seat

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

(15) 162mins

★★★★★

WHAT time is it? It is a question Leonardo DiCaprio’s stressed-out fugitive Bob Ferguson is asked over and over again in this black comedy.

Wearing a dressing gown and bad shades, Bob doesn’t have the answer because he’s too stoned to remember the code he was given by a left-wing terror group called the French 75.

But I can tell you that the time is absolutely right for One Battle After Another.

This is a political satire that skewers both the extreme right and the extreme left at a moment when both sides are to the fore in the real world in the United States.

The time is also well overdue for this piece of cinematic dynamite that will have you on the edge of your seat — from laughter or the high-octane action.

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, it is a work of genius that fuses the best elements of his films There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights.

It begins 16 years ago with Bob helping to free refugees at a US border crossing.

During the raid his girlfriend, the wonderfully named Perfidia Beverly Hills (Teyana Taylor), orders Sean Penn’s military officer ­Steven J Lockjaw to “get up” his private parts.

The French 75’s increasingly reckless terrorism ends in a thrilling chase and Bob needing to go into hiding with the baby daughter he shares with Perfidia.

Most of the story is set in the current time, with Lockjaw coming after Bob and his daughter Willa.

As things get wilder, the audience is introduced to a bunch of incredible characters, including members of the white supremecist Christmas Adventurers Club, gun-toting nuns and Benecio Del Toro’s always-cool martial arts instructor Sergio.

The serene Del Toro is a perfect comic foil for the frantic DiCaprio who spends a lot of time running around shouting “f, f, f***.”

In one of the standout screwball moments, Sergio keeps repeating “four” as Bob is reluctant to jump out of his moving car like “Tom Cruise”. It is just one of many quotable lines.

But the most memorable scene brings the movie’s various plots to a perfect, heart-racing conclusion.

All of the cast are outstanding, with DiCaprio and newcomer Chase Infiniti as Willa most likely to be nominated for awards.

If there is any justice this film will get one Oscar after another.

GRANT ROLLINGS

3

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2

(15) 96mins

★★☆☆☆

3

DIRRECTED by Renny Harlin, this second instalment in the Strangers trilogy is a bafflingly incoherent mess.

It picks up right after the events of Chapter 1, but instead of expanding on Bryan Bertino’s original 2008 home-invasion nightmare, it devolves into a clumsy blend of ­borrowed horror tropes held together by a barely coherent backstory.

Chapter 2 follows the survivor, Maya (Madelaine Petsch), as she is relentlessly pursued by masked killers in a sleepy American town.

Despite her injuries, Maya must find the strength to stay alive and tell the tale.

Petsch is committed to the physical demands of the role, fighting a CGI boar in a bafflingly out-of-place sequence.

However, the film’s drawn-out and repetitive cat-and-mouse chases become truly unbearable.

Narratively, the film is all over the place lurching from home-invasion suspense to slasher to survival horror.

The only thing that prevents it becoming a total farce is Harlin’s occasional use of a few inspired jump scares.

As a middle chapter, this feels like a placeholder for the next film.

LINDA MARRIC

DEAD OF WINTER

(15) 98mins

★★★☆☆

3

IF you were casting for a Ramboesque heroine, Emma Thompson would not be the first name to spring to mind.

But in this rescue of a kidnap victim from a remote cabin thriller, it is the Love Actually actress displaying ingenious ways to survive.

Set in northern Minnesota in the US, Thompson’s Barb heads out in a snow storm to a lake that had a sentimental value to her recently deceased husband.

There she comes across a man who has tied up a young woman in his cellar.

Unable to go to get help, Barb vows to save the girl herself.

But the man is not her main concern, because it is a gun-toting woman played by Judy Greer who is the one with the least to lose by fighting to the bitter end.

Thompson is remarkably good when Barb is stitching up a bullet wound in her arm with fishing wire, and the attention to detail in the sets also impresses.

But choosing her isn’t enough to make this last- person-standing drama feel particularly original.

Like the tracks that Barb leaves in the snow, you know where most of the plot turns lead.

GRANT ROLLINGS

Two prominent Latino Democratic elected leaders are battling to become a new member of Congress. The race to represent a swath of Southern California that sweeps from southeastern Los Angeles cities to Long Beach will be among the state’s most contested intraparty battles, with the winner earning a perch that could become a springboard to higher office.

Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia and state Assemblymember Cristina Garcia are running to represent the new 42nd Congressional District, a Latino majority district that was created in December by the state’s redistricting commission as California loses a congressional seat for the first time in its history.

“It’s fair to say this is one of the more prominent Democrat-on-Democrat races” on the ballot, said Robb Korinke, a Democratic strategist who lives in Long Beach and is not aligned with either candidate. (Korinke was appointed by Robert Garcia to the city’s Technology and Innovation Commission in 2015.)

The new district combined pieces of the areas currently represented by Reps. Alan Lowenthal and Lucille Roybal-Allard to account for population loss in Los Angeles County without eliminating a district where Latinos could elect a candidate of their choice.

Roybal-Allard’s district, which included much of South Los Angeles, the Eastside and southeast L.A. County, was the most Latino in the nation. Lowenthal’s straddled Los Angeles and Orange counties. Both announced their retirements in December, creating a rare open seat to represent California in the U.S. House of Representatives. Robert Garcia and Cristina Garcia revealed their intentions to seek the seat soon after.

Cristina Garcia and Robert Garcia are both 44, the children of immigrants and the focus of national attention for their work. They are vying to be the most progressive in the heavily liberal district and will face off in a June 7 primary where the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, will advance to compete in the November general election. No prominent Republican is running in the race; the filing deadline is in March.

Robert Garcia’s home is in Long Beach’s Belmont Heights neighborhood, a collection of Craftsmans and beach cottages in walking distance of Colorado Lagoon and the restaurants and boutiques of the city’s 2nd Street entertainment district.

About 14 miles north, Cristina Garcia lives in Bell Gardens — not far from where she grew up — on a working-class block of modest houses with security bars on the windows and a backyard rooster that rousts the neighborhood.

The communities they live in reflect the district’s disparate constituents: Along the coast, affluent residents are focused on issues such as climate change and solar tax credits, while inland, lower-income workers worry that their children suffer higher asthma rates because of their proximity to pollution-spewing industries. Other parts of the district include Downey and Bellflower, the post-World War II tract homes of Lakewood, and Long Beach’s Art Deco airport, Cal State campus and port.

More than half of the new district’s residents are Latino citizens of voting age, but redistricting experts warn that turnout, particularly during nonpresidential elections, might disadvantage that electorate. Though Latinos live throughout the district, they are more concentrated in the southeastern Los Angeles cities.

“The core of the voting base is not in the area that is most heavily Latino and where Voting Act protections lie,” said Democratic strategist Paul Mitchell, referring to the landmark federal legislation that prohibits the disenfranchisement of minority communities.

Voters most likely to turn out are those who live in Long Beach, Lakewood and Signal Hill in the southern part of the district, which Mitchell and other strategists who are not aligned with any candidate in the race say benefits Robert Garcia.

The Peruvian-born, gay Latino mayor of Long Beach is widely considered the front-runner.

He has been endorsed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Lowenthal and several unions. In the two weeks after he announced his campaign on Dec. 17, Garcia raised more than $323,000.

Additionally, at least two independent expenditure committees that can accept unlimited donations are supporting his bid — one funded by business and development interests and the other by LGBTQ activists and labor.

Garcia received national attention for his handling of the pandemic while grieving the loss of his parents to COVID-19. The New York Times called Long Beach “a Model for the Vaccine Rollout”; schools there reopened earlier than in much of California because the city, which has its own health department, prioritized vaccinating teachers early.

“I have proven that as mayor that I can lead a large complex organization and that it can be done in a way that has both common sense and is progressive,” said Garcia, who was among a handful of local officials given a prime-time speaking slot at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

He has been accused of being too beholden to powerful donors and criticized for registering as a Republican in 2002 — less than a decade after Proposition 187, the GOP-backed ballot measure that sought to deny taxpayer-funded services to those in the country illegally.

He was a California youth coordinator for George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign and founded the Long Beach Young Republicans in 2005. Garcia downplays his involvement in both, although media clips from the time quote him proudly playing a prominent role in the club. He also notes he was in high school during Proposition 187 and wasn’t involved in politics then.

Garcia said he followed his family’s lead in supporting the GOP because of their fondness for President Reagan, whose immigration policy provided the pathway for their citizenship.

He registered as a decline-to-state voter in 2007, two years before he won a City Council seat; and as a Democrat in 2010, four years before he successfully ran for mayor, according to the Los Angeles County voter registration database.

“People are allowed to grow and change,” and former Republicans shouldn’t be treated as “second-class Democrats,” Garcia said, pointing to his refusal to take corporate PAC money and support for single-payer healthcare. “What matters is your record.”

His rival, Cristina Garcia, says that his history concerns her.

“Everyone needs to run as a progressive these days. But is that what our record has shown?” she said. “How committed are you to all of this corridor, not just Long Beach?”

Garcia organized opposition to Proposition 187 while in high school. After college, she became a math teacher and moved away. Then her mother had a heart attack, prompting Garcia to return home.

She became involved in local politics, lost a City Council race in her hometown and became a vocal activist in the corruption scandal in neighboring Bell. That helped propel her to a 2012 victory in an Assembly race over a prominent fellow Democrat who vastly outspent her.

During her time in Sacramento, Garcia focused on environmental justice, notably the cleanup of the toxic lead-tainted soil near the shuttered Exide Technologies battery recycling plant in Vernon.

She was also dubbed the “tampon queen” or “period princess” — titles she embraced — because of her efforts such as making sure menstrual products are available for free at public schools in California.

