It pains me to say that most of us are missing the point when it comes to President Trump’s rambling election fraud speech. Which is exactly what he wants.
Within minutes of its airing Thursday night, the internet and pundits were abuzz debating whether voting machines were secure and whether the federal government has a right, or even a duty, to oversee voter rolls (it has neither). Long posts were written condemning voter identification efforts, and more posts written attacking those condemnations.
This, friends, is exactly what the speech was meant to accomplish — myopic bickering.
To be specific, myopic bickering about the past, as a dark future creeps ever closer — like, say, Nov. 3.
The question is will we allow Trump to sow just enough doubt in the minds of average Americans that what comes next seems inevitable and even necessary?
Trump falsely claimed that he was revealing “an election system so broken and so vulnerable that no one can possibly defend it.”
“This cannot be allowed to continue,” he said.
Those are ominous words, ones we should take seriously.
“This is a very sad thing to be able to say about the president of the United States, but I think it’s quite clear,” said Mindy Romero, director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy, a nonpartisan research facility. “This is about a certain set of political goals, and using this misinformation to achieve those political goals.”
Trump knows that the midterms present a threat to his power and he, and those around him, have been working for years to create a strategy to invalidate our election results just in case they don’t fall in his direction. Whether the overall outcome favors Democrats or Republicans in the midterms, the wins and losses are going to be close, giving him the chance to attack Democratic wins.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump learned from the unlikely teacher Mike Pence the difficult lesson that plans work only when people are in place to implement them. As vice president, Pence, you may recall, refused to stop the election certification process that legally, rightfully, fairly allowed Joe Biden to take office.
Since then, Trump has purged dissenters from top roles, instead putting in flat-out sycophants, election deniers and conspiracy theorists — more than one of whom has been associated with the racist Great Replacement theory that Democrats are secretly helping Black and brown people to illegally cross the border in exchange for these folks illegally voting for Democrats, thereby replacing the “true” America of conservative white people.
So the apparatchiks are in place, Soviet-style. There will be no Penceian savior on the inside this time around.
More than one election expert I have spoken to in recent months fear that because there is no one left on the inside to object, we could see post-election turmoil like this: Republicans lose one or both houses of Congress. Trump calls fraud. The Department of Justice or outside lawyers, or both, sue to overturn results. Congress, the Republican one still in place, refuses to seat newly elected Democrats until the court cases are resolved.
A constitutional crisis is at hand. Democrats say they were elected. Republicans won’t let them serve. No one is clear who is in Congress and who isn’t. In effect, the body is frozen and it’s legitimacy undermined. Into that vacuum, Trump pushes his already great power even further.
As movie-terrible as that sounds, that internal structure is in place and this scenario is far less impossible or even improbable than we could hope.
“What we’re talking about is just misinformation and what could be used as a justification for potentially interfering with seating of elected officials,” Romero said. “Particularly Congress.”
Now, with the internal stuff squared away, Trump’s focus is neutralizing outside dissent. That’s you and me, and that’s what this speech was about. Sowing doubt, tossing seeds of chaos into the soil to see what grows. Letting us know it’s coming, so we as Americans have time to bicker, argue, and tear away at our trust in elections so that by the time we vote, we expect the worst to happen.
“Unfortunately, there are some members of the public that are going to believe what they’re being told and when they hear election results, question it,” said Chad Dunn, legal director of the UCLA Voting Rights Project. “This kind of communication misleads Americans and does a disservice to our democracy.”
Dunn told me he’s “as worried as I’ve been in my life” about the next election.
Trump’s far right is wasting no time on this effort. After Trump’s speech, the Department of Homeland Security sent out a letter to California and three other states claiming California has more than 190,000 non-citizens registered to vote, and demanding the state “confirm their intentions to collaborate with DHS in order to ensure free, fair, and honest elections.”
This is a misleading, erroneous count and does not include the obvious fact that there is no evidence that undocumented people actually voted in any California election in any noticeable numbers.
But it creates that chaos and doubt. California isn’t going to share its voter rolls willingly with the federal government because elections — according to the Constitution — are state affairs. And there is no evidence that the federal government has a better way of vetting citizenship than California does. So it becomes one more point of bickering.
But what Dunn, Romero and other honest elections experts want Americans to know is that our elections are free and fair and all is not lost. Far from it.
The answer to the propaganda and lies is to remain aware of it, remain above it. Spread truth and refute falsehoods.
Dunn said that Americans should demand that any voter fraud be taken to the courts — where it belongs, and where we can determine the validity of the evidence.
“If you’re concerned about this, if you’re inclined to believe the president, demand proof, demand resolution in court at trial with the the showing of evidence,” he said. “And reserve judgment until you see that.”
Romero has her own advice — never underestimate the power of the vote.
“Show up and to participate,” she said. “Regardless of how [you’re] going to vote — Democrat, Republican, otherwise — just to show up and participate.”
Because in the end, we only lose democracy if we willingly let it go.
The industry saw immediately just how lucrative fear could be. More than a century later, there is always someone in the entertainment media willing to trade in racist tropes for money, as well as an audience ready to receive them.
Two new films, “Citizen Vigilante” and “Run, Fight, Hide: Infidels,” demonstrate that streaming platforms and social media no longer simply distribute controversial content but in fact thrive on content that provokes, polarizes and sustains attention, regardless of the social cost.
Both of these xenophobic and Islamophobic films are being pushed as “anti-woke” vehicles, deliberately engineered to bypass traditional critical reception and capitalize on a fractured media ecosystem. “Citizen Vigilante,” which features an American protagonist killing dark-skinned immigrants and Muslims in an unnamed European setting, was denied a rating certificate by the German government for inciting violence. Yet despite that determination, the film secured global reach through decentralized digital distribution and high-profile promotion from Elon Musk.
Similarly, “Run, Fight, Hide: Infidels” — a campus siege narrative evoking 1980s action film nostalgia that leans heavily into outdated, post-9/11 anxieties — relies on a built-in conservative media apparatus to guarantee financial returns. The film is produced by the conservative media figure Ben Shapiro and the Daily Wire, which he co-founded. It is a sequel to a 2020 film that was their film company’s premiere.
But while promoters of such films frame their work as a brave rebellion, the reality is much more sinister: rehashing 40-year-old tropes while invoking conspiracy theories of Muslims bringing sharia law to America, because outrage is cheap to produce and easy to monetize.
Stories matter. Stories shape how we see one another. They influence what we love, what we celebrate, whom we trust, whom we understand and whom we fear.
Since January, the Muslim Public Affairs Council has documented a sharp escalation in threats and attacks targeting Muslims and Islamic institutions across the United States, including vandalism, shootings, bomb threats, attempted assassinations and physical assaults. These are not isolated incidents. They reflect a broader climate in which dehumanizing representation increasingly manifests as real-world violence.
Entertainment and politics increasingly employ the same tactic as one another, recycling narratives of fear and “otherness” to mobilize audiences, voters and consumers. When political leaders encourage those narratives, as President Trump recently did by amplifying and commenting on a photo of young Muslim American students in hijab, they further normalize the same stereotypes that entertainment companies have learned to monetize.
Yet while the social costs continue to mount, the economic incentives remain firmly intact. “Citizen Vigilante” earned a 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes despite receiving just a 6% critics’ score. More tellingly, it quickly climbed to the top of Amazon’s and Apple TV’s paid video-on-demand charts.
And this isn’t just a Muslim and immigrant issue — and it’s not only about who is portrayed on screens, but also who is not. Representation has been backsliding, and audiences are left with fewer opportunities to see the reality and humanity of diverse communities, making them more vulnerable to fear-based narratives.
According to a 2026 report from the nonprofit Define American, which tracks representation across television and film, Latinos account for only 23% of immigrant characters represented on screen, even though they make up more than 40% of the immigrant population in the United States. In 2020, 50% of immigrants on screen were Latino.
The industry’s defense is that whitewashed and xenophobic films reflect audience demand. But the recent research by Define American challenges this assumption. Data show that nuanced, multidimensional storytelling, in which immigrants and minority characters are woven into the fabric of everyday narratives rather than tokenized or villainized, actually leads to greater audience engagement and deeper systemic understanding.
Entertainment doesn’t simply reflect culture; it teaches us who belongs within it. Studios, distributors, streaming platforms and filmmakers all have a responsibility to reject narratives that portray immigrants as enemies and instead embrace stories that reflect the diversity and complexity of our world. At the same time — as with voters — the power ultimately rests with consumers. The choice to demand storytelling that challenges prejudice rather than profits from it belongs to all of us.
Budget airline Ryanair has shared an ‘important’ announcement on Facebook telling people to stop wearing jeans on flights – and passengers have plenty to say about it
Ryanair has issued an ‘important’ announcement for passengers travelling in jeans (stock image)(Image: Getty Images)
Ryanair has issued an ‘important’ message to passengers who choose to wear jeans on their flights, having previously threatened to introduce a ‘denim fee’ for travellers not adhering to this guidance.
Staying warm and comfortable during a flight can prove more challenging than expected, especially when you’re confined to your seat with limited movement for hours at a time. Fortunately, selecting the appropriate travel attire could dramatically improve your comfort levels while in the air.
