After winning his first race for Congress in 1992, 34-year-old Xavier Becerra credited a wave of community supporters in Los Angeles, many Latino, for backing his upstart campaign, saying he hoped his win was proof that grassroots politics was more valuable than “heavy dollars.”
More than 30 years later, Becerra, 68, is again an upstart candidate — this time for California governor. Again he is facing monied competition — including from chief Democratic rival Tom Steyer, a self-funded billionaire — and relying on Latino and other grassroots support.
California gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra speaks during a campaign event in Los Angeles on April 18.
(Jae C. Hong / Associated Press)
“You are the people power that it takes,” he told a crowd of supporters at a recent “Fighting for the California Dream” town hall in Los Angeles. “California wasn’t built by billionaires. It was built by your families. It was built by our families.”
That Becerra is still fighting in the race — and drawing new people to his events — reflects a remarkable and hard-to-explain turnaround for a campaign that appeared all but dead less than a month ago, then bounded back into contention after Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped from the race and resigned from Congress amid sexual assault allegations.
Before Swalwell’s collapse, Becerra’s biggest splash in the race came in March, when USC excluded him and other low-performing candidates from a planned debate. The criteria left every candidate of color out, and after Becerra and others complained, the forum was canceled.
A California Democratic Party tracking poll, released in early April before the Swalwell scandal broke, showed Becerra near the bottom of the field with 4% support among likely voters. In a party poll taken after it broke, Becerra’s support jumped to 13% — the biggest increase of any candidate.
Certainly some of Swalwell’s supporters shifted to Becerra, but political observers are still pondering why so many did — and not to Steyer, former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter or other Democrats with single-digit support, such as former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa or San José Mayor Matt Mahan.
Whatever the answer, Becerra’s surge has sparked fresh interest in his candidacy. It also has raised questions about his time as California attorney general, when he sued the first Trump administration more than 120 times, and U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, when he backed the Biden administration’s strict COVID-19 rules and oversaw the agency’s response to a massive influx of unaccompanied minors at the southern border.
It has also put a growing target on Becerra’s back — including at Wednesday night’s gubernatorial debate, when rivals criticized him as a “D.C. insider” with poorly detailed plans for the state — and sparked hope among many Latinos that California will elect one of them as governor for the first time in state history, sending a strong message of resistance to the intensely anti-immigrant Trump administration.
Of course, Becerra faces hurdles. Steyer, a hedge fund founder who has donated more than $130 million to his own campaign, has been ahead of him in polling, as have two Republicans: Silicon Valley entrepreneur and former Fox News host Steve Hilton, who has President Trump’s endorsement, and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. Only the top two candidates in the June 2 primary advance to the November election.
Still, Becerra now has a path to victory, one that did not exist even a month ago, and new funding. Many Democratic voters remain undecided, and many — shocked by the Swalwell scandal — are looking for another Democratic front-runner to back.
In an interview with The Times, Becerra said he’s the man for the job, because “California needs a work horse, not a show horse.”
Xavier Becerra, left, gathers with other candidates for Los Angeles mayor in 2000.
(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
Rising wave of Latino political power
A Sacramento native and the son of a Mexican immigrant mother and a Mexican American father, Becerra graduated from Stanford Law School and served as a deputy to California Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp before being elected in 1990 to the California Assembly.
In 1993, Becerra entered Congress on a rising wave of Latino political power and the heels of a fractious presidential election in which former White House aide Pat Buchanan challenged President George H.W. Bush in the Republican primary on a stridently anti-immigrant, “America First” message — one Trump repurposed in both 2016 and 2024.
It was a defining political moment for Latinos across the country, and for Becerra personally, said Fernando Guerra, founding director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University.
“He certainly has been and is part of the incorporation of Latinos into California history and California politics, and it really begins in the early ’90s,” Guerra said. “His rise and political career is really a reflection of the rise and political incorporation of Latinos.”
In 1994, Becerra helped oppose Proposition 187, a state initiative to deny undocumented immigrants access to public education and healthcare. In 1996, he sharply criticized the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which cut federal benefits for many legal immigrants. By 1997, Becerra — just 39 — was chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the first Latino member to serve on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
By 2016, Becerra, 58, was the highest-ranking Latino in Congress when then-Gov. Jerry Brown tapped him to replace a Senate-bound Kamala Harris as California attorney general. There, Becerra played a key role in defending the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, against Republican attacks.
Then-U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra arrives for a hearing to discuss reopening schools during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
(Greg Nash / Associated Press)
Criticism and praise
In a rush of endorsements in recent days, Becerra’s supporters have lauded his executive experience, calling him a “proven leader” who, amid constant threats from the Trump administration, is “ready to fight back on day one.”
Becerra’s critics also have pointed to his leadership record, but to highlight what they contend are glaring failures.
Steyer spokesman Kevin Liao alleged Becerra was “absent, ineffective, or too late” in responding to COVID-19 and other public health crises as health secretary, and that California “cannot afford incompetence, or someone who disappears when things get hard.”
The remarks echoed others made during the pandemic, including by Eric Topol, who is executive vice president of Scripps Research in La Jolla, a professor of translational medicine and a cardiologist. During the pandemic, Topol accused Becerra of being “invisible” in the fight to control it. In a recent interview, he said he still believes that.
Topol said the Biden administration’s COVID response was defined by poor data collection and “infighting” among agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, including on vital issues such as when Americans should receive booster shots and how long they should isolate after infection.
Becerra “basically took a very absent, low profile — didn’t show up, didn’t harmonize the remarkable infighting,” Topol said. “The buck stops with him.”
Dr. David A. Kessler, the Biden administration’s top science official on COVID-19 and now a professor of pediatrics and epidemiology at UC San Francisco, fiercely defended Becerra, crediting him with rolling out some 676 million vaccines and steering the nation out of a wildly unfamiliar health crisis with substantial success — what Kessler called a “historical achievement” that proved government “can do big things.”
Kessler said Becerra rightly assessed that the country needed to hear from medical experts, not politicians, and so deferred at times to the doctors, epidemiologists and vaccinologists he smartly surrounded himself with and trusted — but he was never absent. “He enabled us. He was there. Anything I needed, he helped deliver,” Kessler said.
Becerra said there were a lot of people involved with the COVID-19 fight, including a White House team launched before his confirmation as health secretary. Still, it was his agency that ultimately led the response, and helped bring the pandemic to an end, he said.
“At the end of four years, when we had put some 700 million COVID shots into the arms of Americans and pulled the country and our economy out of the COVID crisis, it was HHS — and I was the secretary of HHS,” he said.
Becerra’s rivals in the governor’s race also have attacked him for how he responded to an influx of unaccompanied immigrant minors during the pandemic. They allege Becerra rushed their release to relatives and other sponsors while ignoring concerns from career health staff that some of those placements weren’t safe — resulting in thousands of kids being lost to the system, forced into child labor or trafficked.
The criticism stems in part from a sweeping New York Times investigation that found the health department couldn’t find some 85,000 children it had released, that Becerra had relaxed screening processes for sponsors and that placement concerns from career health staff went ignored or were silenced.
The investigation by reporter Hannah Dreier found that thousands of the 250,000 or so migrant children who arrived in the U.S. between early 2021 and early 2023 had “ended up in punishing jobs across the country — working overnight in slaughterhouses, replacing roofs, operating machinery in factories — all in violation of child labor laws.”
Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra holds a news conference in Border Field State Park in San Diego in 2017.
(Francine Orr/ Los Angeles Times)
It found there were many signs of “the explosive growth of this labor force,” and that staff had repeatedly flagged concerns about it in reports that reached Becerra’s desk. It also reported that, during a staff meeting in the summer of 2022, Becerra had pressed staff to move children even more quickly through the process, comparing them to factory parts.