The motivations that led her to run for the Legislature also made her decide to run for Congress, Garcia said.

“This region has been ignored for all my life. This is a front-line community,” she said, adding that elected officials give a lot of lip service to the concept of equity. “But how do we make sure we’re putting actions behind that?”

As the leader of the Assembly’s women’s caucus, Garcia was an outspoken advocate for victims when the #MeToo movement rocked the statehouse in 2017 and 2018. She was featured in a Time magazine photo collage of female leaders as part of its “Person of the Year” issue because of her work to hold lawmakers accountable for inappropriate sexual behavior.

Then she was accused of similar behavior. Two Assembly investigations found that, although she had violated the Assembly’s sexual harassment policy and was “overly familiar” with a staff member while intoxicated, her behavior was not sexual.

Garcia, while accepting blame for some allegations, noted that the more serious claims of groping were not substantiated.

In other controversies, she admitted to calling former Assembly Speaker John A. Perez a “homo,” though she said she didn’t mean it as a slur. (Perez has endorsed Robert Garcia.)

She was also accused by other Democrats of making a derogatory statement about Asian Americans during a debate about affirmative action. Cristina Garcia said her remark — reportedly, “This makes me feel like I want to punch the next Asian person I see in the face” — was taken out of context. She said she was trying to explain how the debate was creating unnecessary, “unhealthy” divisions among ethnic groups.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, whose Lakewood home is in the district, rebuked Garcia during her controversies. But he has endorsed her congressional run, as have Secretary of State Shirley Weber, Treasurer Fiona Ma, several state legislators and elected officials from southeast Los Angeles communities.

She did not begin fundraising until after the first of the year, so her campaign finances will not be known until spring.

“It’s not the first time I’ve been out-fundraised, and we have been successful,” she said, pointing to her 2012 Assembly race, in which she ran out of money two weeks before the election. Volunteers hand-delivered tens of thousands of fliers.

“We don’t need dollar for dollar,” she said. “We need enough dollars.”

Kenyan President William Ruto told the UN General Assembly that Africa’s exclusion from permanent membership on the Security Council is unfair and undermines the UN’s credibility, arguing the continent bears the “heaviest cost of instability”.

Sept. 24 (UPI) — Republican Jason Dickerson won a runoff in the special election for a Georgia state Senate seat, but Debra Shigley fared better than fellow Democrats did in the 2024 election in the highly red district.

Dickerson won 61% of the vote compared to Shigley’s 39% in Tuesday’s election in District 21 just north of Atlanta, The Washington Post reported. In the 2024 presidential election, President Donald Trump won with 67% of votes and former Vice President Kamala Harris won 33%.

The District 21 state Senate seat was left vacant in March after Trump tapped then-state Sen. Brandon Beach to serve as U.S. treasurer. The district comprises parts of Fulton and Cherokee Counties.

Shigley won the August general election for the seat with 40% of the vote. At that time, though, she faced a crowded ballot of six Republican candidates, The Hill reported. During that election, Dickerson received 17% of the vote, but since neither won an outright majority of votes, it forced a runoff.

Despite Shigley’s win in August, District 21 was largely expected to remain red.

PLANE passengers need to be aware of this one boarding pass code which could land you the worst seat on the entire plane.

Although these tickets are small, they hold a wealth of information about flight details – some of which could impact where you are sat.

2

At the bottom of a typical boarding pass there is often a SEQ number, according to Simple Flying.

This is also known as the “sequence number”.

It refers to the passenger boarding order for the flight.

For example, if your ticket reads SEQ08, it would mean you are the eighth person to check in.

With this information, you may be able to determine what seat you have been allocated.

Some airlines reportedly assign seats in the order of how travellers have checked in.

This means that people who were last to show up may be given a less desirable seat, reports say.

The SEQ code could also cause issues if the passenger is one of the last people to check in and the flight is full. 

In Groups

Other codes on boarding passes include the group number, with airlines like Air Canada and Finnair using these.

This code is designed to help make boarding easier.

It usually reads as something like “Group 1” or “Group 2”, which staff then call out at the gate.

These groups are often assigned based on things like families, passengers with disabilities and seating class. 

Enhanced Screening

Another common code on a boarding pass is “SSSS”.

This stands for Secondary Security Screening Selection – and works as an thorough security check.

It was created by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the US.

Passengers who notice it on their boarding ticket should expect an “enhanced” screening.

This can take longer than normal security checks.

And it can sometimes cause delays for travellers who don’t anticipate this factor.

Overbooking

Some airlines can also overbook planes.

When everyone turns up without anyone pulling out of the flight, those who check in last are at risk of being transferred to a different flight. 

Another code that appears on boarding passes is the booking reference or reservation number.

The Passenger Name Record (PNR) is a six-digit alphanumeric code that appears on each and every boarding pass. 

This randomly-generated sequence labels you as a unique passenger.

It can help distinguish you in case you share an exact first and last name with another person on your plane. 

Every passenger’s PNR is essentially a detailed travel itinerary which includes a trove of data.

This includes things like flight details to meal preferences and even frequent flyer status.

2

Sept. 15 (UPI) — Senate Republicans on Monday confirmed White House economic adviser Stephen Miran to join the Federal Reserve Board despite staunch Democratic concerns about his independence.

The Senate voted 48-47 mostly along party lines to narrowly approve Miran’s nomination to serve as governor on the Federal Reserve Board, an independent nonpartisan agency that has been targeted by the Trump administration as it seeks to consolidate federal government power.

He will fill the remainder of Adriana Kugler’s 14-year term, which is set to expire in January.

As one of seven Fed governors, Miran will be a key economic policymaker, voting on the country’s monetary policy, including U.S. interest rates, which President Donald Trump has been calling to be lowered for much of his second term.

Democrats have been in vocal opposition to Miran’s nomination, saying his appointment to the board would undermine its independence due to his loyalty to Trump and the fact that he will remain chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

“Stephen Miran isn’t being nominated to help families. He’s being put on the Fed to do Trump’s bidding,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Arizona, said in a statement defending his “no” vote.

“He’ll do whatever helps Trump politically and leave us all with higher prices and a bad job market.”

Republicans backed the nomination, with the GOP-led U.S. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott, R-S.C., saying it is “a win” for the American people.

“He brings deep experience, proven leadership and a clear commitment to ensuring the American economy remains strong and competitive. I am confident Dr. Miran will act in an independent manner,” Scott said in a statement.

The Senate took up the vote Monday after the Senate Banking Committee earlier in the day voted to advance Miran’s nomination for the seat left vacant by Kugler, a Biden nominee, who abruptly resigned.

Miran said during the committee hearing that he would take a leave of absence from his position at the White House while finishing the remainder of Kugler’s term. That unusual arrangement and Trump’s pressure campaign to get the Fed to lower interest rates has stoked concern about the independence of the central bank.

“You are going to be technically an employee of the president of the United States, but an independent member of the board of the Federal Reserve?” Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, said during the hearing. “That’s ridiculous.”

Miran said during the hearing that his thinking process would be independent while serving on the board. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., replied that they would hold him to that.

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said in a recorded statement before the Senate vote that if Miran is confirmed he will call for him to resign as Trump’s chief economic advisor.

“He cannot have someone simultaneously working for the White House, working directly under Donald Trump, and sitting on the board of the Federal Reserve,” he said, adding that several of his Republican colleagues have told him that they are also “very uncomfortable” with arrangement.

“If he wants to go, he has to resign his position at the White House.”

The Fed is expected to begin discussions on interest rates Tuesday.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has been reluctant to lower the cost of borrowing despite sharp criticism and insults by Trump, who is viewed as seeking to undermine the central bank’s independence.

Trump has attempted to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, alleging she committed mortgage fraud. A judge earlier found the charge to be unfounded and ordered her to be reinstated.

Sept. 12 (UPI) — Former Rep. Yadira Caraveo of Colorado has halted her attempt to retake her former congressional seat that she lost to Republican Rep. Gabe Evans on Nov. 5.

Caraveo is a pediatrician who represented Colorado’s 8th Congressional District for one term but lost to Evans, who received 163,320 votes to Caraveo’s 160,871, according to Ballotpedia.

Despite the close election result, Caraveo on Friday said she was ending her candidacy for the seat that has several other challengers for the Democratic Party’s nomination, The Denver Post reported.

“This was not a decision I made lightly,” Caraveo said in a prepared statement.

“Unfortunately, I faced very strong resistance to my candidacy this cycle due almost entirely to the stigmatization of mental health in America,” she continued.

“I hope that one day we will see more acceptance and understanding of illnesses, like depression, and that leaders at all levels will be able to support those in need in actions and not just words.”

Caraveo last year said she had sought treatment for depression at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., according to The Hill.

Democratic Party leaders were concerned about her mental health, but they also were wary of allegations that she mistreated her campaign and congressional staff, The Colorado Sun reported.

The news outlet in May reported her staff and aides had created a safety plan that included removing sharp objects from her offices amid claims of Caraveo having suicidal thoughts.

Caraveo was the first Hispanic woman to be elected to represent Colorado in Congress and struggled to raise funds for her election bid and had not announced any “major endorsements,” according the The Colorado Sun.

Colorado’s 8th Congressional District is a swing district that encompasses the northern suburbs of Denver and into Greeley.

The seat is among the most-targeted U.S. House districts by the Republican and Democratic parties.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri Republicans handed President Trump a political victory Friday, giving final legislative approval to a redistricting plan that could help Republicans win an additional U.S. House seat in next year’s elections.

The Senate vote sends the redistricting plan to Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe for his expected signature to make it law. But opponents immediately announced a referendum petition that, if successful, could force a statewide vote on the new map.