For many, this means tracksuit bottoms or leggings, while others continue to wear less comfortable garments, such as jeans, on their journeys.
But now, Irish budget airline Ryanair has posted an announcement on its Facebook page addressing all passengers regarding their clothing choices on flights.
“Important Travel Announcement,” the company posted, accompanied by three images of a Ryanair aircraft in the sky, zoomed in to reveal various details.
The first two images showed a Ryanair plane soaring through the air, with a brilliant blue sky visible in the background. However, the third image displayed a banner trailing from the rear of the aircraft.
The message was short and sweet. It read: “Stop travelling in jeans.”
While there’s no real cause for concern here, the joke simply comes from most travellers preferring to dress comfortably on flights, as jeans are well known for being rather restrictive when sitting for extended periods of time.
But this didn’t deter passengers from joining in with the banter. Scores of people quickly headed to the comments section to share their views, with many insisting they had no intention of ditching their beloved denim on flights.
“I’m always flying in jeans because they are 200g heavier than sweats and you would just love to charge me for those 200g in my suitcase,” one person said. Another went on to say: “It’s how many layers we have under our jeans that you should be worrying about.”
“Noted. I’ll fly in pyjamas… unless that’s a €12 add-on too,” a third person said.
Someone else wondered: “What, should I just travel in a t-shirt and my pants to save weight?”
Another person went on to share the safety reasoning of flying in jeans, explaining: “Better jeans than shorts… much safer in case of an emergency evacuation (same applies to closed shoes vs flip flop by the way).”
Meanwhile, a delegation from Qatar travelled to Iran on Friday for talks aimed at defusing tensions and easing navigation through the Strait of Hormuz – the vital waterway where some 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passes.
Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social earlier on Friday: “The Islamic Republic of Iran has asked us to continue ‘talks.’
“We have agreed to do so, but the United States has stated to them, in no uncertain terms, that the Cease Fire is OVER!”
It is not clear when those talks will be held. Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as special US envoys Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, are expected to oversee negotiations for the US.
According to Iranian media, Araghchi is in Oman for talks with Omani officials.
A US official said American technical teams would not be present in Oman, but would be in touch with the Omanis and Qataris as developments occurred.
In the early hours of Saturday, Trump also responded to reports that Iran had plans to assassinate him.
The US would “completely decimate and destroy all areas” of the country in retaliation to such an attack, he said.
The Wall Street Journal and other US media reported this week that Israel had shared intelligence with Washington that Iran had recently devised a plan to assassinate the US president.
However, Trump denied that Tehran had made a fresh plan or that Israel was the source of any intelligence. He told the New York Post in an interview that he had been “No. 1 [on Iran’s kill list] for a long time”.
On Saturday, his son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, released a written message that said vengeance for his father’s killing was “inevitable”.
The “matter depends neither on my personal existence nor on that of other officials. Whether we are present or not, it will come to pass,” Khamenei said.
It is easy to see why people love the Northumberland village so much. The centre is quaint and pretty, the beach sandy and impressive, and the castle perfectly preserved and towering
Bamburgh has won, yet again(Image: TimMcGuinness/ChronicleLive)
Has there been a run as dominant as this in the history of British seasides?
Once again, Bamburgh has been named the best coastal town or village the UK has to offer, bringing the run of victory to six in a row in the Which? annual survey.
It is easy to see why people love the Northumberland village so much. The centre is quaint and pretty, the beach sandy and impressive, and the castle perfectly preserved and towering.
In a gushing show, 5,320 Which? readers handed Bamburgh perfect marks for its seafront, scenery and beach. “It is a wonderful historic village with miles of sand and glorious views,” one happy visitor enthused.
Another said: “Bamburgh Castle, a stunning building, is the core of the village and leads through the sand dunes to an extraordinary beach, which never fails to captivate us.”
And a third agreed: “It’s just gorgeous and is as good now as it was years ago; it’s not been spoiled by commercialisation. What made it successful then has been retained.”
But amid all of the enthusiasm for the settlement of 300 people, not everyone is convinced by its dominance of the Which? survey. In fact, a number of locals are fed up with the limelight that is being cast on Bamburgh.
“I wish they wouldn’t do things like this. All it does is make rich southerners read it and then decide to buy a holiday house there, pushing up house prices and pushing out actual locals,” one irked person wrote online.
Another chimed in: “Peace and quiet?! Not on a sunny summer’s day. The village (it is not a Town) is rammed with vehicles and visitors.”
The gripes are consistent. Back in 2022, when Bamburgh’s reputation as the best of the best was still being forged, resident John Graham shared his frustrations. He said: “When the sun is out the place can be overrun. In the day, you get the ice-cream brigade leaving their rubbish everywhere and in the evenings the drunken louts have their fun.
“On an average morning in the summer, I pick up five or six burnt-out disposable barbecues and half a dozen or so bin bags full of bottles and cans.”
One business owner said it is really sad to see a big increase in litter being dumped in the sand dunes below the castle. They added: “A friend of mine summed up the problem quite well the other day when he said it’s like over-fishing.
“Pubs and hotel owners might be enjoying the money rolling in, but the more people who come here, the more damage is done to the environment.”
I visited last summer and was not overly impressed by what I found. One major issue was the cars. On a hot June day, the stream of traffic on the arterial road that runs through Bamburgh’s centre is relentless. The closest train station is seven miles away in Chathill, and the buses are sporadic, so any hopes of embarking on a relaxing, car-free day trip will prove difficult.
For me, the real issue with Bamburgh is its vibe. Central to the charm of Britain’s great seaside towns is a slightly edgy, salty quality in some way connected to large quantities of sailors. Bamburgh, with its Farrow and Ball doors and memorial benches, has none of this.
The stars of the show in Bamburgh are the beach and the castle. It is undeniable that the combination of the two — how the 1,400-year-old fort hangs above the broad, sandy shore — is magnificent. You won’t find me criticising Bamburgh Castle.
The beach, however, is arguably a little one-note. Once you’ve waded out half a mile to get to a patch of water deep enough to paddle in, you’ll be frozen by a North Sea that rarely swells itself into anything remotely as interesting as what you’d find on the UK’s Atlantic coast.
If you’re in search of a very long beach, Camber Sands near Rye in East Sussex not only enjoys a lot more sunshine — as one of the sunniest places in the country — it also has superior sand dunes, particularly so if you’re a teenager interested in launching yourself off their summits.
Chunky platform sandals, fitted baby tees, butterfly clips on perfectly crimped hair, brightly patterned skirts and tons of sparkles. Pure Y2K-fueled nostalgia filled the Kia Forum on Wednesday night in celebration of all things Hilary Duff.
Share via
Duff graced the stage at the Inglewood venue as part of her Lucky Me tour, her first global headlining tour in nearly two decades. And her fans couldn’t have been more thrilled. The pop singer and actor, who released her sixth studio album “Luck… or Something” in February, performed two back-to-back sold-out shows.
Before the final L.A. show, we caught up with fans to talk about their outfits (many of which were inspired by Duff’s most famous roles such as Sam in “A Cinderella Story” and the title role in “The Lizzie McGuire Movie”), the memories her music brings up for them and why her work still resonates with them. Here’s what they had to say.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Tristan Hallam, 36, of Chicago
Tell us about your outfit.
This is my wedding dress that I had stuffed in a suitcase. She’s been in a suitcase for 10 years, and I still fit into her, which is nice. People ask me why I keep stuff and this is exactly why: You might get divorced and use it as a costume. My outfit is inspired by “A Cinderella Story.” It’s my favorite Hilary Duff movie. She plays diner girl Cinderella. She disguises herself with a mask and a L.A. Dodgers cap. I did have a tiara, but I didn’t bring it because I didn’t want to be too much. So I figured, you know what, why not buy an apron and a little black crop top, and rep L.A.
I have a tattoo of her signature. It’s a little faded because it’s like 10 years old, maybe older than that now. It was at a book signing at Barnes and Noble at like the Grove or something. I asked her if she would initial my wrist, and I got it tattooed the same night. I literally drove to the tattoo shop on Hollywood Boulevard with my arm out the window because I’m so clumsy and I didn’t want to smudge it. Then the next time I saw her, she asked me, what did your parents say? I said, “My mom asked me how long I kept the Sharpie on so long.”
How long have you been a fan?
I think I was like 8 or 9 years old when I saw “Casper Meets Wendy” for the first time. My grandma took me to like a K-Mart or something, and told me that I could get any movie that I wanted. Then I was into “Lizzie McGuire,” but as soon as Hilary started doing all her like movies and independent work, obviously the music is great. I used to live in L.A., so I went to a bunch of her book signings. I’ve done a lot of meet and greets for her concerts, and right now I’m traveling around. I’m going to 18, technically 19 shows now, and I’m gonna see her in New Zealand, Australia and some other places. I’m actually really excited because one of my friends, I met her in a Hilary Duff fan club chat room in 2005 on MSN Messenger, and we are still friends, so we are going to a ton of shows together.
Why does her work still resonate with you today?