“If Henry Ford had seen this in his plants, he would have never become famous and rich. This is not the way you do an assembly line,” Becerra said, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by the newspaper.
Danni Wang, another Steyer spokesperson, said children “were handed to gang members, traffickers, and abusers because [Becerra] stripped the background checks that had protected them for years.”
Becerra said the controversy is one he has addressed publicly for years, including in multiple congressional hearings. He said his team worked diligently to properly vet sponsors and do right by the thousands of children in their care, despite Congress failing to provide the budget needed to restore a system of licensed care facilities that the first Trump administration had dismantled.
“It was a wreck. They had closed facilities, they had fired the licensed caregivers. And remember, this was during COVID, [when] you didn’t want anyone to be near each other,” he said. “How do you take care of thousands of kids in a center that could house maybe 50 kids?”
He said he led an aggressive push to stand up temporary facilities — including in places like the San Diego Convention Center — while rebuilding the licensed care facilities Trump had dismantled and working to place kids into the community as quickly and safely as possible.
Ron Klain, who served as Biden’s chief of staff for the first two years of the administration, said Becerra helped lead the administration out of the crisis by being “an outspoken advocate” for the children in its care.
“Xavier was very, very insistent in meetings and very outspoken on the risk that some of these people [the kids] were being placed with were not the proper people to place them with, and pushed hard for more rigor in the process,” Klain said.
Becerra also has faced criticism and questions related to the federal indictment of his former chief of staff Sean McCluskie, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud after authorities accused him of stealing some $225,000 from Becerra’s dormant state political campaign account.
Becerra was not implicated in the scandal — which he’s previously described as a “gut punch” — and said he did everything he could to ensure McCluskie and others were held accountable once it came to light, including by providing “testimony and documents” to the FBI and federal prosecutors.
Hilton has said the scandal, which also implicated a former aide to Gov. Gavin Newsom, showed that “corruption has become totally ingrained and systemic” under Democratic rule in California.
Looking ahead
Experts said Becerra’s long resume will help him stand out in a race with less experienced competitors and no household names — and that Californians electing a Latino for the first time, as the Trump administration conducts one of the largest ever deportation campaigns, dismantles immigrant rights and targets people on the street based largely on their looking and sounding Latino, would be a major political moment.
Becerra said his extensive experience should matter to voters, because such experience will be necessary in the pivotal and no doubt chaotic Trump years ahead, when “pizzazz and dazzle” will matter less than steady competence from “someone who’s actually been in the midst of that hurricane” before.
“It helps to have gone through these things. I’ve been there, I’ve done that, and I’ve done it successfully,” he said. “I’ve proven that, whether it was taking on Donald Trump toe to toe as the [attorney general], whether it was getting us out of COVID working closely with the White House to deploy the resources and get that done, we made it happen.”
LONDON — The challenge for King Charles III as he arrives in the United States this week is, as always, to live up to his mother’s example.
The late Queen Elizabeth II wowed Congress in 1991 with a speech that celebrated the shared democratic traditions of Britain and the United States, quoted Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and highlighted the deep bonds between the two nations.
Those themes will also be at the top of Charles’ agenda as he celebrates America’s 250th birthday and seeks to calm tensions surrounding Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s refusal to support President Trump’s war against Iran, said Douglas Brinkley, a presidential historian at Rice University in Texas.
“We’ve got to always make the distinction that there’s a difference between the government of the U.K. and the kings and queens of Great Britain, who are really always coming to try to put [on] a good face,” Brinkley told the Associated Press. “Politics come and go; prime ministers, presidents, come and go; but there’s something deeper about the special relationship between the United States and the U.K.”
Charles and Queen Camilla begin a four-day trip on Monday, when they will have tea with the president and First Lady Melania Trump, then tour the White House beehive, in a nod to the king’s focus on the environment.
The formal arrival ceremony will take place Tuesday, with a 21-gun salute, brass bands playing the national anthems of both countries and a contingent of U.S. service members passing in review. The ceremonies will be followed by a meeting between Trump and Charles.
Behind the scenes
But beneath the pomp and pageantry will be a carefully choreographed diplomatic event staged, like all royal visits, at the request of the British government. Starmer resisted pressure to cancel it after Trump belittled the British military’s sacrifices in Afghanistan and criticized him personally for failing to back the U.S. in its war alongside Israel against Iran.
Despite those tensions, Trump has continued to speak warmly about Charles.
“History has shown that President Trump really tries to be impressive whenever he’s dealing with British royalty,” Brinkley said. “And I’m sure it’ll be the same this time around.”
Ever since 1939, when King George VI became the first British monarch to set foot on the soil of the country’s former colony, there’s been a special sort of excitement whenever the royals come to the United States.
Take that first visit, which took place as World War II loomed over Europe. The royals toured the East Coast and attended a picnic at President Roosevelt’s private home in Hyde Park, N.Y. “King tries hot dog and asks for more,’’ declared the New York Times.
But the big moment was when the royals traveled to Mount Vernon to lay a wreath at the tomb of George Washington. It showed respect at a time of isolationism.
“People could see the handwriting on the wall and know that it was going to be important for the United States and Britain to stay strong for fighting against Hitler,” said Barbara Perry, a presidential scholar at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.
But bonding over sausages had broader benefits, helping the royals build links to the general public as well as its leadership. After war broke out in September 1939, Queen Elizabeth, the wife of George VI and mother of the future Elizabeth II, wrote to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to say how moved she’d been by letters from Americans who enclosed small sums for British forces.
“Sometimes, during the last terrible months, we have felt rather lonely in our fight against evil things, but I can honestly say that our hearts have been lightened by the knowledge that friends in America understand what we are fighting for,’’ she wrote.
The queen’s connection
Queen Elizabeth II built on those relationships, making four state visits to the U.S. during her 70-year reign. She joined President Ford in celebrating America’s bicentennial in 1976 and met with President George W. Bush in 2007 as British and American forces fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Smoothing turbulent waters and reminding both sides about their common bonds were what those trips were all about.
Charles’ visit will be no different. It includes a commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a ceremony honoring fallen service members and an event to be attended by Queen Camilla to mark the 100th anniversary of Winnie the Pooh stories by British author A.A. Milne.
Certain events will be avoided.
The royals won’t meet with Jeffrey Epstein’s victims, despite calls for the king to address his accusations related to his brother Andrew’s links to the convicted sex offender. Nor are there plans for Charles to meet with his son Prince Harry, who has been a critic of the monarchy since giving up royal duties and moving to California.
Those issues aren’t the priority, said Robert Hardman, author of “Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. The Inside Story.”
“He’s going because 250 years ago the Founding Fathers of the USA kicked out his great-times-five grandfather, and he’s going to say, `No hard feelings, it’s been a great divorce, we’ve had a lovely 250 years and let’s reflect on the high points,’’’ Hardman said. “I mean, there are going to be some very, very large elephants in the room during that visit … but, you know, there are plenty of other things for the king to focus on.”
History, not politics
Charles’ speech to a joint session of Congress offers the chance to deliver the message that long-term friendship is more important than transient disputes.
He is also likely to offer a bit of humor, as his mother did when she addressed lawmakers in 1991.
Wearing soft peach amid a sea of gray suits, the diminutive monarch began her remarks with a joke about an earlier blunder at the White House when her lectern was so tall it obscured the audience’s view of her.
“I do hope you can see me today from where you are,’’ she deadpanned.
The chamber erupted in laughter. A standing ovation followed. Then she launched into a speech about democratic values, the rule of law and the Atlantic Alliance — the foundation of NATO.
Those are values that critics of the current U.S. administration say it has retreated from in recent years. But Charles will offer his own take on those ideas, Brinkley said.
“The theme of the speech is going to be American exceptionalism, American history, the importance of U.S.-British alliance, and some memories from the past,” he said. “But also about the love affair the two countries share with each other, even though it goes over rocky rapids from time to time.”