“This fight is not over. Missouri voters — not politicians — will have the final say,” said Elsa Rainey, a spokesperson for People Not Politicians, which is leading the referendum effort.

U.S. House districts were redrawn across the country after the 2020 census to account for population changes. But Missouri is the third state to take up mid-decade redistricting this year in an emerging national battle for partisan advantage ahead of the midterm elections.

Republican lawmakers in Texas passed a new U.S. House map last month aimed at helping their party win five additional seats. Democratic lawmakers in California countered with their own redistricting plan aimed at winning five more seats, but it still needs voter approval. Other states could follow with their own redistricting.

Each seat could be critical, because Democrats need to gain just three seats to win control of the House, which would allow them to obstruct Trump’s agenda and launch investigations into him. Trump is trying to stave off a historic trend in which the president’s party typically loses seats in midterm elections.

Republicans currently hold six of Missouri’s eight U.S. House seats. The revised map passed the Republican-led state House earlier this week as the focal point of a special session called by Kehoe that also includes a proposal making it harder for citizen-initiated constitutional amendments to win voter approval.

The Republican-led Senate passed both measures Friday after changing the chamber’s rules, then shutting off Democratic opponents.

Kehoe promoted the reshaped districts as a way to amplify “Missouri’s conservative, common-sense values” in Washington.

Trump had pressed Missouri officials to act, asserting on his social media site earlier this week that the Senate “must pass this Map now, AS IS, to deliver a gigantic Victory for Republicans.”

Missouri’s revised map targets a seat held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver by shaving off portions of his Kansas City district and stretching the rest of it into Republican-heavy rural areas. The plan reduces the number of Black and minority residents in Cleaver’s district, partly by creating a dividing line along a street that has served as a historical segregation line between Black and white residents.

Cleaver, who was Kansas City’s first Black mayor, has served in Congress for over 20 years. He won reelection with over 60% of the vote in both 2024 and 2022 under districts adopted by the Republican-led state Legislature after the 2020 census.

Cleaver has said he plans to challenge the new map in court and seek reelection in 2026, regardless of the shape of his district.

Cleaver’s revised Kansas City district would stretch from near the city’s St. James United Methodist Church — which Cleaver once led — 180 miles southeast to include another United Methodist church in rural Vienna. In the neighborhood around Cleaver’s hometown church, where his son is now pastor, about 60% of the residents are Black or a mix of Black and another race, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. By contrast, the area around Vienna has just 11 Black residents out of nearly 2,500 people.

Democratic state Sen. Barbara Washington of Kansas City, who described Cleaver as her longtime pastor, said the new map “erases the voice of my community.”

“Carving up Kansas City and silencing our constituents is terrible,” Washington said.

Kansas City resident Roger C. Williams Jr., a 79-year-old former middle-school principal, said the effort to reshape congressional districts reminds him of the discrimination he witnessed against Black residents while growing up in Arkansas.

“What Republicans are doing now in the state of Missouri is they’re taking me back to a time when I, or people that looked like me, would not have an opportunity, because they wouldn’t have a voice,” he said.

Republican lawmakers said little during Senate debate. But sponsoring state Rep. Dirk Deaton, a Republican, has said the new congressional map splits fewer overall counties and municipalities into multiple districts than the current one.

“It is a better map for the state of Missouri,” Deaton told a Senate committee Thursday. “By really every metric I look at, I feel that way.”

Lieb writes for the Associated Press. AP writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., and John Hanna in Topeka, Kan., contributed to this report.

Aircraft swaps, or equipment changes, are becoming routine as airlines juggle fleets to cut costs, cover technical issues, or respond to delays

Airline passengers across the UK are increasingly finding that the seat they booked, or even paid extra for, disappears at the last minute.

This practice, known in the industry as ‘aircraft swaps’ or ‘equipment changes,’ is becoming routine as airlines juggle fleets to cut costs, cover technical issues, or respond to delays.

Latest analysis has found that this airline procedure, swapping an aircraft just before departure, affects nearly 140,000 flights every year in the UK. And for passengers that can often mean losing a reserved seat, being downgraded, or facing overbooking when a smaller plane replaces the original.

Fleet shortages, staff strikes, and ongoing weather disruptions make last-minute swaps more likely, says AirAdvisor, an air passenger rights company.

And while you would be forgiven for thinking that your ticket guarantees a specific plane or seat it, in fact, only guarantees travel in a given class between two points. That legal grey area leaves thousands unsure of their actual rights.

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AirAdvisor’s analysis found between 1 per cent and 5 per cent of flights face aircraft changes within 24-48 hours before departure, rising to more than 5% at peak periods on legacy carriers like British Airways and Lufthansa.

Low-cost carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet are less affected because of their standardised fleets, but summer demand spikes increase the risk across the board. If you’ve ever turned up for a flight only to find that the seat you’ve booked or paid for is no longer available, it’s crucial to know your rights.

These rights vary depending on the situation.

Downgrading: If you’re bumped down to a lower class, UK261 regulations entitle you to a refund of 30-75 per cent of your ticket price, depending on the length of your flight.

Seat loss: If you’ve forked out extra for a specific seat (like an exit row, window, or aisle), you can claim a refund of that surcharge if the seat is no longer available. However, if you didn’t pay extra, airlines can reassign you within the same class without offering compensation.

Overbooking due to smaller aircraft: Passengers who are denied boarding are entitled to compensation ranging from €250-€600 (£216 – £519), plus rerouting or a refund.

Unwanted aircraft type: If your flight is reassigned to a model you’re not comfortable flying in (such as the Boeing 737 MAX), airlines aren’t legally required to change your booking. However, some might rebook you as a goodwill gesture if you act quickly.

At present, there’s no regulation requiring airlines to inform passengers of seat or aircraft changes, except when they’re downgraded to a lower class. This legal grey area can be problematic, especially when passengers have paid extra for seat selection or comfort.

As a result, these swaps often happen without any advance warning, leaving passengers caught off guard.

Some consumer groups have argued that airlines should notify passengers of any alterations, giving travellers the right to accept or decline new seating arrangements, and providing automatic refunds when services aren’t delivered as promised.

However, the current review of UK261 regulations, which is being debated in Brussels, has caused some concern. Rather than bolstering passenger protections, certain proposals could actually weaken airlines’ duty to compensate travellers when flights are delayed or scrapped.

Meanwhile, the matter of aircraft substitutions – which are becoming increasingly frequent – remains largely overlooked in the talks.

For British travellers, this means a greater chance of finding out at the departure gate that their seat has vanished or that their flight has fewer places than anticipated.

Lawmakers in Missouri are the latest to try to draw a new U.S. House map for the 2026 election that could improve the Republican Party’s numbers in Congress.

It’s a trend that began in Texas, at the behest of President Trump, to try to keep GOP control of the House next year. California Democrats responded with their own map to help their party, though it still requires voter approval.

Redistricting typically occurs once a decade, immediately after a census. But in some states, there is no prohibition on a mid-cycle map makeover. The U.S. Supreme Court also has said there is no federal prohibition on political gerrymandering, in which districts are intentionally drawn to one party’s advantage.

Nationally, Democrats need to gain three seats next year to take control of the House. The party of the president typically loses seats in the midterm congressional elections.

Here is a rundown of what states are doing.

Missouri lawmakers hold a special session

A special session called by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe began Wednesday and will run at least a week.

Missouri is represented in the U.S House by six Republicans and two Democrats.

A revised map proposed by Kehoe would give Republicans a better chance at winning the seat held by Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver by stretching the Kansas City-based district into rural Republican-leaning areas.

Although Democrats could filibuster in the Senate, Republicans could use procedural maneuvers to shut that down and pass the new map.

Texas Democrats walked out but Republicans prevailed

Democratic state House members left Texas for two weeks to scuttle a special session on redistricting by preventing a quorum needed to do business. But after that session ended, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott quickly called another one — and Democrats returned, satisfied that they had made their point and that California was proceeding with a counterplan.

Republicans hold 25 of the 38 congressional seats in Texas. A revised map passed Aug. 23 is intended to give Republicans a shot at picking up five additional seats in next year’s elections. Abbott’s signature made the map final.

California Democrats seek to counter Texas

Democrats already hold 43 of the 52 congressional seats in California. The Legislature passed a revised map passed Aug. 21 aimed at giving Democrats a chance to gain five additional seats in the 2026 elections.

Unlike Texas, California has an independent citizens’ commission that handles redistricting after the census, so any changes to the map need approval from voters. A referendum is scheduled for Nov. 4.

Indiana Republicans meet with Trump about redistricting

Indiana’s Republican legislative leaders met privately with Trump to discuss redistricting while in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 26. Some also met with Vice President JD Vance.

Several Indiana legislators came out in support of a mid-cycle map change following the meetings. But others have expressed hesitation. It remains unclear if Indiana lawmakers will hold a special session on redistricting.

Republicans hold a 7-2 edge over Democrats in Indiana’s congressional delegation.

Louisiana Republicans looking at times for a special session

Louisiana lawmakers are being told to keep their calendars open between Oct. 23 and Nov. 13. The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Oct. 15 over a challenge to the state’s congressional map.

Republican state Rep. Gerald “Beau” Beaullieu, who chairs a House committee that oversees redistricting, said the idea is to have lawmakers available to come back to work in case the Supreme Court issues a ruling quickly.

Republicans now hold four of Louisiana’s six congressional seats.

Ohio must redraw its maps before the 2026 midterms

Because of the way its current districts were enacted, the state Constitution requires Republican-led Ohio to adopt new House maps before the 2026 elections. Ohio Democrats are bracing for Republicans to try to expand their 10-5 congressional majority.