The fact that we’re around the same age, there’s been a lot of relationship similarities. I don’t have any kids, but the struggles with family, with your dad, with your siblings. She’s got some songs that are more mature and relatable for people our age. People who have gone through ups and downs in relationships, struggles with family and figuring out who your real family is, not just by blood but who your chosen family is. I think that’s really important.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Leilanie Martinez, 30, of South Gate
Tell us about your outfit and the inspiration behind it?
It’s my quinceañera dress. It’s supposedly very traditional to wear a white dress, like young women coming of age. For mine, I wanted to wear something that I didn’t see a lot of people wearing and I was very firm that if I didn’t find the love of my life, I was going to wear a white dress and this was my moment. My quinceañera was such a precious time. It really was a labor of love, and I think it’s one those memories I hold very near and dear. I think it’s an ode to her history, her legacy.
How long have you been a fan?
I remember I was 5 and I was running around in my neighborhood, playing with Barbies and watching “Lizzie McGuire.” I’m here today with my neighborhood and childhood friends. We used to watch it together and now we’re reliving our nostalgia and childhood.
Thinking back on when you first fell in love with her work, why does it still resonate with you today?
There’s a lot of power in her being a woman and she’s going through so many milestones that a lot of people my age are going through like having children and growing her career. Sometimes I think people “wash out” and I think it’s wonderful how she’s combating that narrative in so many ways, and that people are out here supporting her. I think there’s a lot of beauty in being able to be together as young women and relive some of these memories, but also cheer her on as she continues developing further.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Crystal Chesher, 33, of Mar Vista and Isabella Sanchez, 33, of Culver City
Tell us about your outfit.
Sanchez: We’re channeling “The Lizzie McGuire Movie.” My actual name is Isabella. She gives more Lizzie vibes and I give more Isabella vibes. It’s funny because I’ve literally saved [looks] of Isabella and Lizzie on my Pinterest board and I’ve always wanted to dress up like this. It’s not 100% of what I wanted, but it’s giving what it’s supposed to.
How long have you been a fan?
Chesher: Since I was little. I remember watching “Lizzie McGuire” since the age of 10 at the very least so I’ve been growing up with her movies and shows. She’s definitely my idol.
Sanchez: Same. Growing up, I was bullied so she was a very big part of me being more positive about myself. I can relate to her and she really helped me. It just feels full circle to be able to see her at 33 when I wanted to see her when I was like 10.
Thinking back on when you first fell in love with her work, why does it still resonate with you today?
Chesher: She has a heavy influence in the LGBT community as well especially with the [anti-gay speech campaign]. I loved that. With her movies and her music, it’s all relatable and it resonates with you, the lyrics, the storyline and even her new album that just came out.
Sanchez: She’s just that girl. I’ve never even met her, but I feel like she’s so genuine and real and she’s always stayed consistent with who she is. She’s not like your typical celebrity. She’s just awesome. I’m literally probably going to tear up seeing her on stage.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
Lucca Petrucci, 33, of Santa Monica
Tell us about your outfit.
This is a last-minute choice. It’s very like ’70s or retro. I feel like I’ve seen her wear something like this. I’m wearing wide-legged pants, Doc Martens, platform, new haircut, facial. The inspiration for this fit was elegant pop star like confidence, grounded, a baddie. I’m a baddie who knows my worth and that’s what I wanted to embrace. I feel like she’s like doing that. She has a lyric that’s like ‘I look in the mirror, like I’m a bad b—.”
How long have you been a fan?
Since third grade. I thought she was my crush, but I think I just wanted to be her. So many of my core childhood memories are with her.
Why was tonight a non-negotiable for you?
I wanted to experience with my bestie and her sister. I feel like as a kid I didn’t allow myself to fully embrace it because it would be too girly, too much, too gay. So I feel like as a 33-year-old, I’m reclaiming that experience. I’m so excited just to hear everybody in the Forum sing “So Yesterday” and “Come Clean.” She has always been my number one pop star, to this day, and I’ve never seen her perform.
Why does her work still resonate with you today?
I feel like, especially when she was on “Lizzie McGuire,” she was figuring out who she was, but was open to being her authentic self. So I think that just like hit me when I was like in third and fourth grade, like figuring out myself. I felt so seen by her, and her music just brings back like such good feelings. Younger version of me, life wasn’t always great, but, I don’t know, she made things better.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Liv Guardado, 8, Priscilla Cruz, 38, Ava Guardado, 10 and Jezelle Velasco of Costa Mesa
Tell us about your outfit.
Cruz: We went thrifting for the first time for this. I’m plus-size, so thrifting is not easy in my size, so we did what we could. We got some overalls from Goodwill. And then we got some cowboy boots because we just wanted to be comfy.
Velasco: I probably stressed the most. I ordered so many pieces and it just kind of came together. I think the nails took the longest. One of my friends did my nails. It took some time but we got it done.
How long have you been a fan?
Velasco: Probably since I was their age. I never got to go to a concert, so this is my first time seeing her live.
Cruz: I definitely got inspired around middle school. I had a friend who was like Lizzie, and I was the best friend, Miranda. People would always say I was Miranda. I was a little older than [my girls], but I definitely have kept tabs on her life, and we love her.
Why does her work still resonate with you today?
Cruz: It definitely feels like memories and home when you think of her music from back then. And now she’s obviously stepped into a different phase of her life, and it matches where we’re at in our phase too so it’s nice.
Velasco: It just brings back the nostalgia from back when we were younger and now being parents, and being able to relate to her and her new music.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Paige Beard, 34, and Tayler Nelson, 27, of Bakersfield
Tell us about your outfits.
Beard: I was supposed to be wearing purple and she was going to wear green, and we were going to do the Isabella and Lizzie look at the end of “The Lizzie McGuire Movie.” It turned out more pink, but we ran with it.
Nelson: I was all about that performance, so I was like green. Gotta go green. We’ve been planning for a while, like two months.
How long have you been a fan?
Beard: I’ve been a fan for a long, long time, probably since “Casper Meets Wendy.” I was also a really big “Lizzie McGuire” fan, so I got into her acting as well as her music.
Nelson: Same. I was all about the Cinderella movie though, so it’s probably been 10 years for me.
Why does her work still resonate with you today?
Beard: I was telling my sister that I really liked “Lizzie McGuire” because it was one of the first times I saw somebody’s inner dialogue acted out in cartoon form. It showed me that I’m not too much. She’s a little bit older than me and I see her crying on stage and I’m like “OK, it’s OK.”
Nelson: “The Lizzie McGuire Movie” was a big turning point for me. I just loved how she expressed herself with what she wore and how she acted. I feel like I understood her in different ways. I enjoyed the dancing and the singing for sure. She felt free and I’m like, “Dang, I want that.”
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Freddy Lopez, 38, and Raymond Lockwood, 36, of San Bernardino
Tell us about your outfits.
Lopez: Just a ’90s vibe. I guess a little old-school.
Lockwood: The outfits are a little last-minute because we were like we should’ve done diner girl [from “A Cinderella Story”] or one of her other movies, but we chose the little cartoon character from the show.
How long have you been a fan?
Lopez: I’ve been a fan since “Lizzie McGuire” and her movies.
Lockwood: For the past 20 something years. We grew up watching “Lizzie McGuire” and got introduced to Hilary Duff when she started singing.
Why was tonight a non-negotiable for you?
Lopez: We don’t know if she’s going to come back after this, so you’ve gotta take every opportunity. There’s other artists who cannot come back to perform right now. So when she said I’m coming back, we had to.
Lockwood: We’re healing our inner child. As a kid, we didn’t know she was having tours or we couldn’t afford to come out. Now, we’re like we don’t have to ask our mom and dad for anything.
Why does her work still resonate with you today?
Lockwood: For me, it’s being a teenager, watching the “Lizzie McGuire” show and watching the movie and then learning her songs. My favorite song is from the movie, “What Dreams Are Made Of.” It’s just us getting to live back in the past and kind of understanding it a little bit more. As a kid, our dreams are not what they realistically are today. I ended up becoming a nurse. As a kid, I didn’t sit on the couch like “Oh, I’m going to be a nurse,” but that’s what my dream ended up being.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Stephanie Rodriguez, 32, High Desert
Tell us about your outfit.
If you ask my fiancé, I was hunting for outfits and last-minute I was like, “I’m just gonna order something on Amazon.” When I saw this, I was like, “That’s it.” Total nostalgia with “13 Going on 30.” We went shoe shopping at the South Coast Plaza over the weekend. The metallic is pulling it all together and the butterfly clips.
How long have you been a fan?
Probably since I was like 8 or younger, pretty much very much obsessed. All of my holiday gifts were Hilary Duff. I had her K-Mart home products. Any magazines she was in, I got. Any outfits that I could try and replicate, I would. My first Hilary show was either Wango Tango or a Jingle Ball with KIIS-FM, so it was just a festival with a bunch of different artists but I went specifically for her.
Why does her work still resonate with you today?
I think a lot of us feel like we grew up with Hilary, so all of her music resonated with us then, and now, now that we’re older, through relationships or divorces or motherhood. It’s pretty cool to see just how we’re all kind of growing up together. The first time I think I found out about her was at the Glendale Galleria. I was recently telling my fiancé that my dad had me on his shoulders because she did a meet and greet and the entire mall was packed.