After back-to-back appearances at both weekends of Coachella, David Lee Roth popped out Saturday at Stagecoach to sing Van Halen’s “Jump” with Teddy Swims for the third (and final?) time. To discuss what he called his “three-peat,” I caught up later with the 71-year-old singer, who wore a bedazzled jacket and a leather vest.
Have you bought property in Indio? Do you just live here now? No, I’ve bought property in the American musical fabric that extends beyond time frame, that extends beyond shoes and haircuts. It includes cowboy hats and yarmulkes.
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Next weekend this place is gonna be barren. Will you be back to sing “Jump” with nobody? There’ll be plenty of people here for the Diamond Dave Big Rig Trucking School and Day Care Center.
You’re on your own tour right now. How are those shows going? They go exquisitely because if you enjoy what you saw onstage [tonight], it’s that times 22 songs.
Twenty-two songs in the set. Oh yeah. I wrote every word that I sing, I wrote every note that I sing — all the melodies — and I stacked all the harmonies. Ed [Van Halen], of course, contributed all the great guitar parts. And we wrote all of those parts literally sitting in a tiny little alcove room where you put a washer and a dryer. We would sit knee-to-knee the room was so small, and he’d play the electric guitar. His mom wouldn’t let him plug in because it would be too loud, so I had to lean over. Every song that you know of Van Halen, I heard from an unplugged-in electric guitar from four inches away, going, “Too long.”
Tighten it up. Cut it short. All great musicians finish long after the ending.
Last time we talked, you said you were wearing Artemis II. What’s the outfit tonight? This is classic Nudie’s western wear from Lankershim. This is from the ’50s. This has been all over the world. This is made by Nudie’s of Hollywood, who made all of Roy Rogers’ and Jean Autry’s [clothes] and all of “Bonanza,” “Gunsmoke,” “Rawhide’s” wear. Look up Nudie of Hollywood, OK? This baby’s worth more than my shoes, and they’re custom-made. This jacket’s worth more than my teeth — same thing.
“Billy Shoemaker was born 2 pounds 6 ounces and it was the only edge he ever needed in life.”
That remains noteworthy now, because when they run this year’s thoroughbred classic at Churchill Downs on May 2, it will mark 40 years since “Billy The Shoe,” still the third-winningest rider in the sport’s North American history and perhaps its most memorable, won his fourth and last Derby aboard a 17-1 longshot named Ferdinand.
In 1986, Snow Chief was the 3-1 Derby favorite. He was trained by colorful and often grumpy Mel Stute, who was, like Shoemaker, a fixture at Santa Anita. His jockey was a young Alex Solis, who came from Panama, was still struggling with the English language then and had quickly dazzled the Southern California racing world with his talent.
Jockey Bill Shoemaker smiles as he holds a large plaque presented to him at Santa Anita on Jan. 1, 1953, in recognition of winning 484 races. He promptly added to the total by winning the first race of the day.
(David F. Smith / Associated Press)
It was an era in sports somewhat less contentious, more inclined to celebrate its history and its moments and less inclined to look for more. A few weeks earlier, Jack Nicklaus had won the Masters, at age 46. It was a hugely popular outcome, just as Shoemaker’s would be. It was quite the time for legend building, those few months in 1986.
The Derby network telecast brought the comfort of an easy chair. Jim McKay, who had done it for years, took viewers through the likely race scenarios. Al Michaels, whose racing chops were notable well before he asked the world if it believed in miracles and well before the NFL hustled him away to greater fame and fortune, pitched in on the telecast with thoughts on the pageantry and some race angles. A young Michaels, with thick black curly hair and the same distinctive voice, broadcast from the track and touched on the interesting elements of Shoemaker’s presence.
“Ferdinand is at 17-1,” Michaels told the audience. “A few years back, you couldn’t get 17-1 with Shoemaker if he was riding Mr. Ed.”
Shoemaker was already a legend and had already won the Derby three times by then. But any mention of his Derby expertise was, and always would be, sprinkled with a disclaimer about his 1975 ride on Gallant Man, when he misjudged the finish line while leading on the home stretch, pulled up his horse and lost a race he had pretty much won.
In ‘86, that was all soft peddled by the media, which mentioned it more out of duty than reportorial necessity. Ferdinand was, after all, a 17-1 longshot, easier to downplay or ignore. Also, Shoemaker was 54, not exactly an age to be looked upon as a contender. No jockey that age had ever won the Derby — and still hasn’t. There was respect for his seniority, but mostly an assumption that he was the past, not likely the present. He had led North American racing in victories for 29 years, finally totaling 8,833. But much of that happened prior to 1986.
Worst for Shoemaker, he had drawn the No. 1 hole, the starting spot closest to the infield that is usually a death knell for Derby horses. The gate opens and the entire field dashes for the rail, all coming down on top of the 1-hole starter. Shoemaker and Ferdinand held ground for a while, but by the time they got to the back stretch, they were dead last. They were still there as the field got to the top of the home stretch.
Then the cavalry charge to the finish began and Shoemaker went with the crowd, to the outside. At one point in the home stretch run, he was six horses wide.
Then, he made one of those moves that made William Lee Shoemaker “Billy The Shoe.” He saw an opening to his left, squeezed through it and soon had Ferdinand almost to the rail — and in full gallop. Before anybody could analyze what had happened, Ferdinand, carrying a jockey who probably never weighed 100 pounds in his career — thanks to the birth advantage Downey so aptly pointed out years later — was cruising past the leaders and sailing home a winner.
Ferdinand, ridden by Billy Shoemaker, heads down the homestretch to win the Kentucky Derby on May 5, 1986, in Louisville, Ky.
(John Swart / Associated Press)
The victory made legendary trainer Charlie Whittingham a Kentucky Derby winner for the first time. He was 73 and had disliked running young horses in a pressure race such as the Derby. The Triple Crown races are only for three-year-old thoroughbreds. Whittingham won another Derby three years later with Sunday Silence. He trained into his 80s.
Shoemaker’s career rightfully was topped off by that Derby victory, as well as his win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic in 1987.
The aftermath of that 1986 race was less kind, although nobody could take away what Shoemaker had accomplished. The jockey who finished last in the ’86 Derby was Laffit Pincay Jr., who later passed Shoemaker’s North American victory total with 9,530 wins. Pincay’s total was topped by Russell Baze, who took 12,842 wins, but in a riding career that featured wins at lesser tracks against lesser competition. When Baze broke his record, however, Pincay was there to offer his congratulations.
By the time Shoemaker won the 1986 Derby, he had little left to achieve. He not only won 11 Triple Crown races, but he also had won, to mention a few prestigious races, the Hollywood Derby, the Hollywood Gold Cup, the Oak Tree Stakes, the San Luis Obispo and the Santa Anita Derby.
Jockey Billy Shoemaker smiles as he rides Ferdinand, the 1986 Kentucky Derby winner, at Hollywood Park after winning the Breeder’s Cup.
(Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)
Each one eight times.
Shoemaker moved into thoroughbred training after he stopped riding. He was a fixture around Santa Anita, as he had been as a jockey. His success was mixed, certainly less than he had as a jockey.
On April 8, 1991, after a day of golf in the Inland Empire, Shoemaker was headed west on the 210 freeway in San Dimas. The road at that point includes an exit to the right for the 57 freeway south and under the 210. Shoemaker swerved right off the 210 and rolled his Ford Bronco down the embankment, about three stories high, and onto the 57 freeway. Police confirmed he was intoxicated during the crash. Shoemaker suffered a broken neck and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair, from which he continued as a trainer for several years.
Billly Shoemaker is in the winner’s circle at Santa Anita in March 1976 after winning his 7,000th race.