Democrats don’t have much power to stop it. But “we will fight, we will organize, we will make noise at every step of the process,” Ohio Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Clyde said.

New York Democrats try to change state law

New York, similar to California, has an independent commission that redraws districts after every census.

State Democrats have introduced legislation to allow mid-decade redistricting, but the soonest new maps could be in place would be for the 2028 elections. That is because the proposal would require an amendment to the state Constitution, a change that would have to pass the Legislature twice and be approved by voters.

Maryland Democrats planning a response to Texas

Democratic state Sen. Clarence Lam has announced he is filing redistricting legislation for consideration during the 2026 session. Democratic House Majority Leader David Moon also said he would sponsor legislation triggering redistricting in Maryland if any state conducted mid-decade redistricting. Democrats control seven of Maryland’s eight congressional seats.

Florida’s governor pledges support for redistricting

Florida Republican state House Speaker Daniel Perez said his chamber will take up redistricting through a special committee. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has reiterated his support for the state to join the redistricting fray, calling on the federal government to conduct a new census count and claiming that the Trump administration should “award” the state another congressional seat.

Twenty of Florida’s 28 U.S. House seats are occupied by Republicans.

Kansas Republicans haven’t ruled out redistricting

Republican state Senate President Ty Masterson didn’t rule out trying to redraw the state’s four congressional districts, one of which is held by the state’s sole Democratic representative. The Legislature’s GOP supermajority could do so early next year.

A court orders Utah to redraw its districts

Utah Republicans hold all four of the state’s U.S. House seats under a map the GOP-led Legislature approved after the 2020 census. But a judge ruled Aug. 25 that the map was unlawful because the Legislature had circumvented an independent redistricting commission that was established by voters to ensure districts don’t deliberately favor one party.

The judge gave lawmakers until Sept. 24 to adopt a map, which could increase Democrats’ chances of winning a seat.

“The Wizard of Oz” is certainly the right movie to face the great and powerful ambitions of Sphere, the most expensive entertainment venue in Las Vegas history. Since 1939, the treasured classic has hailed the awe of gazing into a glowing globe, whether it’s glinting atop a fortune teller’s table, transporting the meddlesome Glinda the Good Witch or spying on a teenage girl and her companions like a sinister security camera.

Special effects are central both to “Oz’s” appeal and its plot: The big reveal is that technicians, not wizards, pull the levers that make an audience gasp. For Sphere — officially, there’s no “the” — those tools include three football fields of bright 16K LED screens that curve around its domed interior, with another 10 on the outside that light up Vegas day and night with rotating animations. (I saw blue gingham, scarlet sequins and thatches of burlap and straw.) Sphere cost an estimated $2.3 billion to build and must have an electricity bill scarier than the Wicked Witch. You can make out Dorothy’s slippers from an airplane.

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With no heel clicks needed, I was whisked to “The Wizard of Oz’s” Sphere premiere in a red sedan by a Lyft driver named — no fooling — Ruby, who said she was grateful that the Backstreet Boys’ recent stint at the arena “made Vegas busy for a minute.” There’s a lot of financial pressure on “Oz’s” girl from Kansas. Adapting the film to Sphere’s stunning dimensions took about $100 million. Although the arena seats 17,600 when full, “Oz” showings only offer a slice of the middle section, roughly a third of its capacity. A trimmed 70-minute edit of the movie is playing two to three times a day, nearly every day, through the end of March 2026, with a ticket price that currently starts at $114.

Eighty-six years ago, when a kiddie fare cost 15 cents, my then-6-year-old grandmother watched the theater blink from sepia to vivid color splendor. That innovation gets credited to Hollywood, but the idea of contrasting lush and luminous Oz against soul-drainingly monochrome Kansas is actually right there on Page 1 of L. Frank Baum’s book, published in May 1900, a self-proclaimed effort to write a “modernized” fairy tale that swaps Old World elves for American scarecrows. “When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side,” Baum wrote, adding that her house and her weary aunt and uncle and everything else were gray too, “to the edge of the sky in all directions.”

That’s exactly what Sphere was designed to do: stretch to the edge in all dimensions. It exists neither to save film nor supplant it, but to augment a rectangular screen with new digital and (controversially) generative-AI-supplied imagery, timed props and seats that vibrate whenever the Wicked Witch cackles.

Despite my queasiness about cutting “Oz” by half an hour, the experiment is a romp. I was immersed in — or, more accurately, surrounded by — scenes from one of my favorite movies, a pivotal blockbuster whose artistic influence extends from David Lynch to Elton John to Salman Rushdie. Even more giggle-inducing, I was pelted with scented foam apples and dive-bombed by half a dozen drone-piloted flying monkeys.

“The Wizard of Oz” has always braved new technology. An early adopter of Technicolor, it boasted a lighting budget nearly double that of its rival, “Gone With the Wind,” yet the latter gobbled nearly every Academy Award and poached “Oz’s” director, Victor Fleming, who swapped projects halfway through and won an Oscar for his vision of Sherman’s March instead of the Yellow Brick Road. In the 1950s, when the rest of Hollywood was terrified of television, “Oz” agreed to be the first theatrical movie to screen in full on a prime-time network. TV transformed the prestige money-loser into a hit. Sphere has turned “Oz” into a flash point in the industry’s fundamental fight over the use of AI. Artists and audiences alike fear a future in which, behind the curtain, there might not be a man at all.

I like my art made by human beings. But I’m no nostalgist. “Oz” was a book, a musical, a silent short and a cartoon before MGM made the variant we adore. It should be a playground for invention.

Entering Sphere, the escalators are tinted sepia and the soundscape hums with birdsong and lowing cattle. The implication is that we’ve not yet been whirled over the rainbow. Preshow, the view from one’s seat is of being in a massive old opera house with dusky green drapes flanked by rows of orchestra seats. None of the proscenium is actually there, nor are the musicians heard running scales and rehearsing “Follow the Yellow Brick Road.”

The simulation of human handicraft — of stagehands and horn players hiding in the wings — is unnerving. But it gets you thinking about the actual, contemporary people who are behind that curtain. Visual artists who labored on the Sphere project have justly grumbled that their sweat has gotten publicly dismissed as AI. An actual symphony orchestra rerecorded “Oz’s” mono score on the very same MGM stage used in 1939, allegedly with some of the same instruments. It sounds fantastic, and it’s so loyal to every jaunty warble that audiences might not notice.

A few scenes have been lopped off entirely. The Cowardly Lion no longer trills about becoming king of the forest. The majority of the shots have been micro-trimmed to be snappier, a pace that wouldn’t suit stoners’ penchant for synchronizing the movie to Pink Floyd’s dreamy, woozy “The Dark Side of the Moon.” Occasionally, the camera’s placement appears to have been adjusted to allow the visuals to expand to fill the space. Inside Dorothy’s Kansan house, a once-shadowed frying pan on the wall now dangles front and center, as does a digitally added “Home Sweet Home” needlepoint nailed to the threshold. (The plotting has become so brisk that we might otherwise miss the message that there’s no place like it.)

The tweaks can be subtle and lovely. Dorothy belts “Over the Rainbow” underneath newly actualized bluebirds and an impressively ominous sky. When the tornado happens, the tech changes hit us like a cyclone. We’re pulled through the window and into the eye of the storm, where a cow spirals around like it wants to outdo the scene-stealing bovine from “Twister.” A great, giddy blast of air from the 750-horsepower fans blew my bangs straight off my forehead. I kept one eye on the screen while trying to catch a flurry of tissue-paper leaves. The wow factor is so staggering that you might not spot that Sphere’s founder and chief executive, James Dolan, and Warner Bros. president and CEO David Zaslav have superimposed their faces on the two sailors twirling past in a rowboat — an apropos in-joke for people concerned the moguls have been swept away by their own bluster.

“Anyone can blow wind into your face,” Dolan said to the premiere audience before the film began. “Not everyone can make you feel like you’re in a tornado.” Wearing the Wizard’s green top hat and suit and with his microphone dropping out inauspiciously, Dolan never introduced himself, but he did compliment the other creators of the event, who also wore costumes. (I overheard that some of them thought Dolan was kidding about dressing in character until they found themselves spending four hours getting groomed to look lionesque.)

Just a week earlier, in trial runs, perfumes were piped into the air so people could get a whiff of the Emerald City. (Gauging by the souvenir candles in Sphere’s gift shop, it is chocolate mint.) They’ve currently been scaled back out of concerns that it all might get too overwhelming. Having figured out how to do sight, sound, feel and smell, Dolan conceded that only one sense remains: “We still haven’t figured out taste.”

Taste is definitely still a concern. Oddly, Sphere’s “Oz” loses a dram of its spellcraft once audiences touch down in Munchkinland. Seeing the newly added tops of Oz’s trees makes the fantastical place look smaller.

The margins of “The Wizard of Oz” have been expanded by generative AI to fit the enormous venue.

(Rich Fury / Sphere Entertainment)

You feel for the design teams. They’ve been challenged to magnify a 4-foot matte painting of the arched hallway into the Wizard’s throne room — initially done in pastels on black cardboard — into a 240-foot-tall tableau. One of the 1939 film’s production designers, Jack Martin Smith, said that his instructions were to make Oz “ethereal” and “subdued.” Descriptions of the cornfield’s hand-painted muslin background make it sound like a proto-Rothko. Now, you can see every kernel. The razor-sharp mountains on the horizon don’t inspire your imagination — they make you think of Machu Picchu.

More troublesome are the Munchkins and the citizens of Emerald City. Tidied into high definition, they often appear restless. As Dorothy pleads for the Wizard not to fly away without her, we’re distracted by hundreds of waving extras who visibly don’t give a hoot what happens to the girl. Worse, they occasionally seem to glitch. If that’s the best AI can do in 2025, then Sphere isn’t a resounding endorsement.