(Kayla Bartkowski/Los Angeles Times)
Kelsie Wagner, 35, of Temecula and Tyler Walsh, 35, of Long Beach
Tell us about your outfit.
Wagner: I’m channeling Lizzie McGuire. My favorite part is the butterfly clips.
Walsh: This is from Company D, which is a discount store for Disneyland. I was like let me get the biggest shirt and make it into a dress, but I’m wearing shorts — it’s still appropriate. I have like six authentic Disney pins here. This is about $200 on my hat. I was like I have to do something that represents. It’s a big hobby, pin trading, that I picked up in 2023. Then I wore my Lisa Franks. I figured I would channel everything from the ’90s and 2000s.
How long have you been a fan?
Wagner: Whenever the “Lizzie McGuire” show came out.
Walsh: I remember going to sleepovers with all of my friends and we would do Lizzie nights. I was on a soccer team and on Saturday nights, we’d go watch the newest episode. It was just so fun because I feel like I had a little clan that loved Lizzie. We went to her concert at the Grove together and it was back when you paid $50 to get in. We were front row and we like smelled her. It was wonderful.
Why does her work still resonate with you today?
Wagner: For me, especially her new album, she talks about marriage, relationships, motherhood, so it’s still relatable in that sense of that stage of life that we’re in.
Walsh: For me, it’s just nostalgia, because I’m not married, I have no kids, like I’m that fun aunt. And I will say, like, because she goes to Disneyland a lot, so I luckily got to meet her too. I asked her for a picture, and she’s like “Yeah, of course, honey.” It’s the most embarrassing photo of me ever though.
Wagner: I told her she should get it printed and wear it to the concert.
Andy Burnham, who is expected to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, took to social media to apologise for the Labour Party’s initial stance on Israeli attacks in Gaza. He’s now calling for accountability of the Netanyahu government.
A worker dumps towels and bags into a hotel trolley
Holidaymakers battling for poolside loungers may have finally met their match after a hotel worker was filmed removing towels and bags from reserved sunbeds while guests were at breakfast. The footage, filmed by Lucie Hewes, 19, from the UK, shows a member of staff making his morning rounds at a hotel in Rhodes, Greece, clearing unattended loungers despite personal belongings being left on them.
Lucie said the hotel has a clear policy banning guests from reserving sunbeds, but many holidaymakers ignored the rule by laying out towels, hats and bags before heading off to breakfast – or even back to bed. She said: “The pool man comes round at around 8 every morning and removes towels and belongings from the beds with no one sitting on them.”
According to Lucie, some guests returned looking confused when they discovered their belongings had vanished, while others were unhappy to find fellow holidaymakers already sitting on what they considered “their” sunbeds. She added: “It was funny and entertaining to watch and good to see, as the rule of no sunbed reservation is fair.”
Content cannot be displayed without consent
One woman reportedly confronted a member of the pool staff, complaining that her belongings should not have been moved because she now had nowhere to sit. Lucie said staff calmly explained the hotel’s policy, telling her sunbeds could not be reserved so that all guests had a fair chance of getting one.
“She did not agree despite getting all her stuff back,” Lucie said. The clip has reignited the annual sunbed wars debate, which has become a familiar feature of British holidays abroad.
Lucie’s video was viewed 538,000 times, had 23,000 likes and had 294 comments. One user said: “Well done wish all hotel done this.”
Another person said: “All hotels should do this.” Someone else added: “If you don’t like this, all skip breakfast and stay on your loungers.”
Jay said: “Every hotel should do this! Well done.”
Another user added: “Not all heroes wear capes.”
It comes just days after another UK holidaymaker made headlines for taking a far more controversial approach to the problem. Tom Caunce admitted secretly sprinkling itching powder onto towels left on reserved loungers during a holiday in Majorca, saying he was fed up with guests claiming the best poolside spots before sunrise and then disappearing for hours.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida speaks during a roundtable event in March in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the De-Santis-championed Stop WOKE Act violates free speech. File Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
July 7 (UPI) — A federal panel of appeals court judges ruled Tuesday that the Stop WOKE Act championed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis violates the free speech of professors and is a “breathtaking assertion of power.”
The Florida law restricted how professors can teach, especially when speaking about gender and race, in colleges and universities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled 2-1 to support a 2022 decision that called the law “positively dystopian,” Politico reported.
The court Tuesday went further, saying the act is a “breathtaking assertion of power to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse in the very places the state’s own statutes recognize as centers of inquiry — classrooms where students are trusted to puzzle through ideas that are good and bad, easy and hard, ideally getting ever closer to the truth.”
“If the First Amendment offers any boundary of protection at all for public university classrooms, this statute crosses it,” the ruling said.
Judge Britt C. Grant wrote the opinion, joined by Judge Charles R. Wilson. Judge Barbara Lagoa, however, wrote a dissent saying the First Amendment “does not compel all viewpoints to be worthy of state-sponsored endorsement.”
The Florida Legislature approved the act, also called the Individual Freedom Act, in 2022. The state has been fighting it in court ever since.
The lawsuits that led to the ruling Tuesday were brought by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a student free-speech group, and the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida and Legal Defense Fund.
FIRE senior attorney Greg Greubel said the decision “means that college remains a place where professors and students are allowed to debate controversial topics — even if politicians disagree with them.”
DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday, Politico said. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier praised Lagoa on social media, saying she “may be the best jurist in our country” and should be on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Based on chilling true story all episodes are streaming for free
The series is inspired by a chilling true story(Image: AMC)
A ‘phenomenal’ series that blends period drama with spine-chilling horror has been hailed by devoted fans as a ‘televisual masterpiece’.
Remarkably, the show is also rooted in a genuinely unsettling true story — and even better, it can be streamed right now at no additional cost.
At the time of writing, The Terror is currently available on both ITVX and Channel 5. The former additionally hosts its second season, though that particular instalment follows an entirely different storyline.
A third season was released in the US earlier this year, subtitled Devil In Silver. However, this chapter was adapted from a novel and has yet to reach UK audiences.
In the meantime, viewers can revisit the series from the very beginning. The Terror is a historical anthology drama, with its first two seasons drawing upon real-life events, though both remain fictionalised interpretations, reports OK!
Legendary director Ridley Scott serves as executive producer across both seasons. The opening season charts the journey of Royal Navy polar expedition vessels HMS Erebus and HMS Terror as they venture into uncharted waters, resolute in their mission to locate and confirm the existence of the fabled Northwest Passage.
The ships soon become trapped in ice, leaving the crew to endure savage conditions and mounting internal tensions, all while being stalked by a terrifying and mysterious presence. It draws inspiration from the actual 1845 Franklin Expedition, where those two vessels genuinely became trapped in ice within the Arctic while seeking the Northwest Passage.
However, the programme dramatises the potential terrors they might have encountered.
Meanwhile, the second series, titled Infamy, takes place along America’s western coastline during the Second World War, delving into Japanese bakemono folklore – a malevolent phantom that torments a Japanese American community from Southern California through to internment camps and Pacific battlefields.
Audiences have heaped praise upon the series, particularly its opening instalment. One enthusiast proclaimed: “It’s such a masterpiece that I watched it twice, back to back.”
Another added: “I binge-watched season one, couldn’t stop. Amazing performances.”
A fellow admirer wrote online: “I have watched a lot of horror shows and movies…but nothing makes me feel dread and unease like this one. The pacing is perfect, the atmosphere bleak, the music beautifully haunting, the dialogue is fantastic, and the story is amazing. Best horror show of all time for me.”
Meanwhile, one viewer declared: “Quite simply, a televisual masterpiece, mixing true-life tragedy, fictional horror and majestic period thriller. A magnificent accomplishment.”
Another viewer chimed in: “This is a remarkable series, which takes on a journey of suspicion, disaster, tragedy and terror. The first episode didn’t exactly captivate me, but by episode three I was obsessed, and subsequently had to binge watch the whole series.”
The embattled Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority sued the Trump administration on Monday to stop it from depriving the region of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, saying the effort is unwarranted and violates federal laws.
The authority, better known as LAHSA, said in its Monday filing that cutting off the funds would put more than 11,000 people — 1,900 of them children — at risk of losing housing or other services.
LAHSA, a joint city-county agency overseen by political appointees, is seeking a temporary restraining order to bar the federal Housing and Urban Development Department from suspending the funds.
“The people who will be harmed by this decision are not bureaucrats,” said Gita O’Neill, LAHSA’s interim chief executive officer, in a statement Monday. “They are families, veterans, seniors, and formerly homeless Angelenos who rely on these resources to remain housed.”
The filing in federal court comes nearly three weeks after HUD officials said they were suspending LAHSA from applying for or receiving federal funds, citing financial mismanagement, fraud and a lack of safeguards to prevent conflicts of interest.
In its 46-page lawsuit, LAHSA pushed back on HUD’s allegations, saying they were not supported by the evidence. Lawyers for LAHSA portrayed HUD’s actions as part of a larger political agenda — elimination of the federally approved “Continuum of Care” system, which makes LAHSA the overarching applicant for most federal homelessness funding across Los Angeles County.
