, a former backup country singer and now an aspiring soloist, sings in Nashville nightclubs and is occasionally joined by Boner, who pulls out a harmonica and accompanies her. She said she and Boner plan to marry in Hawaii once the divorce is final. She sent pineapples to reporters to announce the impending nuptials.
Until the extensive discussion of his sex life in the public print, Boner appeared politically secure in Nashville. He ran for mayor in 1987 while sitting as a U.S. congressman representing Tennessee’s 5th district. He was elected mayor with 53% of the vote. His resignation from Congress ended a House Ethics Committee investigation into a $50,000 salary paid to his wife, Betty, by a defense contractor.
Boner is now routinely pilloried on issues ranging from the city’s need to improve its school system to where it should locate a landfill.
Richard Jackson, general counsel for Meharry Medical College and a recent unsuccessful candidate for the state Senate, said: “The Boner situation is why some people feel Nashville is not moving the way it should. People have to find some reason to explain why we didn’t become the next Atlanta.”
Boner argued that he inherited an extraordinary set of challenges when he assumed office in 1987. “People were living through the economic good times, and a lot of outside investors came in and invested,” he said, adding that the city was “not prepared for this sudden on-rush” of building.
The mayor sounded an optimistic note. “We think we’ve about bottomed out,” he said.
But within days of the story about his sex life, bumper stickers appeared here proclaiming: “Seven Hours for Traci. Three Years for Metro,” referring to Boner’s years as mayor of the 500,000-person metropolis.
Boner’s supporters who had contributed $526,000 to his reelection campaign have begun asking for refunds because the mayor decided not to run again.
And, in an impassioned call for him to resign, Ruth Ann Leach wrote in her column for the Nashville Banner that Boner has become “a national dirty joke.” She recounted wisecracks she encountered during a trip to Dallas, saying that Boner jokes had replaced Dolly Parton jokes.
July 17 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate early Thursday voted to rescind some $9 billion in federal funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting, two areas of the government that the Trump administration has long targeted for cuts.
The bill, which now goes to the House of Representatives, will cut about $8 billion from international aid programs and about $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The bill passed at about 2:20 a.m. EDT Thursday.
“President Trump promised to cut wasteful spending and root out misuse of taxpayer dollars,” Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, said on X prior to the vote. “Now, @SenateGOP and I are voting to make these cuts permanent. Promises made, promises kept.”
The vote comes as the Trump administration faces criticism from Democrats, and some Republicans, for having promised to reduce government spending but then last month passed a massive tax and spending cuts bill that is expected to add $3.3 trillion to the U.S. deficit, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Meanwhile, the Cato Institute states it could add nearly double that, as much as $6 trillion.
The Corporation of Public Broadcasting, which funds local news and radio infrastructure, has been a target of the Trump administration for funding a small portion of the budgets of PBS and NPR, which he accuses of being biased.
Murkowski chastised her fellow Republicans for attacking a service that informed Alaskans that same day that there was a magnitude 7.3 earthquake and a tsunami warning.
“Some colleagues claim they are targeting ‘radical leftist organizations’ with these cuts, but in Alaska, these are simply organizations dedicated to their communities,” she said on social media. “Their response to today’s earthquake is a perfect example of the incredible public service these stations provide. They deliver local news, weather updates and, yes, emergency alerts that save human lives.”
Tensions are palpable in the West African nation of Togo as highly anticipated local government elections are being held following weeks of angry protests calling for leader Faure Gnassingbe to resign.
Although small, Togo commands weight as a developing maritime and transit hub in the region because of an important port in the seaside capital, Lome, which is perched on the edge of the Atlantic. The country serves as a gateway into inland Sahel nations and is also home to a major West African airline, meaning unrest there could reverberate across the region.
Voters heading out to cast their ballots on Thursday, July 17, are expected to elect leaders of the country’s 117 municipalities, amid a heavier-than-usual security presence and shuttered land borders.
At the same time, demonstrators have scheduled protests in the capital, Lome, to intentionally clash with the date of the vote, prompting fears of possible widespread violence.