By contrast, Judy Garland’s performance, delivered at just age 16, feels monumental. Her big brown eyes dominate the screen. When the heartbroken girl sobs that the Wicked Witch has chased away her beloved Toto, I found myself annoyed by a flying monkey on the left side of the frame who simply looked bored.

The field of poppies is dazzling; the additional deer, ants and rodents skittering across the golden sidewalk are simply strange. Overall, you’re so caught up observing the experience itself that the emotions of the story don’t register as anything more than theme-ride hydraulics. Still, it’s nice to have a sweeping view of the first film’s prosthetic makeup: the Cowardly Lion’s upturned nostrils, the Scarecrow’s baggy jowls, the real horses painted purple and red with Jell-O. (Due to pace tightening, we only see two ponies, not all six).

I recoiled when the Wizard’s disembodied head loomed above. Who decided to make him look like a cheesy martian? Flipping through sketches from 1939 afterward, I realized that he always looked that bad. His gaunt cheekbones just weren’t as obvious before. Nevertheless, be sure to look to the right when Toto reveals Oz’s control booth. In a clever touch, Sphere lets us continue to see the monstrous green face, now neutered and ridiculous, mouth along as the panicked geek apologizes for being a humbug.

Can Sphere win big on its risky gamble that there’s no place like dome? It’s not the first Las Vegas attraction to bet on our love for the MGM extravaganza. “The Wizard of Oz” has been tangled up with Las Vegas’ fortunes for more than half a century, ever since real estate investor Kirk Kerkorian purchased MGM Studios in 1969 and, one year later, auctioned Dorothy’s slippers to help fund the construction of the first MGM Grand Hotel and Casino. The second MGM Grand, the one that opened in 1993, was branded for “The Wizard of Oz” — that’s why it’s green like Emerald City — and during the first year, visitors could walk through an animatronic forest of lions, tigers and gamblers.

The Strip was once a magical place where innocents like Dorothy flocked to get into trouble, often in encounters with sleight-of-hand hucksters like Professor Marvel. Hopes are high that tourists will come back to be transported to Oz, even at a ticket price that costs a chunk of the family farm. The hurdle is that although audiences have become begrudgingly accustomed to spending more than $100 to see their favorite bands, they’re still seeing an actual band and not a shortened version of a movie that’s popular in part because everyone grew up watching it on TV for free.

But on opening night at least, the crowd was treating the cinema like a concert. Many folks were in some sort of costume, including me. (I couldn’t resist wearing a pair of red shoes.) When I complimented a man’s blue gingham suit, he handed me a handmade beaded, Taylor Swift-style bracelet that read: Toto Too.

If fans like him turn this techno-incarnation of “Oz” into a hit, Sphere has said it would consider following it up with a similar presentation of “Gone With the Wind.” Imagine the smell of the burning of Atlanta. Much better than the air of burning money.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers are meeting in a special session to redraw the state’s U.S. House districts as part of President Trump’s effort to bolster Republicans’ chances of retaining control of Congress in next year’s elections.

The special session called by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe began Wednesday and will run at least a week.

Missouri is the third state to pursue the unusual task of mid-decade redistricting for partisan advantage. Republican-led Texas, prodded by Trump, was the first to take up redistricting with a new map aimed at helping Republicans pick up five more congressional seats.

But before Texas even completed its work, Democratic-led California already had fought back with its own redistricting plan designed to give Democrats a chance at winning five more seats. California’s plan still needs voter approval at a Nov. 4 election.

Other states could follow with their own redistricting efforts.

Nationally, Democrats need to gain three seats next year to take control of the House. Historically, the party of the president usually loses seats in the midterm congressional elections.

What is redistricting?

At the start of each decade, the Census Bureau collects population data that is used to allot the 435 U.S. House seats proportionally among states. States that grow relative to others may gain a House seat at the expense of states where populations stagnated or declined. Though some states may have their own restrictions, there is nothing nationally that prohibits states from redrawing districts in the middle of a decade.

In many states, congressional redistricting is done by state lawmakers, subject to approval by the governor. Some states have special commissions responsible for redistricting.

What is gerrymandering?

Partisan gerrymandering occurs when a political party in charge of the redistricting process draws voting district boundaries to its advantage.

One common method is for a majority party to draw a map that packs voters who support the opposing party into only a few districts, thus allowing the majority party to win a greater number of surrounding districts. Another common method is for the majority party to dilute the power of an opposing party’s voters by spreading them thinly among multiple districts.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that federal courts have no authority to decide whether partisan gerrymandering goes too far. But it said state courts still can decide such cases under their own laws.

How could Missouri’s districts change?

Missouri currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Republicans and two Democrats. A revised map proposed by Kehoe would give Republicans a shot at winning seven seats in the 2026 elections.

It targets a Kansas City district, currently held by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, by stretching it eastward into Republican-leaning rural areas. Meanwhile, other parts of Cleaver’s district would be split off and folded into heavily Republican districts currently represented by GOP Reps. Mark Alford and Sam Graves. Districts also would be realigned in the St. Louis area but with comparatively minor changes to the district held by Democratic Rep. Wesley Bell.

Republican lawmakers had considered a potential 7-1 map when originally drawing districts after the 2020 census. But the GOP majority opted against it because of concerns it could face legal challenges and create more competitive districts that could backfire in a poor election year by allowing Democrats to win up to three seats.

Could other states join the redistricting battle?

Mid-decade redistricting must occur in Ohio, according to its constitution, because Republicans there adopted congressional maps without sufficient bipartisan support. That could create an opening for Republicans to try to expand their 10-5 seat majority over Democrats.

A court in Utah has ordered the Republican-controlled Legislature to draw new congressional districts after ruling that lawmakers circumvented an independent redistricting commission established by voters to ensure districts don’t deliberately favor one party. A new map could help Democrats, because Republicans currently hold all four of the state’s U.S. House seats.

Other Republican-led states, such as Indiana and Florida, are considering redistricting at Trump’s urging. Officials in Democratic-led states, such as Illinois, Maryland and New York, also have talked of trying to counter the Republican push with their own revised maps.

What else is at stake in Missouri?

A special session agenda set by Kehoe also includes proposed changes to Missouri’s ballot measure process.

One key change would make it harder for citizen-initiated ballot measures to succeed. If approved by voters, Missouri’s constitution would be amended so that all future ballot initiatives would need not only a majority of the statewide vote but also a majority of the votes in each congressional district in order to pass.

If such a standard had been in place last year, an abortion-rights amendment to the state constitution would have failed. That measure narrowly passed statewide on the strength of “yes” votes in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas but failed in rural congressional districts.

Lieb writes for the Associated Press.

REFORM UK would win a 400 seat landslide if an election were held today, according to a new poll.

Nigel Farage is 15 points ahead of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Government, as reported by The i Paper.

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Only 20 per cent of voters now say they would vote for Labour – whereas 35 per cent would cast their ballot for Reform.

The poll results mean Farage would win a general election with 400 seats if one was held today.

These figures have been dubbed as “catastrophic” for the PM’s party, as they continue to face backlash over the migrant crisis.

This issue was also reflected in the poll, with 41 per cent of applicants confessing they believe Farage could solve the problem – as opposed to 14 per cent who trust Starmer.

Meanwhile the Tories also trailed behind in the poll, with Kemi Badenoch only gaining 17 per cent of votes.

And, her party ranked last when it came to faith in battling the small boat crisis – with just 8 per cent admitting they believe she could put an end to it.

The poll was conducted this week, as Farage continues to unveil mass deportation plans.

It turns out nearly 40 per cent of Brits thought his ideas were possible.

The Reform UK leader vowed to deport 600,000 illegal migrants in his first term in office – in a crackdown he claims will save taxpayers billions.

The party boss said the public mood over Channel crossings was “a mix between total despair and rising anger”, warning of a “genuine threat to public order” unless Britain acts fast.

Reform’s plan centres on a new Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill, which would make it the Home Secretary’s legal duty to remove anyone who arrives unlawfully, and strip courts and judges of the power to block flights. 

Britain would quit the European Convention on Human Rights, scrap the Human Rights Act and suspend the Refugee Convention for five years.

Reform would also make re-entry after deportation a crime carrying up to five years in jail, enforce a lifetime ban on returning, and make tearing up ID papers punishable by the same penalty.

The scheme would also see prefab detention camps built on surplus RAF and MoD land, holding up to 24,000 people within 18 months. 

Inmates would be housed in two-man blocks with food halls and medical suites – and would not be allowed out.

Five deportation flights would take off every day, with RAF planes on standby if charter jets were blocked.

The poll this week echos those conducted by YouGov, in which Reform was still 8 points ahead of Labour.

And, 37 per cent of voters say they are satisfied with how Farage is leading the party.

However, 60 per cent are unhappy with Sir Keir Starmer’s performance.

Robert Struthers, head of polling at BMG, said: “Nigel Farage’s net rating of +5 may not appear remarkable on its own, but it contrasts sharply with Keir Starmer’s figures which have dropped to a new low at -41. He’s now as unpopular as Sunak was before the election last year.

“The next election may still be some way off, but there’s no doubt these numbers are catastrophic for Labour. Unless things change, pressure for a shift in strategy and even Prime Minister will only intensify.”

Jack Curry, pollster at BMG added: “There is a striking consensus among the British public when it comes to the issue of small boats. The public sees no real difference between the current Labour Government and the previous Conservative government. Both are viewed as equally ineffective.

“That frustration is clearly fuelling support for Reform. When it comes to what people actually want done, the mood music is for a tougher approach. There’s strong support for protectionist measures like more border enforcement, stricter penalties and offshore processing. That’s especially true among Reform and Conservative voters.”