The Trump administration “has made clear it wants to scrap the program entirely in favor of a homelessness policy favoring criminal enforcement, drug treatment, institutionalization and civil commitment of the mentally ill,” the lawsuit states.
HUD officials have said they are barring LAHSA from applying for funds on behalf of the Continuum of Care, which covers 85 cities, including Los Angeles. LAHSA secured $220 million in federal funds for various agencies in 2024 and $944 million since 2021, according to the June 11 letter from HUD Deputy Secretary Andrew D. Hughes.
HUD did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the letter, Hughes said his agency had received information that LAHSA “may have committed violations of federal law” while carrying out its obligations as part of its HUD grant agreements.
“HUD has evidence that LAHSA’s repeated false statements and its irresponsible actions and failures, including its lack of financial management, internal controls, and safeguards against conflicts of interest, pose a threat to HUD, the public, and those living on the streets of Los Angeles,” he wrote.
In the letter, Hughes said that HUD’s inspector general had opened an investigation. Depending on the outcome, the money could be restored or LAHSA could be permanently barred from receiving funds.
LAHSA, in its lawsuit, said HUD has not provided any investigative findings to show violations of the funding agreements. Instead, agency lawyers said, federal officials relied on “a mash-up of old news articles, comments from public officials taken out of context, and findings from routine public audits that included recommendations that were all appropriately actioned.”
Lawyers for LAHSA contend that HUD’s actions violate the U.S. Constitution and override the dictates of Congress, which established many of the processes for distributing federal homeless funds.
The vast majority of the federal funds secured by LAHSA as a grant applicant goes toward permanent housing, agency officials said.
LAHSA, created in 1993, is overseen by a 10-member commission, half from the city and half from the county. Among those commissioners is L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, who has made homelessness a central part of her agenda. Each of the five county supervisors has an appointee.
At stake in the battle between HUD and LAHSA is an array of services affecting some of the region’s most vulnerable residents.
LAHSA oversees the Homeless Management Information System, the federally-mandated software that tracks homeless people across the county. It has 8,000 individual users and is used by more than 300 agencies, according to the lawsuit.
HUD’s plan to suspend the funding would prevent LAHSA from using the system to match Angelenos — those on the street and in shelters — with housing and services, the lawsuit said.
LAHSA also oversees the annual “point in time” homelessness count across the county. Agency officials have pointed to the results from those counts as evidence that they have been making steady headway, with homelessness decreasing 4.3% countywide and 5.5% within Los Angeles between 2023 and 2025.
Unsheltered homelessness, which tallies the people living outside or in their vehicles, fell by a larger margin, declining 14% across the county and 17.5% within L.A. during that period.
Despite those numbers, LAHSA’s reputation has been battered by some highly critical assessments.
Last year, a global consulting firm retained as part of a federal lawsuit over the city of L.A.’s response to homelessness found that homeless services provided by LAHSA and the city lacked adequate financial controls, leaving the system vulnerable to waste and fraud.
Several months earlier, county auditors identified lax accounting procedures that resulted in LAHSA’s failure to pay its contractors on time. Even after that report was issued, nonprofit groups with LAHSA contracts continued to report that payments were behind schedule.
Last year, the county Board of Supervisors reached a breaking point, pulling more than $300 million — the vast majority of its funds — out of LAHSA and creating its own homelessness department. City officials have been weighing a similar move in recent months.
The Dodgers won the World Series last year, and the year before that. Their lead is the largest in any division this year. That success, and the money that nourishes it, has battalions of fans beyond Los Angeles all but marching outside ballparks with picket signs reading “SALARY CAP NOW.”
It’s a reasonable thought: The Dodgers can’t possibly keep winning if they can’t keep outspending the competition.
Or can they?
“There are a lot of little things that happen behind the scenes that people don’t see,” pitcher Will Klein said. “I understand where people are coming from. It’s easy to be a fan of a smaller team and get mad at other teams outspending you.
“But I think there’s a level of care here, and wanting to win, that exceeds other groups.”
The obvious disclaimer: Any team would be better with Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, at a combined price of $1.6 billion. The counter argument: The Angels had Ohtani and Mike Trout and, well, you know.
It takes a roster. In Klein and pitcher Eric Lauer, the Dodgers have done something they do well besides spend: develop valuable contributors out of players discarded by other teams.
The Dodgers grabbed Lauer last month, desperate to fill a hole in their starting rotation. The Toronto Blue Jays had cut him, and he would be joining his seventh major league organization. The logical thought: The Dodgers had found a healthy arm to eat up some innings until they could find someone better.
That still might happen. But Lauer, who is set to pitch Monday, has put up a 3.22 earned-run average in four starts with the Dodgers. Four starts is a small sample size, but in that time, Lauer is a career league-average pitcher performing 28% above league average.
“They got me immediately,” Lauer said. “They figured me out right away, and they knew exactly what was going to help me.”
For Lauer, the changes affected his delivery, but the specifics were not as important as finding a kindred spirit in Connor McGuiness, the Dodgers’ assistant pitching coach.
“I’ve always had a really hard time explaining myself and what I do, because I think a little differently,” Lauer said.
“When I was with the Brewers, it was running joke that it was ‘the language of Lauer,’ because I would describe things so differently and feel things so differently that, if you weren’t close to me and you didn’t know how I operate, it was very hard to understand what I was trying to do.
“Connor just immediately got it. It was like he’s been speaking it forever.”
At one point in his career, Lauer said, he struggled to explain the sensation of catching his heel on the mound as he completed his delivery toward home plate.
“I would describe it as, ‘I was falling backwards and I would catch myself,’ and it’s a really weird concept to think somebody was falling backwards when it doesn’t look like you’re falling at all,” he said. “It looks like you’re just moving forward.
“So they were like, ‘That’s not what you’re doing’ and I was like, ‘That’s what I’m feeling.’ We have to make the connection between the feel and the real so that we can understand each other.”
“I have a hard time saying anybody has done a better or faster job of helping me than the Dodgers.”
— Eric Lauer, Dodgers pitcher, on his development with the team
Klein, who joined his fourth organization when the Dodgers acquired him in a minor league trade last June, is in his first full major league season. He has a 2.37 ERA, and his 0.7 wins above replacement is better than any Dodgers reliever besides veteran closer Tanner Scott.
Klein said other teams had made suggestions on how to improve his game, and with the Dodgers, he has added a sweeper and dumped a slider. But what he needed to do most was throw more strikes, trusting that his lively fastball and curve were good enough to beat the best players in the world.
In the minors, Klein issued 6.9 walks per nine innings. This season, he has issued 3.6 walks per nine innings.
The credit, he said, should be shared with the Dodgers’ mental skills coaches.
“It’s easy to see the guys in the batter’s box — especially when you come up watching baseball and being fans of these guys, it’s easy to see them being above yourself,” Klein said.
“But you’re on the mound with them, so you have to see that too. There’s a lot on the mental side that’s helped me here.”
Dodgers pitcher Will Klein delivers against the Tampa Bay Rays at Dodger Stadium on June 16.
(Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
The Dodgers did not include Klein on their postseason roster for the first three rounds last year, but he said coaches at all levels — in the majors, at triple-A and at the Arizona training complex — never stopped checking in on him, during the season and throughout October.
“When you’re down there, they don’t forget about you up here,” he said. “That kind of commitment and care was levels above what I had experienced.”
When the Dodgers added him to the World Series roster, Klein saved the season, with four scoreless innings to close out an 18-inning victory in Game 3.
Lauer called the communication in the Dodgers’ organization “miles ahead” of any other organization in which he has played.
“The training room, the weight room, the coaching staff, the players to each other,” he said. “Every form of communication is so seamless. Everybody knows what’s going on all the time. There’s no gray area.
“It’s all: ‘This is the plan, this is what we want to happen, this is how we’re going to make it happen,’ instead of: ‘This is the plan, this is what we want to happen, figure out a way to make it happen.’”
Klein raved about how the Dodgers treat player families, and about a high-tech pitching machine so lifelike that he could see what it would be like to bat against him. Lauer reflected on his experience as a first-round pick turned journeyman who went to South Korea to revive his career.
“I have a hard time saying anybody has done a better or faster job of helping me than the Dodgers,” Lauer said.
What Lauer and Klein say substantially echoes what Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at last year’s World Series about turning the team into a preferred destination for players, and not just because the team wins and spends.
“Communication, being honest, having a really strong player development group in place at the major-league level, and how you treat families and treat the players,” Friedman said then, “I think matters a lot in that.”
To be clear: There is no indication the players’ union is willing to consider, let alone approve, a salary cap.
But, if that were to happen, Klein believes the Dodgers would be just fine.
“Our owners want to win, so they want to get the best product on the field, so they go and spend money,” he said, “and then everyone is mad that they want to win.
“I think they’ll find ways to win more if they can’t spend as much money. Friedman was with the Rays when they weren’t spending as much money and still had success there.
“I think they’re just better at wanting to win than some other people.”
THERE’S enough going on this summer with EES checks and extreme heat – and your passport could cause problems as well.
Affecting millions, we’ve explained the two things you need to check before your next holiday.
Sign up for the Travel newsletter
Thank you!