(Associated Press)
Shoemaker eventually sued the state of California because there was no guard rail at the site, the Ford Motor Co., to whom he alleged that the Bronco was a rollover risk, and Glendora Community Hospital for alleged incorrect treatment when he was bought in. Ford paid him at least $1 million, after agreeing to do so if he received no money from the hospital. There is no record of him getting any money from the state of California.
Shoemaker died in October 2013. He remains third on the North American jockey career win list with his 8,833.
Ferdinand was sent to stud in 1989 and sold to a breeding farm in Japan in 1994. In 2002, reports surfaced that Ferdinand had been sent to a slaughter house in Japan, where he became food for either humans or pets, or both. Racing’s indignation over that, as well as that of anger in the general public, prompted the formation by Congress of a bill that would ban the slaughter of horses in the United States.
Lionsgate’s “Michael” is on track to unseat “Straight Outta Compton” as the king of musical biopics.
Early returns suggest the Antoine Fuqua-directed film will surpass the $60-million opening weekend box office record set by the N.W.A biopic in 2015, with the studio expecting an opening that could reach $70 million.
“Michael Jackson is one of the most influential artists in human history. His impact on music, fashion, dance, film and business has withstood the test of time,” said Adam Fogelson, the chair of the Lionsgate Motion Picture Group.
“All of those things together seem to have created a profound response from audiences of all ages,” he added.
“Michael,” starring the legendary pop star’s nephew Jaafar Jackson, hits 3,900 screens nationwide on Friday.
That film remains the highest-grossing documentary of all time with nearly $270 million in global ticket sales.
The stakes may be higher for “Michael,” not just because of its roughly $200-million cost, but also its circuitous journey to the big screen.
Early development on the motion picture began in 2019, but frequent changes — both in the storyline and production — forced delays. The original idea was to encapsulate Jackson’s life from childhood fame with the Jackson 5 to his solo commercial peak during the ’80s and end with the child sex abuse allegations he faced in 1993.
That version of the film was well underway when the production was forced to go back to the drawing board due to a legal issue. The Jackson estate, which is in support of the project, reportedly discovered the early draft of “Michael” violated a $15-million settlement with the accuser in that case. Part of the agreement stipulated that the alleged victim would never be pictured or mentioned in a dramatization of Jackson’s life.
Production reconvened for 22 additional days and the Jackson estate took on tens of millions of dollars in additional reshoot costs.
The current version of “Michael,” hitting theaters this weekend, is set between the 1960s and 1988. It closely follows the controlling relationship between Jackson and his father, Joe Jackson, played by Colman Domingo, and tracks the king of pop’s peak stardom. Janet Jackson is notably absent from the storyline.
Depending on how the movie performs, there are plans for a potential sequel. The follow-up would tell the second half of Jackson’s career, where much of the scrapped footage could be used. Lionsgate has done advanced work to ensure that a significant amount of the previously captured footage could be included.
So far, the movie is receiving mixed reviews. As of Friday morning, the critic’s consensus on Rotten Tomatoes was less than favorable, with a score of 40%. But Lionsgate remains confident the film will resonate positively with average moviegoers and Jackson fans, both domestically and globally.
“The audiences that are now starting to watch the movie in early previews have been euphoric,” Fogelson said. “Audiences are speaking loudly and clearly about how much they appreciate the final product.”
Even outside of theaters, Jackson’s story continues to find success. “MJ,” the jukebox musical based on his life, is in its fourth year on Broadway and has had both national and international showings. Michael Jackson’s estate has also collaborated with Cirque du Soleil for several acrobatic productions since 2011. The “Michael Jackson ONE” show, which first premiered in 2013, recently extended its run on the Las Vegas Strip until 2030.
Tiffany Naiman, the director of music industry programs at UCLA, said the sustained interest in the pop icon speaks to his loyal fan base and place in American cultural history.
“He represents not only extraordinary artistic achievement, but also the contradictions of fame at its most amplified,” Naiman said in a statement. “That tension — between brilliance and controversy, innovation and scrutiny — is precisely what continues to draw audiences back, and what will likely shape both the film’s reception and its broader cultural impact.”
LONDON — The fabled two-hour barrier for a marathon has been broken, officially, in an once-inconceivable achievement in sports.
Not by one runner, but two.
In a race for the ages, Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the London Marathon in 1 hour, 59 minutes and 30 seconds on Sunday, shattering the previous men’s world record by an astonishing 65 seconds.
“What comes today is not for me alone,” the 29-year-old Sawe said, “but for all of us today in London.”
Just 11 seconds further back was Ethiopia’s Yomif Kejelcha, who — running in his first-ever marathon — also covered the 26.2-mile (42.2-kilometer) course in under 2 hours.
Completing the podium was Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, who broke the previous world-record time — set by Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum in Chicago in 2023 — by seven seconds, finishing in 2:00:28.
In an exhilarating sight, Sawe ran quicker as the marathon went on, covering the second half of the race in 59 minutes and 1 second. He pulled clear with Kejelcha after 30 kilometers and then made his solo break in the final two kilometers, sprinting along the finish on The Mall to loud cheers.
Sabastian Sawe of Team Kenya runs ahead of Yomif Kejelcha of Team Ethiopia during the London Marathon on Sunday in London.
(Warren Little / Getty Images)
Sawe, who retained his title in London, said it was a “day to remember for me” and thanked the huge crowds who lined the streets of the British capital to witness what might be regarded as a feat marking the peak of human physical achievement.
“I think they help a lot,” he said, “because if it was not for them you don’t feel like you are so loved … with them calling, you feel so happy and strong.”
Under two hours has been done before — unofficially
Breaking two hours in a marathon has been a long time coming — and has been done before.
However, when Eliud Kipchoge — the Kenyan long-distance great — achieved the feat in Vienna in 2019, it was in a specially tailored race called the “1.59 Challenge” that was arranged by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe in favorable conditions, on a 6-mile (9.6-kilometer) circuit, and using rotating pacemakers.
That meant it wasn’t classed as an official race setting, so Kipchoge’s time of 1:59:40 didn’t go in the record book.
In any case, Sawe surpassed that time by 10 seconds on a mostly flat course across London in dry, sunny conditions.
Sabastian Sawe, of Kenya, smiles and holds up his adidas shoe with his world-record marathon time written on it Sunday in London.
(Alex Davidson / Getty Images)
“The goalposts have literally just moved for marathon running,” Paula Radcliffe, a former winner of the London Marathon, said during commentary of the race for the BBC.
At the turn of the century, the world’s best time for the men’s marathon was 2:05:42, set by Khalid Khannouchi in Chicago in 1999.
Khannouchi broke his own record by four seconds in 2002 — the last time the fastest men’s marathon was run in London — and it has been whittled down gradually over the last 24 years by a succession of Kenyan and Ethiopian runners, including Haile Gebrselassie, Wilson Kipsang, Kipchoge and most recently Kiptum.
Assefa wins fastest-ever women’s-only marathon
A record was also set in the women’s race, with Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa pulling away with about 500 meters remaining to win in 2:15:41 and defend the title in the fastest-ever time in a women’s-only marathon.
However, it was 16 seconds slower than the course record set by Radcliffe in 2003 when it was a mixed race.
Tigst Assefa celebrates as she crosses the finish line during the London Marathon women’s race in a record time Sunday.
(Ian Walton / Associated Press)
Kenya’s Hellen Obiri was 12 seconds back in second place in a personal-best time on her London debut and compatriot Joyciline Jepkosgei was third, a further two seconds adrift. It was the first time three women have run under 2 hours, 16 minutes in a marathon.
“I screamed when I finished because I knew I was breaking the world record,” Assefa said.
“I felt much healthier today and have worked really hard on my speed and all my training has paid off.”
Swiss double in wheelchair races
In the wheelchair races, there was a Swiss double with Marcel Hug powering to a sixth straight men’s title — and eighth in total — and Catherine Debrunner beating Tatyana McFadden in a close finish to defend the title.