Led largely by the country’s youth population, antigovernment demonstrations erupted in June after a controversial constitutional change. Protests have been met with brute force from Togolese security forces; at least seven people have died, local rights groups say. The protests are only the latest in the restive country, where more frequent demonstrations in recent years are pressuring the decades-long dynastic government.
Here’s what to know about the current political situation in Togo:
Demonstrators set up a barricade during a protest calling for Faure Gnassingbe’s resignation in Lome, Togo, on Thursday, June 26, 2025 [Erick Kaglan/AP]
Why are Togolese protesting?
Large demonstrations have been held in Lome in recent years, with Togolese calling for Gnassingbe, who has led the country since 2005, to step down.
Between 2017 and 2018, thousands of protesters took to the streets in demonstrations tagged “Faure Must Go” and “Togo stands up”. The uprising rocked the nation of four million and resulted in violent crackdowns from security officials. The government thereafter banned public demonstrations for “security reasons”.
Although officially a democracy, Togo operates in practice as a militarised state, with the army heavily involved in politics. The capital is crawling with stern-faced, armed gendarmes who are often accused of arresting and torturing dissidents.
This year’s bout of protests was triggered after popular rapper and TikToker Tchala Essowe Narcisse, popularly known as Aamron, was arrested for publishing a video where he called for protests to mark the president’s June 6 birthday.
However, anger had been simmering over the high costs of living in the country, and particularly, over new constitutional reforms that opposition leaders and civil society organisations say could see Gnassingbe rule for life. Thursday’s municipal elections will be the first polls held under the new reforms.
First approved in April 2024 by a parliament dominated by the governing Union pour le Republic (UNIR) party, the constitutional amendment swapped the presidential system in the country for a parliamentary one.
Controversially, though, it also introduced a new all-powerful position: President of the Council of Ministers. The role essentially regains all the powers of a president and is without clear official limits. Opposition leaders argued at the time that it would allow Gnassingbe to appoint a dummy president and remain the de facto leader until at least 2030. They called it a “constitutional coup”.
On May 3 this year, Gnassingbe was sworn into the new executive role, as critics predicted. Politician Jean-Lucien Savi de Tove, 86, is now president, and is the oldest in Togo’s history.
In late June, thousands of demonstrators poured into the streets of Lome in anger, calling for Gnassingbe to step down from office after rapper Aamron’s arrest and alleged torture. Protesters set up barricades and hurled stones at security forces, who responded with force, firing tear gas canisters into the crowd, according to reporting by the Reuters news agency.
Le Front Citoyen Togo Debout, a coalition of 12 civil society and human rights groups, accused security officials of arbitrarily arresting civilians, beating them with batons and ropes, and stealing and destroying private property.
At least seven people were discovered dead in the aftermath of the protests, according to the coalition, including two minors. Their bodies were discovered days after the demonstrations in various lagoons and lakes around Lome.
Meanwhile, a Togolese government statement said the deaths were caused by drowning and cautioned residents living near water bodies to be extra careful in the current rainy season.
The ‘Don’t Touch My Constitution’ movement demanded an international investigation into the claims, while Togo’s Catholic Bishops said the levels of violence were “unacceptable and unjustified”.
Togo’s Faure Gnassingbe at a session during the United Nations climate change conference COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan, November 13, 2024 [File: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters]
Who is Faure Gnassingbe?
Just days after his father died in 2005, Faure Essozimna Gnassingbe was hurriedly installed as the country’s president by the army, extending decades of his family’s rule over Togo.
Despite outrage in the country, which led to widespread protests in which at least 500 people were killed, the younger Gnassingbe did not relinquish power and went on to organise and win elections that year, which many critics called a ruse.
His father, the late Gnassingbe Eyadema, seized power in a military coup and ruled the country with a tight fist for 38 years (1967-2005), making him the longest-serving African ruler at the time he died. His “rule of terror” was characterised by a one-party system and deadly repression of dissent, according to Amnesty International. The younger Gnassingbe, while having fostered multi-party rule and infrastructural development in the country, appears to be angling for his father’s record, critics say.
Combined, the father-son duo has commandeered Togo for 58 years. With 60 percent of the population under 35, most Togolese have never experienced life under a different political administration.