Don’t get caught out by these two passport rules this summerCredit: Getty
Expiry Dates
You might think that expiry dates have been spoken about enough – but it is still catching people out.
Old rules let passports have more than 10 years on them, but these rules have since been scrapped.
To find the true expiry date, you need to check the start date rather than the expiry listed in the passport.
If your passport was issued in April 2016, but has an expiry of December 2026, your passport is out of date as it’s over 10 years old. The REAL expiry date is actually April 2026.
Colette and her two children were unable to fly from the UK to Copenhagen
Colette Bjorn-Alderson has lived in the UK for 28 years, but was trying to return to the UK with her two young children – both of which only had Danish passports.
She told The Times that she felt “unwelcome in my own country” after being turned away from the flight.
She added that her only two options were getting a new UK passport from Denmark – which can take three months – or the certificates, which can take up to eight weeks.
Bob Blumenfield would like to see Angelenos’ old banana peels and moldy bread stay local.
On Tuesday morning, the City Council member told a small crowd of waste advocates in front of city hall that he was introducing a motion to reduce the city’s greenhouse gas emissions by strengthening local composting infrastructure and decreasing reliance on distant facilities.
Currently, when city residents separate their food waste and yard clippings, chances are it’s being trucked to faraway processing facilities in Bakersfield or Lancaster.
The motion would help the city meet targets set by California’s Short-Lived Climate Pollutant Reduction Strategy, or Senate Bill 1383, which phases out sending green waste to the landfill, because it is a major source of the powerful climate pollutant methane.
It also would help meet Mayor Bass’ Climate Action Plan, which aims to use at least 50% of locally produced compost and mulch within Los Angeles by 2030. Currently, only 25% to 30% of the city’s material is applied to land locally.
The city produces approximately 350,000 tons of organic material a year, Blumenfield told the crowd, which he said equates to roughly 1.2 to 1.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide.
“That’s a big number, and when you do the math,” he said, that’s roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide released by the entire country of Belize, the entirety of Humboldt County or the equivalent of burning 1.6 billion pounds of coal per year.
As the announcement was underway, in the background a fire burned for a sixth day in a Boyle Heights warehouse, where 85 million pounds of frozen food was thawing and beginning to rot.
Signed into law in 2016, the state’s composting bill mandated a gradual increase in the amount of organic waste that must be diverted away from landfills. It required 50% of all green and food waste be diverted by 2020; by 2025, that number was supposed to hit 75%.
But it hasn’t. Although Los Angeles has pushed to get a residential curbside bin program in place — recall the “Great Green Bin Apocalypse of 2025” — it has struggled to get people to comply.
According to reports for the recycLA program, a commercial and multifamily waste collection franchise program, only about half of households and business are separating their compostable waste.
Alex Helou, assistant general manager of L.A. Sanitation & Environment, provided a much brighter picture of the city’s food waste situation. L.A. is the first major city to provide green bins to 750,000 residential customers, he said. The city has “exceeded expectations” in food recovery, he said, saving 80 million meals that would have been thrown out and redirecting them to people in need.
Helou said Blumenfield’s motion completes the loop by keeping food waste close to home, creating more local composting and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transporting waste outside of the city. It doesn’t directly affect the city’s compliance with SB 1383, but that isn’t necessary, he said. “We’re meeting that and exceeding that at multiple fronts.”
Blumenfield’s initiative directs the Bureau of Sanitation to develop a plan for expanding local composting across the city. It would also increase the use of locally produced compost and mulch.
For instance, the motion would encourage using the compost on urban farms and at community gardens and city parks. It also would be used to replace artificial grass and turf.
It will support a “citywide transition away from artificial turf and towards nature-based solutions, such as California native plants and natural grass plant fields, and ensure everyone has access to safer, cooler, and sustainable parks, schools, and communities,” said Terry Saucier, a Tarzana resident and member of the Neighborhood Council Sustainability Alliance and the Tarzana Neighborhood Council.
The state’s composting law has proved challenging on several fronts.
The Antelope Valley has become a dumping site for many of the city’s haulers looking to cut transport and facility costs — causing concern among environmentalists and others who say the material is destroying fragile ecosystems.
Complying has been particularly difficult for Los Angeles and much of coastal Southern California, where there are few large composters and low demand for compost. Unlike areas to the north, there is little agricultural demand for compost and mulch.
Experts say dumping in the desert has always been a problem, but the law made it worse by making it more expensive and difficult to deal with.
In addition, composters are struggling with the amount of plastic and other debris that people and businesses put in the food waste bins.
According to a report by Closed Loop Partners, which partners with companies such as Pepsico and McDonald’s, nearly 4% of food waste is contaminated with other materials — most of it plastic. State law requires that finished compost contains no more than 0.5% by dry weight of physical contaminants.
The federal government can’t block benefits from the nation’s largest food aid program from being used to buy candy, soda and other sugary drinks, a judge ruled.
Monday’s ruling scuttles restrictions now in place or planned for the federally funded and state-run Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in 23 states. President Trump’s administration has not said whether it will appeal to a higher court.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who sits in Washington and was nominated to the bench by former President Obama, said in her opinion that the ruling was because the federal government did not follow its own definition of “food.” She said it wasn’t a comment on whether the restrictions are a good idea.
“The federal defendants and the states may have a genuine desire to improve the health of SNAP households by encouraging healthy choices at the store, and they can take lawful steps to meet those goals,” she wrote. “But what they cannot do is violate the law and their own regulations along the way.”
The restrictions are part of the Make America Healthy Again campaign
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have encouraged states to limit what the food aid can be used to buy as part of the “Make America Healthy Again” campaign.
They reason that soda and candy fuel obesity, diabetes and chronic disease epidemics — and taking them off the menu would encourage healthier food choices.
The Agriculture Department has given 23 states so far permission to implement restrictions. Some have been implemented already, while others are queued to take effect in the coming months and years.
At least one state that was set to limit soda and candy purchases changed course earlier this year. Colorado’s human services board voted against implementing the ban after a March hearing in which SNAP beneficiaries and advocates said people would face stigmas if they mistakenly tried to use the benefits on prohibited items. They also said the rules were confusing because they would have allowed buying drinks with at least 50% fruit or vegetable juice, but not those with less.
While the goals are similar, the exact rules vary by state. Some wanted to ban both sugary drinks and candy, while others only sought to ban sugary beverages.
A legal challenge to the candy and soda ban — which includes items such as sports drinks in some states — was filed by SNAP beneficiaries in Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia.
Judge says government ignored a definition of food
Jackson said the main legal misstep in restricting what SNAP benefits could buy came because it ran contrary to Congress’s definition of “food.”
Under the law, SNAP benefits — formerly known as food stamps — can be used for “any food or food product for home consumption except alcoholic beverages, tobacco, hot foods or hot food products ready for immediate consumption.”
The government can waive requirements, but limiting use of the benefits to improve nutrition isn’t listed as a reason to do so. Yet when states asked the Agriculture Department to let them restrict purchases, their requests included using alternate definitions of “food.”
This may not be the final word
The Agriculture Department has not said whether it intends to appeal the ruling.
The case is among scores of challenges to Trump administration policies that hinge on whether the administration has the authority to change policies without congressional approval.
While it’s a big program helping nearly 39 million Americans — about 1 in 9 — buy groceries, SNAP is normally relatively low-profile. That’s been different since Trump returned to office last year.
Under his big tax and policy law signed last year, more recipients are subject to work requirements and states are being required to pay a larger share of administrative costs — and could be on the hook for benefit costs if their error rates are too high.
During a government shutdown last year, courts blocked the administration from cutting off benefits. Meanwhile, Rollins has said that there’s rampant fraud in the program.
Haaland had to wait until the age of 25 not just to make his World Cup debut, but his international tournament bow too.
And the Leeds-born striker is clearly eager to make up for lost time.
“He’s the opposite of Mbappe and Messi,” Williams said. “He’ll beat you without the ball, which makes it even more dangerous.
“You want to help your midfield by squeezing up, so they don’t have to cover too much distance.
“But as soon as you leave the space in behind, he’s going to exploit that straight away.”
One of the keys to limiting Haaland’s influence, Williams says, is to prevent his team mates getting the ball to him.
“You’ve got to stop the balls in behind first and foremost,” Williams said. “Stop the supply going into him.
“If you can play your distances between your midfield and limit his chances, you’ve got half a chance.
“There’s not many times when he actually drops in, gets the ball, beats four players, and scores his own goal, so he does feed off what he’s getting served.”
Haaland is the most clinical of the four, with 57 goals in just 51 caps.
“He’s more lethal,” Williams added. “If he gets a chance, it’s probably going to be a goal.”
What about dealing with Haaland one on one?
“Around the box, you’ve got to get tight and try to get him on his right foot,” Williams said.
“Then you’re just going to have to be as strong as you can, don’t be clever, just get the ball away and buy time.”
On June 14, the United States and Iran agreed to a framework to end their war. The Strait of Hormuz is to reopen, the bombing of Lebanon is to end and – most importantly – the killing is to stop. After more than 100 days of war that killed thousands, including Iran’s most senior leaders, and pushed the world economy to the brink, even a fragile truce feels like first light.