As the 2026 Stagecoach Country Music Festival rides off into the sunset, enjoy the last day of the performances from the comfort of your home. The festival will be livestreaming most of the performances, so you’ll be able to watch Post Malone and Warren Zeiders from the couch. You can also take a trip down memory lane with Hootie & the Blowfish, Brooks & Dunn and Third Eye Blind. Close out the festival by watching Loud Luxury, DJ Pauly D and Ludacris onstage.
The festival will be livestreamed on Amazon Music, Prime Video and Twitch. On Sirius XM’s The Highway (Channel 56), you can listen in to exclusive interviews and live performances. Their station Y’Allternative will also be covering the festival on Sunday.
Here are updated set times for the Stagecoach livestream Sunday performances (times presented in PDT):
Nestled in Yorkshire it is one of the most extensive deserted medieval settlements and a fascinating medieval historical site open for the public to freely explore
The village has been deserted for centuries(Image: SteveAllenPhoto via Getty Images)
Visitors flock from all corners of the country to witness what’s considered the UK’s ‘best preserved’ medieval village.
Wharram Percy has stood empty for hundreds of years and now provides a captivating destination for ramblers and heritage lovers.
Tucked away in North Yorkshire, Wharram Percy represents one of Britain’s largest abandoned medieval communities and certainly the most celebrated.
The site is open for the public to explore freely, uncovering the remains of ancient dwellings, a church, and the surviving fragments of a manor house.
Perfectly positioned between sought-after landmarks Scarborough Castle and York’s Clifford’s Tower, it serves as an ideal pit stop for those journeying between these two destinations, reports Yorkshire Live.
Save on the best holiday cottages in Yorkshire
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Famous for its dramatic landscapes, historic cities, hearty food, and rich cultural heritage Yorkshire is just waiting to be explored. Sykes Cottages has a large number of properties to choose from with prices from £31 per night.
While admission to the village is free, there’s a £2 parking fee.
Throughout an extraordinary six-decade span, archaeologists have repeatedly uncovered fresh insights into Wharram Percy’s past.
Their discoveries have revealed why the location was originally abandoned and how its residents existed in earlier eras.
Situated on the rim of a Yorkshire valley, this extraordinary community was home to settlements for as long as six centuries before being deserted following the 1500s.
Scholars indicate that even now, traces of former habitations remain visible across the terrain, alongside the more significant ruins that draw inquisitive visitors.
The background is intricate, yet specialists believe the initial community stretches back to approximately 50 BC.
The land was later transformed for agricultural purposes, yet remained abandoned throughout the 5th century, before ultimately evolving into a Middle Saxon settlement.
It’s important to mention that accessing the village involves approximately a 3/4 mile trek from the car park to the main site, which is often both steep and muddy.
The location contains uneven ground throughout, which can present difficulties for some guests and is mostly unsuitable for wheelchairs or pushchairs.
One TripAdvisor reviewer said: “Parking on the Heritage car park off the B1248 prepare for a trek to the village.”
They continued to describe it as a “sharp gravelled decline” and a “daunting” journey that is unsuitable for those with limited mobility, as the route passes through farmland.
After their visit, one excited guest commended their experience, remarking: “Lovely walk from the car park to the site, but people with mobility issues may struggle. It’s a fascinating historical site that has been really well managed.
“Only a few visitors when we visited, which added to the peace and tranquillity of the place. Loved it!”
Another guest commented: “This lovely deserted mediaeval village is truly fascinating! The history is incredible, and it was wonderful to wander around and explore. We really lucked out and had beautiful weather, so we got to sit on the grass by the pond and soak it all in.”
The best way to climb a mountain is one step at a time.
Especially when you’re wearing skates.
And the Kings will be wearing skates and staring at a very large mountain when they take the ice Sunday for Game 4 of their best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff series with the Colorado Avalanche, a loss away from elimination.
“You’ve just got to start with the first one,” defenseman Mikey Anderson said after a fast-paced 45-minute practice Saturday. “You try to win the first one, and then reset and go from there.”
Since the Kings trail 3-0 a win in Sunday’s matinee at Crypto.com Arena will do little more than extend the series one game, sending the teams back to Denver. To advance to the second round, the Kings need to win four in a row against the team that posted the NHL’s best record in the regular season.
How big a mountain is that? Well, the Avalanche haven’t lost four in a row since October and the Kings haven’t won a first-round playoff series since 2014.
One step at a time.
“You just have to win one, that’s first off. And then the hardest one will be the next one,” Kings interim coach D.J. Smith said. “And then, you know, it’s just momentum changes. But you can’t think about that without winning one, and you can’t think about winning one without winning the first period.
“You’re up against it, but I don’t think you can think about winning the series. You just got to think about winning one game.”
The series has been a lot closer than the deficit would indicate. The Kings have won the battle of the special teams, with their penalty kill shutting out the NHL’s highest-scoring team on nine chances. They’ve also scored a power-play goal in each of three games and held Nathan MacKinnon, the league’s top goal-scorer, to one assist in three games.
MacKinnon didn’t even take a shot in Game 3, yet Colorado won 4-2 with two goals bouncing in off the skates of Kings forward Adrian Kempe and goalie Anton Forsberg while another was scored into an empty net.
“You still lose the game,” Anderson said. “This time of year doesn’t really matter. You can say it feels good, you do all these good things. But if you don’t win the game, it’s kind of it’s the only thing that matters right now.”
ings center Scott Laughton (21) checks Avalanche defenseman Sam Malinski (70) into the boards during the second period of Game 2 in Denver.
(Jack Dempsey / Associated Press)
Added forward Scott Laughton, “Sometimes you get the bounce, sometimes you don’t. You have to have a very-narrow minded focus. We’ve got to stick to the process.”
The Kings have only four goals in the series and have scored just once at even strength, so Smith scrambled his bottom two forward lines in practice Saturday in a search for speed in the offensive end. But he said he doesn’t plan any major changes for Game 4, adding the Kings just need to check harder, move the puck better and get to the net more.
“I think that the game plan is correct,” he said.
However the Kings have taken just 76 shots in the three games, making things far too easy for Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood, who has been brilliant.
“We’ve got to find ways to put the puck in the net, whether that’s crashing the nets, making the play for an empty netter. It doesn’t matter at this point,” said Kings’ captain Anze Kopitar, whose 20-year NHL career ends when his team’s season does. “We’ve got to find a way.”
Smith, who rallied the Kings into the playoffs after taking over for Jim Hiller with 23 games left in the regular season, is making his Stanley Cup playoff debut as a head coach. But he’s been in this position before. As an assistant with Windsor in the Ontario Hockey League, Smith coached a team that overcame a 3-0 deficit and went on to win the league title.
That was a big mountain. And they climbed it one step at a time.
“We’ve just got to play our best game one time, and then we’ll worry about the next game,” Smith said. “But we have to find a way to score more while playing the exact same defense.
“Is it hard? Yes. Are we going to give it everything we got? Yes. I think you’re going to see our best game in the series.”
Ready to sing along from your couch? The Amazon Music Stagecoach Saturday livestream has you covered. For a heartfelt ballad, you’ll be able to tune in as Teddy Swims and Lainey Wilson take the Stagecoach stage. Take a trip back in time to watch Bush perform, then end the night tuning into Mr. Worldwide taking over the desert as Pitbull closes out the Saturday performances.
The festival will be livestreamed on Amazon Music, Prime Video and Twitch. On Sirius XM’s the Highway (channel 56), you can listen to exclusive interviews and live performances. Their station Y’allternative will also be covering the festival on Saturday.