Gnassingbe has won every election since 2005. In 2019, in an attempt to circumvent demonstrations calling for his resignation, parliament ushered in constitutional amendments that, the government argued, automatically reset Gnassingbe’s terms. That allowed him to run for the 2020 and 2025 presidential elections.
At first glance, the latest reforms from 2024 appear to acquiesce to what some critics have been demanding: A weakened president elected by the parliament for a single six-year term, rather than an all-powerful leader.
However, what most did not see coming was that Gnassingbe would be appointed to a more powerful position.
A picture of Jacques Koami Koutoglo, a 15-year-old who died in recent mass protests in Lome, Togo [Erick Kaglan/AP]
Are protesters being targeted? And what is the M66 Movement?
As tensions simmer, demonstrators and civil society accuse Togolese officials of targeting protest leaders, many of whom are living in exile in neighbouring countries, as well as France and the United States.
Last week, the government issued international arrest warrants targeting those believed to be leading organisers, especially members of the M66 Citizens’ Movement – a political collective of bloggers and activists, named after Gnassingbe’s June 6 birthday date. Officials say the group is “inciting unrest and terrorism” in the country.
“The countries where these individuals reside are urged to cooperate,” Security Minister Calixte Madjoulba said at a news briefing. “Wherever they are, we will pursue them.”
M66 members called for renewed protests on July 16 and 17 in a bid to boycott the municipal elections, which form part of a wider push by the government to devolve power at the centre and attempt to improve local governance. Local elections were not held between 1986 and 2020, as the government kept postponing them. Instead, the central authorities designated special administrators who critics say served the government’s interests.
Some opposition leaders have also called for boycotts, although Jean-Pierre Fabre, leader of the main opposition National Alliance for Change, told reporters this week that taking part in the vote was necessary to show Togolese what’s possible.
“The elections will not change anything in this country and we know it very well,” Zaga Bambo, a France-based music artist who claims to be a member of the group, said in a Facebook post. Bambo also dismissed the arrest warrants, telling French media channel RFI that he was unfazed by it.
Activist Farida Nabourema echoed calls for boycotts on social media platform X. “You participate, you lose, you cry out, then you fall silent. And every five years, you start over,” she wrote.
A record high of 79 percent of US respondents in a Gallup survey say immigration is a ‘good thing’ for the country.
A new poll shows support for immigration in the United States has increased since last year, while backing for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants has gone down.
The survey, released on Friday from the research firm Gallup, suggests a shift in public opinion as President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown concludes its sixth month.
Gallup found that 79 percent of respondents say immigration is a “good thing” for the country — a record high that represents a 15-point increase from last year.
Among supporters of Trump’s Republican Party, the number rose sharply to 64 percent, up from 39 percent in 2024.
Only 38 percent of respondents said they back “deporting all immigrants who are living in the United States illegally back to their home country”, down from 47 percent last year.
Support for expanding the US-Mexico border wall also went down to 45 percent, a drop of eight percentage points. The survey, conducted in June, featured interviews with 1,402 US adults.
“Americans have grown markedly more positive toward immigration over the past year, with the share wanting immigration reduced dropping from 55 percent in 2024 to 30 percent today,” Gallup said.
Trump made mass deportations a key promise of his 2024 re-election campaign, often using language to demonise migrants, including by using a poem to compare them to poisonous snakes.
He seized on the public concern over the uptick in the number of undocumented immigrants who crossed into the US from Mexico in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, under Democratic President Joe Biden.
Since returning to the White House in January, he has launched an all-out campaign on immigration, including by gutting the refugee resettlement programme, unleashing agents to round up undocumented migrants and sending suspected gang members to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador without due process.
The Trump administration also ended protected status for nationals of several countries, including Venezuela and Haiti, who had been shielded from deportation due to dangerous conditions in their homelands.
Meanwhile, it has been pushing to remove foreign students critical of Israel from the US.
But while the crossings have sharply decreased this year, it appears that the US public may have soured on the anti-immigration campaign.
“With illegal border crossings down sharply this year, fewer Americans than in June 2024 back hard-line border enforcement measures, while more favor offering pathways to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the US,” Gallup said.
Trump’s immigration policies have sparked outrage and lawsuits, as well as accusations of executive overreach and violations of the US Constitution.