It comes as a ruling to boot migrants out of an Epping hotel was overturned by the Court of Appeal on Friday.

The Bell Hotel, in Essex, has been surrounded by controversy after two of its guests were charged with sexual offences.

Epping Forest District Council last week won a bid at the High Court to block migrants from being housed at the hotel.

The temporary injunction meant that the building had to be cleared of its occupants by September 12.

It also caused a ripple effect across the UK as more councils launched their own bids to boot migrants out of hotels in their towns.

But the Court of Appeal on Friday overturned the injunction following an appeal by the Home Office and hotel owners Somani – meaning the migrants can stay where they are for now.

It also gave permission for the Home Office to appeal against Mr Justice Eyre’s ruling not to let it intervene in the case as their involvement was “not necessary”.

It came after Home Secretary Yvette Cooper made a last-ditch bid to join the battle.

But, more than a dozen councils are still poised to take legal action to shut asylum hotels.

These include at least four Labour-run authorities, such as Wirral, Stevenage, Tamworth and Rushmoor councils.

A full hearing is scheduled for October to conclude whether the council’s claim that the use of the Bell Hotel to house asylum seekers breached planning rules.

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Backed by a hefty list of prominent endorsers, Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis has officially kicked off her bid for a southeast L.A. County congressional seat, should new district maps be approved by California voters in November.

“I’ve been standing up for the people — and against Trump — as a Supervisor, and now it’s time to campaign for the House and fight for the people and democracy in the Congress,” Solis said in a statement Friday.

The former secretary of Labor, 67, previously served in Congress and the statehouse before becoming a county supervisor.

Solis’ campaign launch included endorsements from five sitting members of Congress, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and civil rights leader Dolores Huerta, among others.

The heavyweight list speaks to the legislator’s deep backing in local Democratic politics. It also doubles as a warning to other potential candidates about the establishment firepower behind Solis’ nascent campaign, despite the seat she’s angling for not actually existing yet.

Solis would run in the redrawn 38th District, which is currently represented by Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Whittier). Should the maps pass, Sánchez is likely planning to run in the redrawn 41st District, which will include her home of Whittier, leaving the new 38th District without an incumbent candidate. Both districts will be heavily Democratic.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to redraw California’s district maps to favor Democrats will be decided by voters in a Nov. 4 special election — a decision that could potentially determine the balance of power in the Congress in 2026. The plan punches back at President Trump’s drive for more GOP House seats in Texas and other states.

The Times reported this month that Solis was lining up support for a potential candidacy even before the new maps were finalized. At least one California lawmaker told The Times that Solis referred to the district as “my seat” when asking for backing — a reference to the seat she once held, even though the new district doesn’t yet exist. Solis confirmed her candidacy to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune on Thursday.

Along with Sanchez, former Obama administration staffer TJ Adams-Falconer has also filed campaign fundraising paperwork in the district.

A woman has shared her frustration after an ‘entitled’ passenger tried to steal her plane seat – but she managed to get the last laugh with a cutting response on the flight

A woman has hit out at an ‘entitled’ passenger who stole her plane seat and tried to pull it off with ‘main character energy’. She detailed her experience on a nine-hour flight from Abu Dhabi to Bali, which had two economy sections.

The first section was described as “big and crowded”, but she had the foresight to pre-book a seat in the second section where every seat boasted extra leg room. Taking to Reddit, she shared: “Guess which one I booked? Yep, the smaller one, because I actually planned ahead, paid the higher fare, and got the perks (priority boarding, luggage, and that sweet legroom).

“Boarding finishes, and the woman next to me slides into the empty window seat, leaving the middle empty. Dream scenario: me on the aisle, her on the window, and glorious space in between.

“I’m snuggled up under a blanket, headphones in, hoodie up. Universal ‘do not disturb’ mode activated.”

Once the aircraft reached cruising altitude and the seatbelt sign went off, the woman felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see a woman in her late 20s to early 30s grinning at her.

The woman continued: “She starts with, ‘Wow, you look so comfortable!’ Translation: she’s about to make me uncomfortable.

“She explains she wants me to swap seats with her so she and her friend (currently seated in the sardine can section) can take my aisle and the free middle seat.

“Her seat? Somewhere back in the busy main cabin, absolutely not extra legroom. I just smiled and said: ‘No thank you.’ Her jaw dropped.

“She tried to argue, so I spelled it out, ‘This is a paid extra legroom cabin. I booked it in advance, it wasn’t free, and I’m not giving it up so two adults who didn’t plan ahead can sit together’.”

She says the entitled woman looked at her as if she’d just “slapped her across the face” before walking away with a sour expression.

She added: “I put my headphones back on, hoodie up, and turned toward the window. Curtain closed on that conversation.

“The absolute audacity of people never ceases to amaze me. Pay for your seat like the rest of us.”

Commenting on her post, one user said: “I can’t believe the hide of some people.”

While someone else added: “My brother is tall so he always books the extra legroom seats. He also travels pretty often.

“He has told me that on almost every flight he is on someone will try to get him to swap with them to some squished no no-legroom seat. He has mastered the ‘f*** off’ and ‘what part of f*** off don’t you understand?'”

A third user said: “My come back line as always is….. ‘sure for $1,000 (£743) cash, you can have the seat, that’s my price.'”

WASHINGTON — It happened once before: a chaotic, contested, anger-plagued election that haunts American politics to this day.

The vote was a virtual tie. Recounts were demanded–then rejected. Increasingly distrustful camps warred over absentee ballots and the vagaries of voter intent. A Republican secretary of state came under fire. Controversy spilled over into the courts.

And in the end, when the Democratic-controlled U.S. House refused to seat the certified Republican winner from southwest Indiana, political relations took a long plunge into partisan bitterness–the sort of animus that threatens whoever ends up in the White House next year.

“When it was over, the buildings were still standing but the foundations were cracked,” recalled John J. Pitney Jr., a political scientist and Capitol Hill aide during the controversy of 1984-85. “It really changed the level of mutual animosity and the atmosphere of the House–to this day.”

“Indiana 8” (the disputed election was in the state’s 8th Congressional District) became a gut-wrenching GOP battle cry, an early milestone in the nation’s journey toward divisive, bitter politics that is now reflected in everything from the climate in the capital to razor-thin margins in elections across the country.

A Troubling Lesson on Tainted Elections

Indeed, in the eerie parallels between today’s presidential election and its Indiana predecessor, some see a warning for Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore: A result tainted with even the appearance of bias–however accurate the result may be–can trigger reactions that are destructive, long-lasting and unpredictable.

“People have to realize that these disputes have consequences. And what was true about one congressional district would be greatly magnified in a presidential race,” warned former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton, an Indiana Democrat who heads the Smithsonian Institution’s Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Although little known, the tortured tale of Indiana’s “Bloody 8” remains seared in the memory of many politicians.

At first, in the early hours after the Nov. 6, 1984, election, it appeared that incumbent Rep. Frank McCloskey, a Democrat, had eked out a victory by 72 votes. But it was quickly discovered that two precincts had counted ballots twice, skewing the result in favor of the former Bloomington mayor.

Five weeks later, to the shock of Democrats, Indiana’s Republican secretary of state certified Republican Richard McIntyre as the winner by 34 votes. McIntyre’s margin grew to 418 in a January recount, when officials tossed out 4,800 ballots for a range of technical reasons that were judged by differing standards in the district’s 15 counties.

On Capitol Hill, however, the Democratic-controlled House questioned the findings and created a three member panel–two Democrats and one Republican–to recommend which man should be seated in Congress.

Seeking a process that would withstand scrutiny, task force members hired auditors from the government’s General Accounting Office. But Republicans complained that Democrats were stealing the election and employing a sham process to do it.

“If he is denied his seat, then any certified candidate . . . is open to political attack,” Rep. Bill Thomas of California, the Republican on the task force, complained at the time.

Quickly, the task force ran into pivotal disputes over which absentee ballots should be accepted and which should be rejected. In succeeding weeks, Republicans tried to seat McIntyre on several occasions, once launching a surprise vote when many Democrats were out of town. But the majority party always managed to prevail.

Increasingly frustrated Republicans unveiled aggressive guerrilla tactics, forcing roll-call votes on minor matters, blistering the podium with motions to adjourn and on at least one occasion keeping the House in session all night.

On May 1, six months after the election, the task force ruled that Democrat McCloskey had won the race by four votes. The House quickly endorsed the panel’s finding.

The party-line vote became a watershed in a new era of partisan feuding, even prompting the strange spectacle of Republican lawmakers singing “We Shall Overcome” as they stormed out of the House.

In an interview this week, Rep. Leon E. Panetta, the Carmel Valley Democrat who was chairman of the task force, cited the difficulty of bringing a disputed election to a satisfying conclusion: “The lessons are that, no matter what process is agreed upon, when it comes down to a very close vote, it leaves some very deep feelings that are not easily overcome.”

But, he said, the House vote to seat McCloskey would have been more broadly accepted if the task force had included an equal number of Democrats and Republicans and if there had been consensus in the finding: “If the committee leans partisan, either Republican or Democratic, then it will always be viewed as a partisan result.”

Before the Indiana battle, the Republican Party was largely split between a pragmatic old-guard, personified by House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel of Illinois, and a growing band of Young Turks, headed by Newt Gingrich of Georgia. The Gingrich troops had been seeking a much more confrontational approach, with the aim of capturing control of the House.

“Indiana 8” gave the mavericks the ammunition they needed to push the old guard aside. “Following the McIntyre incident, 95% of the Republicans came to the conclusion that the only way we were going to get the kind of attention we deserved was to win the majority,” said former Rep. Robert S. Walker, a Pennsylvania Republican who was a ringleader of the younger group.