Here are updated set times for the Stagecoach livestream Saturday performances (times presented in PDT):
Channel 1
3:10 p.m. Kevin Smiley; 3:30 p.m. Braxton Keith; 4:05 p.m. Redferrin; 4:40 p.m. Corey Kent; 5:35 p.m. Teddy Swims; 6:20 p.m. Treaty Oak Revival; 7:20 p.m. Little Big Town; 8:20 p.m. Riley Green; 9:30 p.m. Lainey Wilson; 11 p.m. Pitbull
Channel 2
3:10 p.m. S.G. Goodman; 3:30 p.m. Lane Pittman; 4:05 p.m. Benjamin Tod; 4:40 p.m. Michael Marcagi; 5:20 p.m. Willow Avalon; 5:55 p.m. Billy Bob Thornton & the Boxmasters; 6:40 p.m. Chase Matthew; 7:20 p.m. Charles Wesley Godwin; 8:10 p.m. Bush; 9:10 p.m. Gavin Adcock; 10:20 p.m. Two Friends
Sirius XM The Highway
4 p.m. Corey Kent; 6:30 p.m. Little Big Town; 7:50 p.m. Riley Green; 9 p.m. Lainey Wilson
Sirius XM Y’allternative
9 a.m. the Red Clay Strays; 11 a.m. Larkin Poe; 12 p.m. Ole 60; 1 p.m. Sam Barber; 2 p.m. the Marcus King Band; 6 p.m. S.G. Goodman; 8 p.m. Treaty Oak Revival
A man stands before a stock market indicator board in Tokyo, Japan, 23 April 2026. Tokyo’s Nikkei Stock Average briefly crossed the 60,000 line for the first time since its launch in 1950. Photo by FRANCK ROBICHON /EPA
April 24 (Asia Today) — Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average briefly topped 60,000 for the first time Thursday, setting a record milestone as artificial intelligence and semiconductor-related shares led gains.
The index rose as high as 60,013 during morning trading, MarketWatch reported. But analysts said the rally was concentrated in a small group of high-priced technology shares, leaving the broader market less buoyant.
The Nikkei 225 is calculated as a price-weighted average of 225 stocks, meaning companies with higher share prices have a larger effect on the index. SoftBank Group, Advantest and Tokyo Electron were among the AI and semiconductor-related stocks that helped push the benchmark higher.
Foreign investors have focused on semiconductor-related companies because they are closely tied to the AI supply chain and offer clearer near-term earnings visibility, analysts said.
JPMorgan Chase reflected that optimism by raising its year-end Nikkei target to 70,000 from 61,000, citing the AI boom and a weaker yen, Reuters reported.
Still, the broader market has not risen at the same pace. The Topix index and the Yomiuri 333, an equal-weighted index, have not recovered to their late February highs. That suggests the latest rally is being driven more by large technology stocks than by broad-based market strength.
The Nikkei later gave up gains as investors took profits after the record intraday high. Some strategists said the rapid rise has raised concerns about overheating and could lead to a short-term correction.
Whether the rally can continue may depend on whether buying spreads beyond semiconductors to domestic demand, financial and manufacturing shares. If gains remain concentrated in a few high-priced stocks, the Nikkei could rise further while many investors and consumers feel little improvement in the broader economy.
Today I watched as Shohei Ohtani, the day after pitching seven innings, go 0 for 5 with two strikeouts while grounding into a double play. The sample size, at this point, has to be large enough for Dave Roberts and the Dodgers’ management to discuss the elephant in the room with their lead-off batter. He should not bat when he pitches, and he should have a day off after he pitches.
It could also be argued that he should not be the lead-off batter — his average and on-base percentage are lower than, say, Hyeseong Kim, who is also faster and would be a distraction for an opposing pitcher as a threat to steal. It would also give someone for Shohei to drive in if he dropped down the order a spot or two. If baseball is a numbers exercise, then the Dodgers need to do the math.
Peter Maradudin Burlingame
I have seen enough of Kyle Tucker to know the Dodgers lineup of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith, Tucker, Teo Hernández, Max Muncy, Andy Pages and Hyeseong Kim needs to be changed. Kim has better defense and is a base-stealer. Freeman is not a switch hitter since he can’t hit from the right side. Also, no lefty in the bullpen knows how to throw a screwball?
Sophy Romvari’s luminous debut feature “Blue Heron” is a loving and studious act of remembrance. Her protagonist and surrogate, Sasha (Amy Zimmer), attempts to understand her family’s past through a reverent process of recreation. While she finds that not everything can be understood, there is beauty and solace in the journey itself — and maybe a kind of catharsis.
“Blue Heron” is an autobiographical project, but it’s more apt to call it a memoir. Sasha admits she doesn’t remember much of her childhood and doesn’t even trust the fragments. But she will try anyway. As Sasha zooms in on her iPhone, standing at the bluff overlooking her hometown, Romvari rolls up the back of a moving truck to deliver a lush slice of ’90s childhood nostalgia, picking up the memory as her Hungarian immigrant family — two parents, three brothers and one sister — arrive at their new home on Canada’s Vancouver Island.
Father (Ádám Tompa) settles into work on the home computer; Mother (Iringó Réti) attempts to amuse the kids with trips to the beach and nature preserves. Snippets of summer filter through the eyes and ears of 8-year-old Sasha (Eylul Guven) and in the photos snapped by their parents.
But a disquieting presence looms: Jeremy (Edik Beddoes), the eldest son. Blond, light-featured and tall, he is visually distinct from the three other children and his silent rebellion permeates the atmosphere.
His misbehavior is minor — irritating but untenable when stacked together — like bouncing a ball against a wall, disappearing for fun or climbing on the roof. He mostly just seems like a moody, unsatisfied teen, drawing elaborate maps and sometimes playing with his siblings sweetly. It all seems like harmless mischief until it escalates.
The movie’s title refers to a key chain from a gift shop that Jeremy, who almost never speaks, presents to his younger sister. Like him, the film is quiet and meditative, bathed in the cool blues and verdant greens of the setting, captured in Maya Bankovic’s saturated cinematography. We are transported to a place of natural beauty and a period of seemingly unlimited time. But Jeremy-related tension simmers beneath the domestic surface, just as it does in Chantal Akerman’s 1975 landmark “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles,” referenced in a shot of a mother and daughter peeling potatoes.
“Blue Heron,” though, is not just going to simply be a throwback family drama about a troubled boy and his younger sister. The film suddenly zooms out, linearly, to two decades later. Zimmer’s older version of Sasha is grappling with her brother’s void and she does so with her mind, her work, her actions. She conducts a focus group of social workers for a documentary in order to try to understand Jeremy’s behavior and the treatment he got at the time. She scrubs through video and photos and interviews a case worker. She escapes into old movies.
In Romvari’s award-winning 2020 short “Still Processing,” a companion piece to “Blue Heron,” she processes the loss of two brothers through photography, sifting through boxes of old photos and film negatives shot by her father, who trained as a cinematographer in Hungary. It seems natural for Romvari to access the emotional through artistic practice, to give her — and Sasha — something to do with their hands. The tactility of the photographs in “Still Processing” provide an access point to the past. Romvari weeps as she spreads them out on a table, saying “hi” softly to her brothers. But there’s a remove in the rigorous focus on the snapshots that perhaps also protects her from the full crushing weight of these emotions.
But in a film like “Blue Heron,” anything is possible, including time travel, and for Romvari, it’s the channel that she offers Sasha to achieve the closure that she needs: a visit to a time she doesn’t really remember, even as she’s building an archive of materials to bolster herself.
If young Sasha watches (and Guven is absolutely terrific at watching), the older Sasha speaks. Zimmer, a New York City comedian, is tasked with a heavy, grief-laden dramatic role, and she’s utterly convincing, entrancing in her stillness. But she also has a way with words, a clarity that rings with a rare kind of honest empathy, especially in a letter that Sasha reads to her parents.
That letter is what “Blue Heron” represents for its filmmaker — an attempt to re-create the past, to bring it back to life. Even if imperfect, the value is in the effort, in the ongoing practice of remembering, as an act of devotion to family and self.