A majority of respondents in the Gallup survey — 62 percent — said they disapprove of Trump’s handling of immigration, while 36 percent said they approve.
David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, described the findings of the survey as an “absolute bloodbath” for Trump.
“Support for cuts to immigration has plummeted 25 points since last year,” he wrote in a social media post. “Deporting ‘all illegal immigrants’ has gone back to a right-wing only view.”
WASHINGTON — Public health advocates won a big case in the Supreme Court on the last day of this year’s term, but the victory came with an asterisk.
The decision ended one threat to the no-cost preventive services — from cancer and diabetes screenings to statin drugs and vaccines — used by more than 150 million Americans who have health insurance.
But it did so by empowering the nation’s foremost vaccine skeptic: Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Losing would have been “a terrible result,” said Washington attorney Andrew Pincus. Insurers would have been free to quit paying for the drugs, screenings and other services that were proven effective in saving lives and money.
But winning means that “the secretary has the power to set aside” the recommendations of medical experts and remove approved drugs, he said. “His actions will be subject to review in court,” he added.
The new legal fight has already begun.
Last month, Kennedy cited a “crisis of public trust” when he removed all 17 members of a separate vaccine advisory committee. His replacements included some vaccine skeptics.
The vaccines that are recommended by this committee are included as preventive services that insurers must provide.
On Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups sued Kennedy for having removed the COVID-19 vaccine as a recommended immunization for pregnant women and healthy children. The suit called this an “arbitrary” and “baseless” decision that violates the Administrative Procedure Act.
“We’re taking legal action because we believe children deserve better,” said Dr. Susan J. Kressly, the academy’s president. “This wasn’t just sidelining science. It’s an attack on the very foundation of how we protect families and children’s health.”
On Wednesday, Kennedy postponed a scheduled meeting of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that was at the center of the court case.
“Obviously, many screenings that relate to chronic diseases could face changes,” said Richard Hughes IV, a Washington lawyer and law professor. “A major area of concern is coverage of PrEP for HIV,” a preventive drug that was challenged in the Texas lawsuit that came to the Supreme Court.
By one measure, the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision was a rare win for liberals. The justices overturned a ruling by Texas judges that would have struck down the popular benefit that came with Obamacare. The 2012 law required insurers to provide at no cost the preventive services that were approved as highly effective.
But conservative critics had spotted what they saw was a flaw in the Affordable Care Act. They noted the task force of unpaid medical experts who recommend the best and most cost-effective preventive care was described in the law as “independent.”
That word was enough to drive the five-year legal battle.
Steven Hotze, a Texas employer, had sued in 2020 and said he objected on religious grounds to providing HIV prevention drugs, even if none of his employees were using those drugs.
The suit went before U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, who in 2018 had struck down Obamacare as unconstitutional. In 2022, he ruled for the Texas employer and struck down the required preventive services on the grounds that members of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force made legally binding decisions even though they had not been appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
The 5th Circuit Court put his decision on hold but upheld his ruling that the work of the preventive services task force was unconstitutional because its members were “free from any supervision” by the president.
Last year, the Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to hear the case of Xavier Becerra vs. Braidwood Management. The appeal said the Texas ruling “jeopardizes health protections that have been in place for 14 years and millions of Americans currently enjoy.”
The court agreed to hear the case, and by the time of the oral argument in April, the Trump administration had a new secretary of HHS. The case was now Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vs. Braidwood Management.
The court’s six conservatives believe the Constitution gives the president full executive power to control the government and to put his officials in charge. But they split on what that meant in this case.
The Constitution says the president can appoint ambassadors, judges and “all other Officers of the United States” with Senate approval. In addition, “Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers” in the hands of the president or “the heads of departments.”
Option two made more sense, said Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. He spoke for the court, including Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and the court’s three liberal justices.
“The Executive Branch under both President Trump and President Biden has argued that the Preventive Services Task Force members are inferior officers and therefore may be appointed by the Secretary of HHS. We agree,” he wrote.
This “preserves the chain of political accountability. … The Task Force members are removable at will by the Secretary of HHS, and their recommendations are reviewable by the Secretary before they take effect.”