‘A Transformational Episode’ for GOP

In the era that followed, Democrats and Republicans no longer belonged to different branches of the same insiders’ club. Instead, they belonged to warring clans.

“It was a transformational episode for Republicans,” said Dan Meyer, a longtime aide to Gingrich. “There was a sense across the board that seat was stolen. It gave legitimacy to the efforts of the [Gingrich] crowd. The Democratic leadership, in the eyes of even the older Republican members, lost some legitimacy.”

Recalling Indiana, some experts warned that today’s presidential election conflict could sow lasting seeds of partisan mistrust because both sides have cast doubt effectively on the legitimacy of their opponent’s claim to victory. But today’s stakes are much higher.

“When you have one-third or more of the country looking at the other candidate as illegitimate, that does not bode well for the president uniting the country,” said Eric M. Uslaner, a professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, alluding to polls that point to such divisions.

But in an interview, the winner of the ill-starred Indiana election expressed surprising optimism that today’s furor will blow over without dramatic consequences. “I don’t think we’re into a perpetual, acrimonious quagmire,” said McCloskey, now an attorney in Bloomington.

Still, it was with vehemence that he expressed the words that raise the blood pressure of many Republicans even 15 years later: “I won it fairly.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom spearheaded a bold overhaul of California’s congressional map, a move that could dramatically shift the state’s political landscape.

A Times analysis of recent election results found the redistricting effort, which will go to voters on Nov. 4 as Proposition 50, could turn 41 Democratic-leaning congressional districts into 47. Democrats currently hold 215 seats in the House, while Republicans control 220. If California voters approve the new map, the shift could be enough to threaten the GOP’s narrow majority.

Newsom’s plan was pushed by state and national Democratic leaders, following a move by Texas to approve its own maps that could give the GOP five more House seats. There’s also a push by the Republican-led states to redraw their lines before the 2026 midterm elections to help the Republicans remain in control. The governor’s plan was approved by the state Legislature last week and now goes to the voters in a November special election. This week California Republicans filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court to block the ballot measure.

To get a sense of how the proposed maps might alter the balance of power in Congress, The Times used results from the 2024 presidential election to calculate the margin of victory between Democrats and Republicans in the redrawn districts.

In some cases, districts were split apart and stitched together with more liberal areas. In one area, lines have been redrawn with no overlap at all with their current boundary. As a result, four formerly Republican-leaning swing districts would tilt slightly Democratic, while two others would shift more heavily toward the left. Four out of the five remaining Republican strongholds would become even darker red under the proposed map.

1st District: Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale)

In its current form, California’s 1st Congressional District sweeps south from the Oregon border almost to Sacramento. For the last 12 years, it has been represented by Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who won reelection last November with nearly two-thirds of the vote.

But under the proposed map, that district is split in two. The new 1st District would run inland from Santa Rosa through Chico to the Nevada border. The redrawn 2nd District would follow the north coast from Marin County and the border with Oregon. It would also include deep red Shasta County.

The Times analysis found the proposed 1st District experienced the largest Democratic shift, among all the districts that flipped from red to blue, moving from a 25-point advantage for Trump to a 12-point advantage for Harris. That gain was made possible in part by pulling in more Democratic-leaning areas from the 2nd District, making it slightly less blue.

3rd District: Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin)

Rep. Kevin Kiley has represented the 3rd District since 2022. But he would face an uphill battle to keep the seat on the redistricted map. The new lines lop off the conservative-leaning Eastern Sierra and instead pulls in Democratic voters from Sacramento.

In the 2024 presidential election, the current 3rd District backed Trump by 4 points. Under Newsom’s proposed map, that same area would have gone for Harris by 10 points, creating a 14-point swing that transforms the district from purple to solidly blue.

Kiley, whose district is targeted for elimination under Newsom’s plan, has called for a ban on all mid-decade congressional redistricting. The 3rd District’s boundaries are significantly reduced in the new map, and shifting demographics, including growth in the Asian American population, could further tilt the seat away from Republicans.

41st District: Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Corona)

Rep. Ken Calvert’s 41st District, long centered in the competitive western Inland Empire, would be eliminated and completely redrawn in Los Angeles County. The district would transform from a swinging GOP-leaning seat into one where Democrats would hold a 14-point advantage.

Parts of the new 41st would be carved out of the current 38th District, represented by Democrat Linda Sánchez. That change shifts some of Sánchez’s Democratic base into the new 41st district, making it more favorable to Democrats while leaving the 38th slightly less blue.

At the same time, the Hispanic share of the population would rise, further bolstering the Democrat‘s strength in the proposed district. The new 41st seat would become a majority-minority district. The redistricting proposal includes 16 majority-minority districts; the same number as the current map except for swapping the 41st District for the 42nd.

A section of the current 41st district would be added to Rep. Young Kim’s 40th District. The reshaped 40th District would move 9.7 points to the right — the biggest rightward shift among Republican-held districts.

48th District: Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall)

The 48th District, a Republican stronghold represented by Darrell Issa, carried a 15-point GOP margin of victory under the current map. But the proposed lines would shift voters into San Diego County, giving Democrats a new edge. The district’s demographics would also change, with a larger share of Hispanic voters. As a result, what had been a safe Republican seat would become a swing district, where Democrats would hold a narrow 3-point advantage. The proposed 48th District includes Palm Springs, a liberal patch that was previously in the 41st District.

Deepening blue

Beyond flipping Republican-leaning swing districts, another aim of the redistricting plan is to shore up vulnerable Democratic seats. Democrats have long fought to hold onto these coastal Orange County seats, eking out narrow wins. Rep. Derek Tran of Cypress unseated a Republican incumbent by just about 650 votes, while Rep. Dave Min of Costa Mesa survived last November with a margin of less than 3 percentage points. Asians are the largest minority currently in Districts 45 and 47.

Under the current map, Harris carried the 45th District by only 1.5 points and the 47th by 4 points. But in Newsom’s proposed map, those advantages widen to 4 and 10 points, respectively, transforming fragile footholds into far safer Democratic turf.

The new changes dilute the number of GOP voters in both Rep. David Valadao’s District 22 and Rep. Adam Gray’s District 13.

— Additional development by data and graphics assistant editor Sean Greene.

By day, he helps audience members find their seats. By night, he’s onstage, commanding them. For actor Tyrone Huntley, the hustle is part of the role in Los Angeles.

Less than 48 hours after raising his voice to the heavens as Simon in the Hollywood Bowl’s electric, weekend-only production of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” Huntley was back at the iconic amphitheater — not under the lights, but beneath them — wearing a white polo and usher’s badge, guiding concertgoers to their seats.

“It was surreal getting back to work and being on the other side of the stage,” Huntley said, overhearing people talk about the early August show days later. “They didn’t know who I was, so I was just listening and smiling and knowing that we certainly made an impression.” Even marketing staff at the Bowl noticed, posting him on TikTok in a clip seen by some 30,000 viewers so far.

Tyrone Huntley, center, performs as Simon in “Jesus Christ Superstar” at the Hollywood Bowl, alongside Cynthia Erivo as Jesus, left.

(Farah Sosa)

Huntley is one of many working actors caught between ambition and survival. As film and TV production in the region drops to historic lows, many industry workers have turned to service jobs or side gigs to stay in the entertainment capital. The region’s slowdown has been brutal: the twin strikes of 2023, studio belt-tightening, productions lured out of state and wildfires that shuttered work this year. The result is fewer auditions, shorter runs and a scramble for survival jobs — even for performers who’ve just taken center stage.

The U.K.-born actor knows both sides. Trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, Huntley leaped immediately into a U.K. tour of “Sister Act” — alongside his future co-star Erivo — spending more than a decade in London original casts such as “Memphis,” “Dreamgirls” and “The Book of Mormon.”

Coincidentally, his breakout role came in 2016 when he landed the co-lead as Judas in “Jesus Christ Superstar” at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre. The performance earned him an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. “It gave me the confidence to think big,” Huntley said. He later reprised Judas on the North American tour in 2021 after the previous lead was arrested for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

Huntley moved to Los Angeles in 2022 with an eye on the silver screen but found himself arriving in a city still wobbling. “Artistically, it just feels like everyone is struggling,” he said. For the last three years, Huntley’s flown back and forth to London — most recently for an acclaimed “Hello, Dolly!” revival with Imelda Staunton — using steady West End paychecks to bankroll life in L.A. And being a member of Actors’ Equity Assn., the stage actors’ union in the U.S., helps cover health insurance costs here, not a consideration he may have in the U.K. where coverage is free.

Tyrone Huntley stands in his usher uniform in front of the stage where just a few weeks earlier he played Simon alongside Cynthia Erivo’s Jesus in “Jesus Christ Superstar.”

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

For actors like Huntley, the financial backdrop is hard to ignore. California nearly scrapped its new Performing Arts Equitable Payroll Fund, which subsidizes nonprofit programs, this year before lawmakers restored it. L.A. County trimmed back its arts grants, forcing small theaters to do more with less. And in Washington, the Trump administration has moved to roll back federal arts funding, leaving some local companies without crucial National Endowment for the Arts support.

Determined to stay in L.A., Huntley auditioned for the Bowl’s “Jesus Christ Superstar” 2025 production, this time as Simon Zealotes, the fiery apostle with one of the show’s most rousing anthems. The casting was headline-making: Erivo, fresh off “Wicked,” as Jesus, and Adam Lambert as Judas. The production was hailed as “the musical theater version of the Avengers,” with theater critic Charles McNulty praising the supernova of talent that lit up the Bowl like a rock concert.