‘Blue Heron’
In English and Hungarian, with subtitles
Not rated
Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
Playing: Opens Friday, April 24 in limited release
As tensions ramp up amid fragile truce, US military says it ‘redirected’ 34 vessels as part of blockade on Iran’s ports.
Published On 24 Apr 202624 Apr 2026
The United States has three aircraft carriers in the Middle East for the first time in 23 years with the arrival of the USS George HW Bush, the US military has said, amid a fragile ceasefire with Iran.
The Middle East-based Central Command (CENTCOM) of the US military said on Friday that the carriers include 12 accompanying ships, more than 200 aircraft, and 15,000 soldiers.
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“For the first time in decades, three aircraft carriers are operating in the Middle East at the same time,” CENTCOM said.
The last time the US amassed that amount of military assets in the region’s waters was in the lead up to the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The other two US aircraft carriers in the region are USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Gerald R Ford, which is the largest in the world.
The show of force signals that the US is preparing to return to fighting should the fragile ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran unravel.
Diplomacy between the two countries has been in limbo, with Iran setting the lifting of the US naval blockade against its ports as a condition for resuming the talks.
US President Donald Trump announced extending the truce on Wednesday, but he said the naval siege would persist.
For its part, Iran has reblocked the Strait of Hormuz in response to the US blockade after declaring the waterway completely open last week when the regional ceasefire was extended to Lebanon.
Trump has not set a deadline for the extended ceasefire and suggested that he is comfortable with the status quo, which he argues is depleting the Iranian economy at a low cost for the US.
“I have all the time in the World, but Iran doesn’t,” he wrote in a social media post on Thursday.
The US president was later asked how long he would be willing to wait before receiving a proposed deal from Iran. He said: “Don’t rush me.”
Iran has described the blockade – which has seen US forces seize at least two Iranian oil ships – as an “act of war”.
Iranian forces have also captured foreign commercial ships in the Hormuz Strait, accusing them of violating maritime regulations.
With negotiations on hold, Trump has shown no signs of willingness to lift the siege in order to facilitate talks.
On Friday, the US military said it has “redirected” 34 vessels in the region. “The blockade against ships entering or exiting Iranian ports continues,” CENTCOM said.
Trump has previously threatened to destroy Iran’s civilian infrastructure, including bridges, power and water stations.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that his country is awaiting the green light from Trump to return Iran to the “age of darkness”.
“Israel is prepared to renew the war against Iran. The [Israeli military] is ready in defence and offence, and the targets are marked,” Katz said, according to The Times of Israel newspaper.
Kobe Bryant rookie trading cards aren’t particularly rare. And because rarity equates to value, standard issue 1997 cards featuring the late Lakers great retail for a pedestrian $100 to $300.
Then there are 1997 Kobe Bryant Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems Green cards, which just by typing that highfalutin name can give even the most savvy collector goose bumps.
The key word is green. Most Bryant rookie Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems cards have a red background and fetch around $300,000. Only 10 were made with a metallic green background and only three have been graded by respected grading firm Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA).
So green translates to greenbacks. Alt, a company that enables users to sell, buy and securely store collectible cards, announced Thursday it purchased one of those — take a breath first — 1997 Kobe Bryant Metal Universe Precious Metal Gems Green cards in a private transaction for $3.15 million.
The company said on Instagram that the purchase makes it the most expensive Bryant card ever sold, eclipsing the previous record of $2.4 million set in September. Another copy of the same card sold for $2 million in 2022.
“It was on every collector’s wall, in every price guide, at the top of every wish list,” Alt CEO Leore Avidar Avidar said on Alt’s Instagram page. “Acquiring it for our fund is personal, but it’s also a reflection of where this market has gone.”
The image of Bryant in midair passing — not shooting! — highlights the card, which earned a PSA 5 grade.
The card adds to Alt’s impressive collection. The fund set price records at time of purchase for LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo cards in addition to the one of Bryant.
The most paid for a sports trading card was $12.932 million for a 2007-08 Upper Deck Exquisite Collection Dual Logoman Autographs signed card featuring Bryant and Michael Jordan last fall. The purchase was made by investor and “Shark Tank” personality Kevin O’Leary along with veteran collectors Matt Allen and Paul Warshaw and surpassed the previous record of $12.6 million held by a 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle card.
The Bryant/Jordan card is the second-most expensive sports collectible of all time behind Babe Ruth’s 1932 World Series “called shot” jersey, which sold for $24.12 million in 2024.
High-end Bryant cards remain coveted by collectors. Allen, well known in the industry as Shyne150, privately spent $4 million on two Bryant 1-of-1 signed Panini Flawless Logoman cards.
Choosin’ to stay home instead of trekking out to Indio for this weekend’s Stagecoach festival? Don’t worry, you’ll be able to listen to all the country music your heart desires. You can get your country heartbreak on with Ella Langley, Bailey Zimmerman and Cody Johnson, and then rock out with Counting Crows. If you prefer EDM, you can catch Diplo and Dillstradamus (Dillon Francis and Flosstradamus) as Friday’s closing acts.
The festival will be livestreamed on Amazon Music, Amazon Prime Video and Twitch beginning at 3 p.m. On Sirius XM’s The Highway (channel 56), you can listen to exclusive interviews and live performances along with a special edition of the Music Row Happy Hour. The station Y’Allternative will also be covering the festival on Friday evening.
Here are updated set times for the Stagecoach livestream Friday performances (times presented are PDT):
AFTER 14 episodes, I’m A Celebrity All Stars is set to conclude at the grand finale with the winner set to be announced TONIGHT.
What was once 12 has now become four as the remaining celebs prepare to learn their fates.
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I’m A Celebrity All Stars is set to be concluded at the grand finale with the winner set to be announced tonightCredit: SplashHosts Ant and Dec will announce the winner tonightCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
What time is the I’m A Celeb All Stars final on tonight?
The final instalment of I’m A Celeb All Stars will be shown live tonight from an ITV studio in London.
It will be shown across two parts, with the first section running from 7.30pm to 9pm, and the second from 10pm to 10.30pm.
Votes will be counted by the 10pm programme, where the winner will be confirmed by hosts Ant and Dec.
Beverley Callard unfortunately won’t be present at the final due to medical reasonsCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
Which stars are in the final?
As previously mentioned, just four celebs remain in the show after eight departures happened in South Africa.
The final four include Harry Redknapp, Mo Farah, Craig Charles, and Adam Thomas.
That means for the first time in over two decades the show has an all-male final – confirming that the winner will be King of the Jungle rather than Queen.
Football legend Harry Redknapp will be hoping he can repeat history as he won the show back in 2018, while Mo Farah has already beaten his last appearance back in 2021 where he placed fifth.
Fan favourite Craig Charles was amongst the top contenders to win the show when he first appeared in 2014, before having to leave the series early after his brother Dean suffered a fatal heart attack.
Whereas actor Adam Thomas will be hoping to win the show after experiencing drama with David Haye and Jimmy Bullard during his time in the jungle.
For the first time in over two decades the show has an all-male finalCredit: Shutterstock Editorial
Who has been eliminated from the show?
Eight celebs have left the show in order to get to the final four.
The first to go was comedian Seann Walsh on day nine after being given the boot by Team Lion leader and finalist Harry Redknapp.
Next up to leave the jungle was controversial campmate David Haye on day 11 after a campmate vote-off.
Before Gemma Collins packed her bags in the same episode after David chose her when given the choice of another celeb to leave the camp with him.
Beverley Callard was next to leave on day 12 due to medical reasons and has since confirmed she won’t be present at the live finale after being diagnosed with breast cancer.
The most shocking elimination was Jimmy Bullard’s as he called out “I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here!” during a trial.
His decision to quit caused a row between him and Adam Thomas as the campmates were paired up and relying on each other – meaning Jimmy took Adam down with him by quitting.