The ruling was a clear win for Kennedy and the Trump administration. It made clear the medical experts are not “independent” and can be readily replaced by RFK Jr.
It did not win over the three justices on the right. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a 37-page dissent.
“Under our Constitution, appointment by the President with Senate confirmation is the rule. Appointment by a department head is an exception that Congress must consciously choose to adopt,” he said, joined by Justices Samuel A. Alito and Neil M. Gorsuch.
Health Department says immigrants will lose access to 13 more federal programmes, including an educational project for low-income children.
United States officials are cutting down further on undocumented immigrants’ access to healthcare programmes and benefits as part of President Donald Trump’s widening immigration crackdown.
On Thursday, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that it was broadening its interpretation of a 1996 law that prohibits most immigrants from receiving federal public benefits.
The decision means that undocumented immigrants will no longer be eligible for an additional 13 programmes.
They include Head Start, a pre-school educational programme, and projects that address family planning, mental health, substance abuse and efforts to reduce homelessness.
“For too long, the government has diverted hardworking Americans’ tax dollars to incentivise illegal immigration,” HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr said on Thursday.
“Today’s action changes that – it restores integrity to federal social programmes, enforces the rule of law and protects vital resources for the American people.”
Critics fear the added restrictions will further marginalise a vulnerable group of immigrants who often have scarce resources, exacerbating public health crises in the US.
The new restrictions relate to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996.
That law — passed under Democratic President Bill Clinton — barred those living in the country without valid immigration documents and those on temporary visas, like students or foreign workers, from receiving major benefits from the federal government.
However, the scope of the restrictions was not spelled out, as the law did not define what counted as “federal public benefits”.
To make things clearer, the HHS issued a legal interpretation in 1998, which prevented access to 31 programmes. Medicaid — an insurance programme for low-income households — and Social Security were among them, as was the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
In a statement released on Thursday, the HHS claimed “the 1998 policy improperly narrowed the scope of PRWORA”, allowing undocumented immigrants to access programmes which “Congress intended only for the American people”.
With Thursday’s additions, the total number of restricted programmes rises to 44.
The HHS’s new policy, which is subject to a 30-day public comment period, will take effect when it is published in the Federal Register.
Since starting his second presidential term in January, Donald Trump has made it a priority to tackle undocumented immigration.
Critics have accused his administration of violating human rights and the US Constitution, as well as exceeding his presidential authority.
As part of Trump’s campaign of mass deportation, for example, the president invoked a controversial wartime legislation to deport hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador in March. Opponents argue that Trump falsely declared undocumented immigration to be an “invasion” in order to justify denying the immigrants their right to due process.
SACRAMENTO — An overwhelming number of California voters think American democracy is being threatened or, at the very least, tested, according to a new poll released Thursday by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.
The poll, conducted for the nonprofit Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, found that concerns cut across the partisan spectrum. They are shared regardless of income or education level, race or ethnicity. Californians living in big cities and rural countrysides, young and old, expressed similar unease.
“I do think that it’s at a pretty dangerous point right now. The concerns are justified,” said political scientist Eric Schickler, co-director of the Berkeley institute. “Our democracy is not healthy when you have a president that’s acting to unilaterally stop money from being spent that’s been appropriated, or going to war with colleges and universities or sending troops to L.A.”
In the survey, 64% of California voters said they thought American democracy was under attack, and 26% felt our system of government was being tested but was not under attack. The poll did not investigate what voters blamed for putting democracy in peril.
Democrats, who dominate the California electorate, were the most fearful, with 81% saying it was under attack and 16% who described democracy as being tested. Among voters registered as “no party preference” or with other political parties, 61% felt democracy was under assault, and 32% said it was being tested.
Republicans expressed more faith — nearly a quarter of those polled said they felt democracy was in no danger. But 38% said it was under attack and 39% said it was being tested but not under attack.
Concerns among Democrats may have been expected in California, given the state’s liberal tilt and the widespread and relentless government upheaval since President Trump took office in January. But the opinions shared by Republicans indicates just how pervasive the concerns are about the future of a country seen as a worldwide beacon of freedom and democracy.
Emily Ekins, director of polling for the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, said those findings are evidence of an unsettling new development in American politics.