A few months before opening night, Huntley picked up usher shifts at the same venue. The Bowl granted him three weeks off for rehearsals in July, where he also understudied as Erivo’s Jesus. He also got time off to fly back across the pond for a series regular spot on Channel 4’s upcoming “A Woman of Substance.” He described working at the Bowl as fair, easygoing work that keeps him close to live performance, with the added perk of watching Bob Dylan, Earth, Wind & Fire, and the L.A. Phil. “They know a lot of us are working actors, musicians, writers, so they’re very flexible in giving us time to pursue our careers,” he said.

One highlight of working as an usher is that Tyrone Huntley gets to see acts like Herbie Hancock perform at the Hollywood Bowl.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

At the Bowl, ushers perform the invisible choreography that keeps the night in motion — steering picnic baskets and seat cushions toward the right rows and soothing the occasional ticket snafus or crises. It’s common for the ushering job to be summer gigs — or even first jobs. There are anywhere from 300 to 400 ushers for the season, with more than 100 working per night.

Huntley sees his dual roles as emblematic of the life of an artist here. “I have to support myself, that’s the case for most of us, especially in L.A.,” he said. “Sometimes you can have a proper job and do the acting as well. It’s not all showbiz parties and award shows. Sometimes incredible opportunities come along, you do them, and then you get back to normal. You can do both — and the pressure isn’t always to be on the stage.”

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Saturday promised to quickly sign off on a new, Republican-leaning congressional voting map gerrymandered to help the GOP maintain its slim majority in Congress.

“One Big Beautiful Map has passed the Senate and is on its way to my desk, where it will be swiftly signed into law,” Abbott said in a statement. The bill’s name is a nod to President Trump’s signature tax and spending bill, as Trump urged Abbott to redraw the congressional districts to favor Republicans.

Texas lawmakers approved the final plans just hours before, inflaming an already tense battle unfolding among states as governors from both parties pledge to redraw maps with the goal of giving their political candidates a leg up in the 2026 midterm elections.

In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has approved a special election in November for voters to decide whether to adopt a redrawn congressional map designed to help Democrats win five more House seats next year.

Meanwhile, Trump has pushed other Republican-controlled states, including Indiana and Missouri, to also revise their maps to add more winnable GOP seats. Ohio Republicans were also already scheduled to revise their maps to make them more partisan.

In Texas, the map includes five new districts that would favor Republicans.

Democrats vow to challenge it in court

The effort by Trump and Texas’ Republican-majority Legislature prompted state Democrats to hold a two-week walkout and kicked off a wave of redistricting efforts across the country.

Democrats had prepared for a final show of resistance, with plans to push the Senate vote into the early morning hours in a last-ditch attempt to delay passage. Yet Republicans blocked those efforts by citing a rule violation.

“What we have seen in this redistricting process has been maneuvers and mechanisms to shut down people’s voices,” said state Sen. Carol Alvarado, leader of the Senate Democratic caucus, on social media after the new map was finalized by the GOP-controlled Senate.

Democrats had already delayed the bill’s passage during hours of debate, pressing Republican Sen. Phil King, the measure’s sponsor, on the proposal’s legality, with many alleging that the redrawn districts violate the Voting Rights Act by diluting voters’ influence based on race.

King rejected that accusation, saying, “I had two goals in mind: That all maps would be legal and would be better for Republican congressional candidates in Texas.

“There is extreme risk the Republican majority will be lost” in the U.S. House of Representatives if the map does not pass, King said.

Battle for the House waged via redistricting

On a national level, the partisan makeup of existing districts puts Democrats within three seats of a majority. The incumbent president’s party usually loses seats in the midterms.

The Texas redraw is already reshaping the 2026 race, with Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the dean of the state’s congressional delegation, announcing Thursday that he will not seek reelection to his Austin-based seat if the new map takes effect. Under the proposed map, Doggett’s district would overlap with that of another Democratic incumbent, Rep. Greg Casar.

Redistricting typically occurs once a decade, immediately after a census. Though some states have their own limitations, there is no national impediment to a state trying to redraw districts in the middle of the decade.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 ruled that the Constitution does not prohibit partisan gerrymandering to increase a party’s clout, only gerrymandering that’s explicitly done by race.

Other states

More Democratic-run states have commission systems like California’s or other redistricting limits than Republican ones do, leaving the GOP with a freer hand to swiftly redraw maps. New York, for example, cannot draw new maps until 2028, and even then only with voter approval.

Republicans and some Democrats championed a 2008 ballot measure that established California’s nonpartisan redistricting commission, along with a 2010 one that extended its role to drawing congressional maps.

Both sides have shown concern over what the redistricting war could lead to.

California Assemblyman James Gallagher, the Republican minority leader, said Trump was “wrong” to push for new Republican seats elsewhere. But he warned that Newsom’s approach, which the governor has said is an effort to “fight fire with fire,” is dangerous.

“You move forward fighting fire with fire, and what happens?” Gallagher asked. “You burn it all down.”

Vertuno, Cappelletti and Golden write for the Associated Press and reported from Austin, Washington and Seattle, respectively. AP writer Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, R.I., contributed to this report.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell made history — becoming the first New Orleans mayor to be indicted while in office — after federal prosecutors on Friday charged her with multiple counts of wire fraud, obstruction of justice and lying to a grand jury.

The 11 counts specific to Cantrell stem from an investigation into her alleged affair with former New Orleans Police Department Officer Jeffrey Vappie, who worked on Cantrell’s security detail prior to his retirement from the force and has also been federally indicted.

The U.S. attorney’s office alleges, in a 48-page indictment, that Cantrell and Vappie illegally used city funds to travel around the country together, falsely claiming that the expenditures were related to city business, then conspired to cover it up. Federal investigators combed through 15,000 text messages sent between the two — and later deleted by Cantrell, according to the indictment — in which they discussed their relationship and travel plans.

What comes next?

With no political precedent to turn to in order to understand how the following months will play out, legal and governmental experts in New Orleans have relied on the rules set out in New Orleans’ Home Charter and similar incidents from other cities to inform predictions for the future.

“I don’t expect this as a legal matter to have any effect on her ability to be mayor of the city of New Orleans,” said attorney and Loyola College of Law professor Dane Ciolino. “Now, as a practical and political matter, that’s another issue.”

Ciolino added that when Cantrell appears in court for an initial hearing and arraignment — which is now scheduled for Sept. 10 — it is likely there will be restrictions placed on her movement as a condition of release, meaning that she will need to consult with a judge before engaging in any international travel, or perhaps even travel outside of the Eastern District of Louisiana.

“It won’t be any impairment to her doing her job,” he said. “She’ll just have to seek permission, which would be, I suspect, liberally granted to her.”

An in-office conviction would force Cantrell out

Although it may be unlikely that Cantrell will go to trial before her second term as mayor ends in January, she would be forced to step down if she were convicted of a felony.

Under state law, public officials must be removed from office if they are convicted of a federal or state felony. Under the city charter, if Cantrell were to plead guilty or chose not to contest the charges, she would face immediate removal.

If a mayor pleads not guilty and is convicted after a trial, the city charter calls for an automatic, unpaid suspension until the conviction is finalized through the appeals process, at which time she would be removed. If Cantrell were suspended but later made a successful appeal to overturn the conviction, she would receive back pay.

What happens after a mayor is removed from office?

The charter also states that if a mayor is removed or resigns with less than a year left in the term, the City Council must elect one of the two at-large council members to fill the seat, in lieu of a special election. Helena Moreno and JP Morrell are currently the two at-large City Council members, with Morrell currently serving as council president.

Morrell is running for a second term in his seat. Moreno, meanwhile, is actively running her own mayoral campaign and is thus far the front-runner in the race to succeed Cantrell. (The New Orleans municipal election will be held on Oct. 11, with a runoff — should it be necessary — set for Nov. 15.)

Moreno’s office put out a public statement the day that the charges were announced, saying that the mayor is entitled to the presumption of innocence and “a vigorous defense.”

Moreno’s statement mirrored many of her colleagues — neutral on the subject matter involved in the charges, choosing instead to reframe and discuss how to best serve the city. Although Cantrell’s relationship with the City Council has been rocky throughout her second term, there have been no public calls from members of the City Council for her to resign.

“The announcement today reminds us of the need to let the justice system work in a fair, timely fashion and without regard to politics or preference,” Councilmember Oliver Thomas, who is also running for mayor, wrote in a statement. “These are critical times for our city to get back on track and to stay focused on building a city that works and thrives for everyone.”

Councilmember Eugene Green released a statement similar in content, adding that it was a difficult day for New Orleans.

“My focus will continue to be on moving New Orleans forward — ensuring the safety of our citizens, strengthening our neighborhoods, and meeting the needs of my constituents,” Green wrote.

No indication of stepping down

A similar saga unfolded in Nashville, Tenn., in 2018 when then-Mayor Megan Barry — who, like Cantrell, was the city’s first female mayor — had an affair with a city-employed security officer who traveled with her on the city’s dime.

Barry pleaded guilty to a felony and resigned from office immediately after. Her political career was short-lived in the aftermath of the scandal as she mounted an unsuccessful run for Congress then pivoted to write a memoir.

Cantrell has not made any public statements since the indictment was announced by prosecutors. She skipped the launch of Amtrak’s new train service from New Orleans to Mobile, Ala., where she was slated to be a guest speaker on Saturday, but was back to work by Monday.

Cantrell’s communications team did not respond to Verite News requests for comment about whether her governance plans will change in response to the charges. Cantrell’s attorney, Eddie Castaing, declined to comment on the charges. A spokesperson for the mayor’s office said in a statement Monday that the mayor is focused on doing her job for the city of New Orleans.

Mediratta writes for Verite News, in partnership with the Associated Press.