Let us welcome it, but also let us understand it. To grasp why this war happened, and the string of wars before it, we must name their common cause. That cause is “Greater Israel” – not the country of Israel but an idea of it – a terrible one. The idea of “Greater Israel” has been the cause of wars in Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran.
It holds that Israel should stretch over all of historic Palestine – from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea – and to parts of neighbouring countries as well. According to United States Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a fundamentalist Protestant whose geopolitical compass is set by biblical texts from 500 BC, “Greater Israel” stretches from the Nile to the Euphrates. Last summer, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu professed to be “very” attached to a vision of “Greater Israel” that, he said, takes in the Palestinian territories and neighbouring Arab lands.
This absurd and dangerous doctrine has two parents. The first are secular hardliners like Netanyahu who say that Israel must control all the land from the river to the sea to be safe, and damn the eight million Palestinians in the way.
The second is the Jewish supremacist creed of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir that God gave the land to the Jews alone: There is, in Smotrich’s words, “no such thing as a Palestinian”. Asked recently how Israel should answer its collapsing global standing, Smotrich vowed Israel would not relinquish military control of the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanese or Syrian territory: “We won’t commit suicide to make them happy.”
“Greater Israel” is paranoia, megalomania and religious zeal braided into a single programme. The doctrine should have been repudiated on its first airing decades ago. Instead, it has driven Israel’s foreign and military doctrine for three decades – and has survived until today because Netanyahu has taken the US for a ride.
He has done it with two American constituencies: Jewish Zionists who love Israel and will forgive it anything and Christian Zionists who love the prophecy of the End Times and the Second Coming of Christ more than they love any living Palestinian or, for that matter, any living Israeli.
Delusion has led on to delusion, and the road has run from one war to the next. We are 30 years into this fiasco now.
The war on Iran was simply the latest “Greater Israel” fantasy. The government of 90 million people was to be toppled in a single, glorious day. Of course, it did not happen. Israeli and American bombs killed Iran’s leaders on February 28, but that did not deliver the promised collapse. It resulted instead in thousands of dead, a choked Strait of Hormuz and a global oil shock.
We have seen this film before. The Israel-US plan to bring down President Bashar al-Assad in Syria was also meant to be quick, one or two years at the most. Instead came a dozen years of carnage, fed by a covert war armed and financed by the CIA with Israel’s ardent backing. The result was an ancient country reduced to rubble. The promised one-day victories always become decade-long graveyards.
US President Donald Trump has been battered by joining the “Greater Israel” delusion, and he knows it. The new agreement with Iran is his escape valve, a way out of a fatuous war that was never his to win.
That is precisely why Israel’s “Greater Israel” politicians are trying to strangle the new agreement in the cradle, for peace with Iran is a defeat for “Greater Israel”. Even after the deal was sealed, Israel has continued to bomb Lebanon, killing 47 people in a single day on Friday and another 32 on Saturday hours after a Lebanon-Israel ceasefire took effect.
Here is the deeper truth: “Greater Israel” is not saving Israel. It is killing it. The friction now visible between Trump and Netanyahu is only the surface. Beneath it lies the collapse of Israel’s standing throughout the world. According to a recent Pew opinion survey, the world now holds an overwhelmingly unfavourable view of Israel. In the US, Israel’s indispensable patron, six in 10 adults view it unfavourably.
A state that makes itself hated by the world, and by its only protector, is not pursuing security. It is threatening its own survival to feed a delusion.
So the way to peace in West Asia is to stop “Greater Israel”. End the war on Iran, stop the genocide in Gaza and halt the strangulation of the West Bank. Most importantly, do the thing the doctrine forbids, which is to create the State of Palestine as the 194th United Nations member state alongside the State of Israel on the 1967 lines with genuine security for both countries and a regional framework to guarantee it, which should include Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon and Syria.
The Iran ceasefire makes the case in miniature: It was won not on the battlefield but through mediation. It became possible when Washington decided it wanted peace more than it wanted “Greater Israel’s” war.
Israel can survive, but not as “Greater Israel”, a disastrous idea that has marched it and the US from one war to the next.
The glimmer of hope today is real. Whether it becomes a true dawn depends on whether the US finally lets Palestine be born, and thereby lets Israel live. The Arab world and Iran need to keep insisting to the US that breaking with “Greater Israel” is the only path to lasting peace.
The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
BRITS heading to Spain need to be aware of a new rule update that could get them banned from entering the country.
Currently, Brits visiting Spain need to show they have a certain amount of money in their bank at the border.
Sign up for the Travel newsletter
Thank you!
Brits could be refused entry to Spain under updated rulesCredit: Alamy
However, an upgrade to this rule means all travellers from non-EU countries must be able to prove they now have at least €1,098.90 (£948.12).
For longer trips, the figure will rise in line with how many days you are in the country for, working out to around an extra €121.10 (£104.48) per day.
For example, if you intend to stay in Spain for 10 days, you will need to prove you have €1,220 (£1,052.79) in funds.
Brits can prove they have the money in several ways including having the cash, presenting debit or credit cards accompanied by bank statements, showing cheques or providing a letter of credit.
However, it is worth noting that screenshots of online bank statements are not accepted.
The money must be shown in euros or the equivalent amount in your own currency, so for Brits, this would be in pounds.
Brits heading to Spain must prove they have sufficient funds for their tripCredit: Alamy
Despite the requirement not being new, the amount tourists need to prove has been updated to be in line with 10 per cent of Spain’s minimum wage, which recently increased.
The rule was first introduced in 2021, at the end of the Brexit transition period.
Brexit meant that Brits became “third-country nationals” and therefore have to follow the rules for entering the EU when travelling to European countries.
Similar proof-of-funds requirements are in place across all Schengen countries.
The amounts do vary though – for example, in France, travellers must be able to prove they have €65 (£56.08) per day, yet in Latvia, the figure drops to €14 (£12.08) per day.
Even though proof-of-funds can be enforced by border officers in Spain, checks are not usually carried out on every traveller entering the country.
If they don’t, border force officers can refuse them entryCredit: PA
But if a border force officer asks you to prove your funds and you do not have the amount needed, then they can refuse you entry into Spain.
Advice from the UK Foreign Office states: “Make sure that you have access to enough money to cover all of your costs when travelling abroad, including unforeseen costs, e.g. medical care.
“To avoid getting into financial difficulties abroad, you should take prepaid travel cards, traveller’s cheques, local currency, credit and bank cards with you.
“Check what you can use in the country you are visiting and ensure you have enough money.
“Make a note of how to stop any credit cards or traveller’s cheques being used if lost or stolen, and of traveller’s cheque numbers.
“[And] get comprehensive travel insurance, ensure it provides you with adequate financial cover for your personal needs, and check for any exclusions.
“If you don’t have adequate travel insurance, you will need to pay any costs you are charged.”
BEIRUT — Israel and Iran traded fire on Monday, all but derailing a brittle two-month ceasefire that had largely stopped the fighting in the U.S and Israel’s assault on Iran.
The tit-for-tat attacks between the two sides threaten to widen the scope of a conflict that has already killed and wounded thousands, displaced more than a million people and rattled economies across the globe — even while embroiling the U.S. in a war with no clear off-ramp.
“Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting.’ ” wrote President Trump early Monday on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Later, he wrote, “Both sides, Israel and Iran, are looking to do an immediate CEASEFIRE!”
“Final negotiations on ‘Peace’ are proceeding, subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way. The Blockade will remain in place, and in full force and effect, until a ‘Final Deal’ is reached. Things should move quickly.”
The latest escalation came after Israel attacked the suburbs of Lebanon’s capital Beirut on Sunday in what it said was a targeted strike against Hezbollah, an Iran-supported paramilitary faction and political party.
In recent days, Iran conditioned a ceasefire agreement with Israel and the U.S. on a cessation of hostilities across all fronts, including Lebanon, threatening it would respond to any Israeli action on the Lebanese capital. Israel rejects linking both battlefields, and insists on having a free hand to attack Hezbollah.
A number of U.S.-brokered ceasefires between the Lebanese and Israeli governments — but without Hezbollah involvement — failed to stop most of the fighting, with Israeli warplanes pounding wide swaths of Lebanon’s south while Hezbollah launched drones and missiles on northern Israel. Nevertheless, the Lebanese government has rejected being included in Iran’s negotiations with the U.S.
By Sunday night, Iran’s threats came to pass with several waves of Iranian ballistic missiles, which caused no injuries and were the first Tehran had fired at Israel since a ceasefire took hold in April. Iran’s military said the fusillade was a warning. But Israel said it would retaliate.
President Trump initially downplayed the Iranian attack on Sunday, saying in an interview with the Financial Times Iran’s barrage was “not going to have any impact on the deal.”
“We’ll see how it ends up. But they [the Iranian strikes on Israel] were attacks that did not kick at all,” he said.
“The deal may make it on its own merit, or not, but this will not have any effect on it.”
Trump also told the Axios news site he would talk to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop him retaliating against Iran’s barrage.
He also told the Financial Times that Netanyahu “won’t have any choice” but to accept the deal Trump negotiates with Iran.
“I call the shots. I call all the shots. He [Netanyahu] doesn’t call the shots,” Trump said.