“A couple years ago, Republicans felt that democracy was at risk and now Democrats feel that democracy is at risk. I think that this is pretty worrisome, because people are starting to view the stakes of each election as being higher and higher,” said Ekins, who had no involvement with the Berkeley poll. “They may feel like they could lose their rights and freedoms. They may not feel like the rules apply to them anymore because they feel like so much is on the line.”
Schickler said the political perceptions among Republicans have been recently fed, in part, by Trump’s baseless claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him. Continuous allegations that the U.S. Department. of Justice, including the FBI, and a “deep state” federal government bureaucracy were weaponized against him since his first term in office also contributed to the fear.
Those claims were magnified by conservative news outlets, including Fox News, as well as Trump loyalists on social media, popular podcasts and talk shows.
Even some Republicans who support the president or are agnostic about his tenure are likely concerned about the discord in American politics in recent months, Schickler said, especially after the Trump administration sent U.S. Marines and the California National Guard to the streets of Los Angeles as a protective force during widespread federal immigration raids and subsequent protests.
Recent decisions by media companies to settle Trump’s lawsuits over complaints about stories and coverage also are concerning, he said, despite the merits of those allegations being suspect.
This month, Paramount Global decided to pay $16 million to settle Trump’s lawsuit over a “60 Minutes” interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris; the president claimed it was done to help her presidential campaign against him. Paramount’s leaders hope the settlement will help clear a path for Trump-appointed regulators to bless the company’s $8-billion sale to David Ellison’s Skydance Media.
“That’s not how a democracy is supposed to work,” Schickler said. “I think the voters’ concerns are rooted in a reality, one that’s been building up for a while. It’s not something that’s just started in 2025 but it’s been kind of gradually getting more serious over the last 20 or 30 years.”
The survey also found that 75% of California voters believe strongly or somewhat that special interest money has too much influence in state politics, a sentiment especially strong among Republicans.
Slim majorities of California voters had little or no trust that Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature act in the best interest of the public. According to the poll, 42% of voters said they have a lot or some trust in Newsom to act in the public’s interest; 53% said they trust his actions just a little or not at all.
Those surveyed had similar sentiments about the legislature.
The courts received the most favorable marks, with 57% of voters saying they trusted the judicial system to act in the best interest of the public.
Technology companies and their leaders were labeled completely untrustworthy by 58% of those surveyed.
Russia Chavis Cardenas, deputy director of the nonpartisan government accountability organization group California Common Cause, which has received grants from the poll-sponsoring Haas Fund, said the findings show just how much special interest influence in Sacramento, and Washington, erodes public trust in government, which may provide insight into their concerns about the health of the American democracy.
“I want to see folks from every political party, every race and every walk of life to be able to be engaged in their democracy, to be able to have a say, to be able to have representation,” Chavis Cardinas said.
“So these numbers are concerning, but they also don’t lie,” she said. “They’re letting us know that folks here in California recognize the influence that big money has, and that the tech companies have too much power over elected officials.”
The poll surveyed 6,474 registered voters throughout California from June 2-6.
For those who are a bit more judicious with their cash but also love avoiding the general public and travelling in style, “private jet card” memberships are one option
Wealthy people love to fly on private jets(Image: gulfstream.com)
The megarich are buying special cards that let them avoid the public when jetting off abroad.
Flying in a private jet may be one of the most environmentally destructive things that it’s possible to do, but that hasn’t put many billionaires off. More than 90 were flown to Venice for Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s wedding in June, according to reports, including Kylie Jenner’s lavish £53million personal plane.
According to CelebrityJets, the private jet spewed out an estimated 24 tons of carbon pollution, or the same as an average person would produce if they drove a petrol car around the world three times.
Despite repeated and increasingly loud warnings that the world’s population must rapidly cut its fossil fuel consumption if the ravages of climate change are to be mitigated, the message clearly isn’t getting through. Greenpeace analysis has found that private jet use is soaring.
Kylie Jenner was among those thought to have flown in a private jet to Jeff Bezos’ wedding(Image: DWS / BACKGRID)
While destroying the planet isn’t an obstacle for the mega-rich flyer, the cost occasionally is. Going private can be hugely expensive. According to Fly Volato, private jets can cost £80million before any fuel has been bought or crew members hired.
For those who are a bit more judicious with their cash but also love avoiding the general public and travelling in style, “private jet card” memberships are a slick option to have up your sleeve, according to the Times.
The newspaper reports that the well-to-do pay from £75,000 for a block of flying hours which guarantees access to a private jet with 24-48 hours’ notice.”
One of the providers is Flexjet which describes its customers as “UHNW [ultra-high net worth] individuals, families, and companies”. Andrew Collins, the CEO of Flexjet, said: “A significant proportion have self-made wealth, distinguishing them as high-achieving entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders in sectors such as finance, real estate and technology.”
The services allow members to forgo the hassle and some of the associated costs of private jet ownership. However, there are downsides. About £375,000 typically buys 50 hours a year, but with some companies, extra monthly fees have to be paid on top of this.
During the busiest periods, such as Paris Fashion Week and Monaco Grand Prix weekend, the costs for even the smallest jets can shoot up to as much as £11,000 per flying hour.
Those looking to buy a private jet outright often head to Elite London at Wycombe Air Park, on the outskirts of London. The event is aimed at those interested in buying a new private jet, upgrading their helicopter, or purchasing a second yacht. It also features a series of fun exhibits, including virtual golfing, clay pigeon shooting organised by the Churchill family’s gun firm, and IV drips for those who indulge in the onsite bar a little too much.
When the event was held this year, it became the target of environmental protesters. Climate Resistance protesters held up placards and chanted for the abolition of billionaires.
The campaigning group is calling for a 100% tax on assets over £10 million, alongside global wealth redistribution, an end to what it describes as “wage theft and worker exploitation”, and public investment in a “fair, worker-led energy transition.”
Climate Resistance targeted the fair due to the particularly high carbon costs associated with private jets and helicopters. Overall private aviation emissions increased by 46% between 2019-2023, with industry expectations of continued strong growth, according to one Nature journal Communications Earth & Environment study.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attended a mourning ceremony on the eve of the Muslim holy day of Ashura.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has attended a religious ceremony in Tehran, making his first public appearance since the 12 days of conflict between Israel and Iran.
The 85-year-old leader appeared in a video aired by state media on Saturday, which showed dozens of people attending an event at a mosque to mark Ashura, the holiest day of the Shia Muslim calendar.
In the footage, Khamenei is seen waving and nodding to the chanting crowd, which rose to its feet as he entered the mosque.
State TV said the clip was filmed at the Imam Khomeini Mosque in central Tehran.
Khamenei has avoided public appearances since the start of the fighting on June 13, and his speeches have all been prerecorded.
The United States, which joined in the Israeli attacks by bombing three key nuclear sites in Iran on June 22, had sent warnings to Khamenei, with US President Donald Trump saying on social media that Washington knew where the Iranian leader was, but had no plans to kill him, “at least for now”.
On June 26, in prerecorded remarks aired on state television, Khamenei rejected Trump’s calls for Iran’s surrender, and said Tehran had delivered a “slap to America’s face” by striking a US airbase in Qatar
Trump replied, in remarks to reporters and on social media: “Look, you’re a man of great faith. A man who’s highly respected in his country. You have to tell the truth. You got beat to hell.”
Iran has acknowledged that more than 900 people were killed in the war, as well as thousands injured. Iran’s retaliatory missile attacks on Israel killed at least 28 people there.
Since then, Iran has confirmed serious damage to its nuclear facilities, and denied access to them for inspectors from the United Nations’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The IAEA’s inspectors had stayed in the Iranian capital throughout the fighting, even as Israel attacked Iranian military sites and killed several of the country’s most senior commanders and top scientists, as well as hundreds of civilians.
However, they left after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a law suspending cooperation with the IAEA on Wednesday.
IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi on Friday stressed “the crucial importance” of dialogue with Iran to resume monitoring and verification work of its nuclear programme as soon as possible.
Iran was holding talks with the US on its nuclear programme when Israel launched its attacks. The US has been seeking a new agreement after Trump pulled the US out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Tehran signed with world powers in 2015.
Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi separately said on Thursday that the country remains committed to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), dismissing speculation that Iran would leave the international accord.