Yet by the early morning on Monday, dozens of Israeli warplanes were striking western and central Iran. They hit a petrochemical complex in Mahshahr in southwestern Iran, and waged extensive strikes on “strategic defense systems,” according to Israeli military statements, in what observers said was a prelude to a wider offensive. Residents in Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz and Shiraz reported powerful explosions.
The Israeli military said in a statement it expected several days of fighting with Iran but was prepared for a prolonged campaign. It said the strikes on Iran were conducted by Israel on its own, but that they had been done in “full coordination” with U.S. Central Command, which also helped in intercepting Iranian missiles launched at Israel.
But that distinction appeared to matter little to Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, who said in a press conference on Monday that the U.S held direct responsibility for recent ceasefire violations and Israel’s action “cannot be looked at in isolation from the U.S.”
“No one believes the Israeli regime would take any action without coordination with the United States,” he said.
“The U.S. bears responsibility for the Israeli regime’s aggression, and it will also be responsible for the consequences of any escalation in tensions.”
Iran launched additional barrages throughout Monday, targeting Israeli airbases in Nevatim and Tel Nof and a petrochemical plant in Haifa, according to a statement from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. It added Israel was engaging in “a dangerous game by targeting civilian and oil infrastructure — a game that will now encompass all regional energy targets, with global economic consequences resting on America.”
The renewed hostilities also saw Yemen’s Houthis — who receive support from Iran and Hezbollah, and are part of a regional network of Iran-backed factions — enter the fray with a pair of ballistic missiles lobbed at Israel. The Israeli military said one of the missiles was intercepted; the second fell short of Israel.
Houthi spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Sarea confirmed the attack in a televised statement on Monday, and said Israeli maritime navigation in the Red Sea would be targeted.
During the Gaza war, the Houthis attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea — including ships with no link to Israel — to pressure Israel into lifting its blockade on the enclave.
But, unlike Hezbollah, which attacked Israel on March 2, three days after the U.S. and Israeli campaign on Iran, the Houthis had refrained from helping their ally, until Monday.
Their involvement now raises the specter of another squeeze on energy markets already beleaguered by closures on the Strait of Hormuz. Since the U.S.-Israeli assault, the Red Sea has acted as the main alternative conduit for energy supplies, especially for those from Saudi Arabia. If the Houthis closed the Bab Al-Mandab Strait, it would all but paralyze commercial flows.
Oil prices spiked in the wake of the exchanges, with Brent Crude rising 5% to hit $98 a barrel.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer threw down the gauntlet to tech firms on Monday at London Tech Week at Olympia in west London, threatening to legislate unless they act to block children using their phones to shoot, share or view naked images. Photo by Carlos Jasso/EPA
June 8 (UPI) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer issued an ultimatum on Monday to tech companies, including Apple and Google, to prevent explicit images from being taken or viewed on children’s mobile phones within three months or face legislation compelling them to comply.
Speaking at the London Tech Week show, Starmer said the initiative, requiring operating system developers to enable nudity-detection software or other technical fixes, was a global first that would make Britain the first country where children would not be able to shoot, share or view naked images.
“For too long, people have been told that [children sharing explicit images] is simply the price of modern tech — that nothing could be done. That government is powerless. That parents just have to accept it,” said Starmer.
“I reject that completely because tech should adapt to the needs of society, not the other way round. If we are serious about unlocking the opportunities that tech can bring then we must also be serious about preventing those who want to abuse it — the online predators.
“That is why today, I am calling for tech companies operating in this country to introduce vice controls that prevent children from sending and receiving sexually explicit images. Because this is not an impossible challenge. If they choose not, then we will act and we will change the law,” he added.
Adult phone users are exempted from the changes, but will be required to complete an age-verification process to prove they are over the age of 18.
The phone companies have until September to make the change or legislation will be introduced to Parliament requiring the appropriate software is installed on all phones and tablets sold in the four countries of the United Kingdom.
Starmer’s move came four weeks after Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls Jess Phillips resigned, citing his failure to act on her recommendations to remove the ability for children to take explicit photos of themselves or others.
The government dismissed criticism from advocates of privacy and the right to expression, accusing it of trampling on people’s democratic freedoms.
“The government mandating that all phones in Britain require ID and surveillance software is a crossing of the Rubicon that would make the U.K. one of the most authoritarian internet regimes in the world,” said Big Brother Watch director Silkie Carlo.
Silkie warned it also raised the specter of spyware in the pocket of every person with a phone that would end up being “exploited for other purposes before long.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the government’s motivation was stopping the coercion and sextortion of children and that it was not interested in “surveilling or policing” people’s phones.
“There is no reporting, no data collection, no monitoring, and no images leaving the device,” she explained.
The leader of the Conservative opposition Kemi Badenoch questioned how it would be achieved and said the approach was piecemeal, saying there needed to be a total ban that included social media for children younger than 16.
The BBC’s science team said the technical hurdles were considerable because so much of the child sexual abuse material was shared via encrypted apps such as WhatsApp, Signal and Discord, where the content being sent cannot currently be detected.
In April, the government announced it will pass legislation banning children from using smartphones in schools in England. The law will only apply to England because education policy is devolved to the parliaments and assemblies of the other countries of the United Kingdom — Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The law, an amendment to the government’s flagship education and child well-being bill, formalizes what is already policy in many schools but introduces a “clear legal requirement” that would empower them to enforce it — including removing phones from children before class.
The government is currently also running a public consultation on whether to implement an Australia-style ban on social media for children younger than 16 and a separate initiative to develop screen-time guidance for children older than 5, including the minimum age at which a child should be given first phone and how much time they should be on it.
Troops in landing craft approach Omaha Beach on D-Day in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in history and turned the tide of World War II. Photo by UPI | License Photo
Legal challenge claims US president did not seek proper approval for fighting event to be held on his 80th birthday.
Published On 7 Jun 20267 Jun 2026
A lawsuit is seeking to stop United States President Donald Trump from hosting an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) match at the White House.
The lawsuit, lodged on behalf of two Virginia residents, is the first known legal challenge to the mixed martial arts event, which is set to be hosted on June 14.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
The event will take place on Trump’s 80th birthday. It is also pegged to the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which the US will commemorate on July 4 of this year.
The legal challenge filed on Saturday maintained that Trump did not receive proper authorisation to host the fight.
It argued that the event violated US National Park Service regulations prohibiting sporting events on federal parklands, that Congress did not consent to the construction of a towering arch overlooking the event space, and that no environmental review was conducted before the construction.
“This is fundamentally a private, commercial, corrupt use of our most sacred national monuments for private gain,” said Brendan Ballou, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “And that is what is motivating this lawsuit.”
In a statement to the Associated Press, the White House dismissed the lawsuit as “obstructionist, baseless, and dilatory”.
The White House maintained the UFC fight was “no different than the various other White House-hosted events on the South Lawn and properly permitted events on the Ellipse and National Mall throughout the year”.
Crews have been erecting an octagon-shaped fighting cage on the South Lawn of the White House, with Trump saying the project will include a “5,000-seat arena right outside the front door of the White House”.
Attendance at the fight will be invite-only and closely monitored. The Military Times news site reported earlier this week that 1,200 service members given tickets to the event must meet certain waist-to-height ratio standards.
Public viewing areas will also be set up at the nearby Ellipse.
Trump has long been closely involved with both professional wrestling and UFC, with his casinos and event spaces hosting past events.
He regularly appeared as a version of himself in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) events throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. His current secretary of education, Linda McMahon, is a co-founder of the WWE.
Trump has more recently embraced UFC, which is currently owned by the same company, TKO Group Holdings, as the WWE.
UFC president Dana White has been a close ally of Trump’s.
Political analysts have credited Trump’s embrace of the sport with reaching disaffected male voters in the US, particularly during his 2024 election campaign.
The Palestinian Authority condemned Israel’s decision to build 2,162 illegal settlement units in the occupied West Bank, calling for US intervention to halt the Israeli “madness.”
“All settlement activity is illegal under international law and does not confer legitimacy to anyone,” the authority said in a statement carried by the official news agency Wafa.
It said the Israeli decision constitutes a “blatant challenge to international law and UN resolutions,” particularly UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which affirms the illegality of the Israeli settlements in all occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.
It held the Israeli authorities responsible for the “serious consequences” of the settlement policies, warning that they would push the region toward “further cycles of violence and escalation.”
The authority called on the US administration to intervene immediately “to stop the Israeli madness if it genuinely seeks to promote security and stability in the region and globally.”
It stressed that the Palestinian people would remain “steadfast on their land and committed to their legitimate national rights,” saying the illegal settlement plans would not deter them from continuing their struggle to establish an independent Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The statement came after Israel’s Higher Planning Council approved the construction of 2,162 new settlement units across several illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The plans include 1,006 units in the Gevaot settlement within the Gush Etzion bloc south of Bethlehem, 922 units in the Har Brakha settlement south of Nablus, and 234 units in Kiryat Arba settlement built on land belonging to the city of Hebron.
Palestinians view the new plans as part of an accelerated Israeli policy aimed at expanding illegal settlements, confiscating Palestinian land and creating new facts on the ground.