Fortunately for Adam, who has since progressed to the final, the rules were bent and he was allowed to remain in the jungle.
Ashley Roberts and Sinitta were both recently eliminated off the back of being slowest to finish their trials.
Whilst Scarlett Moffatt was kicked out just 24 hours before the grand finale after losing a trial called Keep Your Eye on the Ball.
A HISTORIC Gloucestershire lido may not open in time for summer, as the council review risk assessments into its damaged infrastructure, reports the BBC.
The site, that saw its heyday back in the 1940s, is struggling under the burden of its ageing facilities.
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Stratford Park Lido has been in Stroud for nearly a centuryCredit: Stroud District CouncilNow, a risk assessment showed that the ageing facilities were not fit for purposeCredit: Getty
The Stratford Park Lido, located in Stroud, Gloucestershire, has been serving open air swimmers since 1937 and cost £20,000 to build.
Recently, there were suggestions that the lido could reopen this summer, after Stroud District Council agreed to explore cheaper repair options.
The council had warned that safety concerns and a £5million repair bill would ultimately take too long to settle in time for summer.
However, during a meeting earlier this week, discussions arose that the lido would be unlikely to open this summer due to the condition of the facilities.
Russell Brand, the British comedian and actor who has been accused by multiple women of rape and sexual assault, said his sexual flings amid the height of his fame in the early aughts included sleeping with a 16-year-old girl.
Brand confirmed the relationship to Megyn Kelly on the the latest episode of her eponymous podcast and YouTube show published Wednesday. “I did sleep with a 16-year-old when I was 30,” he said, “but when I was 30 I was a different person. I was a lot younger and I was an immature 30-year-old.”
The “Get Him to the Greek” actor, 50, emphasized that the age of consent in the United Kingdom is 16 and reflected on his behavior at the time, adding that he thinks having consensual sex as a famous person “involved exploitation.” He said he felt fame and addiction paved the way for “opportunity for endless consent which led me to be a hedonist and a fool and exploiter of women.”
“That is wrong and that is something that needs to be redeemed and addressed and atoned for,” he added.
Brand’s relationship with a 16-year-old girl became public in 2023 when the Times of London and Britain’s Channel 4 published a joint investigation detailing allegations of rape, sexual assault and other abusive behavior against the once-in-demand actor. One of the women who raised allegations against Brand said she became involved with the former actor when she was 16 and he was 31, and that he referred to her as “the child” in their relationship. According to the woman, Brand reportedly forced his penis down her throat, making it difficult to breathe, and she fought him off by punching him in the stomach. Brand denied the claims at the time.
The investigation centered on alleged incidents that occurred between 2006 and 2013 — the peak of Brand’s Hollywood fame — and laid the groundwork for additional complaints against the raunchy comedian to come to light.
In April 2025, the Metropolitan Police Service charged Brand with single counts of rape, indecent assault, oral rape and two counts of sexual assault connected to alleged attacks on multiple women between 1999 and 2005. U.K. authorities pressed additional rape and sexual assault charges against the “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” actor in December. He will stand trail in October.
Brand, ex-husband to pop star Katy Perry (who is facing her own sexual assault scandal),fell mostly out of public favor within the past decade and pivoted his focus to religious and “free-thinking” content. Last year he appeared at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2025.
At the beginning of the podcast episode, Kelly said that after learning about allegations against Brand she “felt anger for a couple years” toward the actor. However, Kelly said she grew open to speaking with him after some time and an “enormous amount of open-mindedness to [Brand] being railroaded and attacked by people.”
Notably, Kelly in November offered a flimsy definition of pedophilia when it came to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Citing “somebody very close” to Epstein’s case, Kelly said Epstein “ was into the barely legal type, like, he liked 15-year-old girls,” Kelly continued.
“I’m not trying to make an excuse for this, I’m just giving you facts — that he wasn’t into, like, 8-year-olds,” she added at the time. “But he liked the very young teen types that could pass for even younger than they were, but would look legal to a passer-by.”
Times staff writer Meredith Blake contributed to this report.
MORE than three decades after London helped launch her career, Tori Amos is back in the city, headlining the Royal Albert Hall for a tenth time.
The US singer is chatty and upbeat despite staying up until 5am, still riding the high of her gig the night before.
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Tori Amos is back with her 18th album, In Dragon TimesCredit: Kasia Wozniak.Tori playing London’s Albert Hall on TuesdayCredit: Getty
With her striking red hair falling in waves and her vivid green eye make-up, Maryland-raised Tori, who has called Cornwall home since the late Nineties, looks every inch the star.
“London was the place that gave me my big exposure explosion,” she says.
“It really did shake my life up. And here we are again.
“London broke Silent All These Years in the autumn of 1991, and then launched [debut album] Little Earthquakes, which rippled out to the States and the rest of the world.
“America really discovered me through London, and then the UK did, too. From there, it just kept rippling outwards.”
On her forthcoming 18th album, In Times Of Dragons, Amos turns political dread, female resistance and personal storytelling into something unique and mythic.
She says: “I’m very reclusive at home and I’m not very sociable there so when I’m on tour I go from this insular life, where I do a lot of reading, music and writing, and step into this much more exposed life.”
The contrast between Amos’s secluded home life and her role as a performer feeds directly into an album shaped by both personal reflection and political unease.
The record is a response to the current political climate in America because, as a songwriter “a lot of my work is documenting time,” she tells me.
“That’s what I did with Little Earthquakes, which followed my time of failure after [her synth band] Y Kant Tori Read when I had to go back to play piano bars.
“I have a history of documenting things — my miscarriage in 1998 and that journey, then my 2002 album Scarlet’s Walk which documented 9/11 when I actually wrote some of it on the tour bus.”
The idea for In Times Of Dragons came through the muses — otherworldly entities — that Amos believes bring her music.
She has spoken widely about these guiding forces, which she says have inspired her songwriting since childhood.
And last year she published children’s book Tori And The Muses, all about them.
She says: “This message came to me through the muses that I needed to document America at this pivotal time in history.
“And I had to personalise this.
“It came to me a year ago that I needed to be me in the story and be closely connected to one of these people, and what that would look like, because they are personally affecting us.
“I had to turn the volume on that to create this narrative, whatever turning into a dragon looks like.”
The album follows the story of Tori trapped in a world run by billionaire tech moguls and lizard dragons, who threaten democracy through corporate greed and authoritarianism.
Amos says: “Jane Mayer writes about the genesis of this in Dark Money, which is one of the most important books people need to read if they’re asking, ‘How did we get here?’.
“This has been going on since the Seventies.
“As Mayer documents, figures like the Koch brothers — and I use that as an umbrella term for a wider movement — helped shape it, along with super PACs [organisations that spend millions supporting political candidates] and all the rest.
“It seems there was an understanding that progressive teaching in universities had to be excavated, cut back and penetrated by a very tight right-wing philosophy that is now upon us.
“And I’m not just talking about Republicans and Democrats. I’m talking about tyranny versus democracy.
“If you had asked me about this even around the Scarlet’s Walk era, I was already going after it through that record, and then through [2007 album] American Doll Posse during the Bush-Cheney administration with the wars, the manipulation, all of that.
“Then there was a period of relief, when a different, more inclusive philosophy came in, whatever your politics are.
“For me, it’s about the philosophy.
“As a songwriter, I’ve been tracking that through my career.
“On this record, I had to take a personal journey and look at the effects of what this very small cabal of men is doing — and there are women involved too, we can’t get confused about that.
“There’s Cambridge Analytica, the involvements of the Mercers, Rebekah Mercer [the right-wing US heiress and political donor] and all those interconnections.”
The album’s story sees Amos’s character flee and reunite with her daughter.
This part is played by her real-life daughter Natashya, who co-wrote tracks Veins, Strawberry Moon and Stronger Together — the latter of which she also sings backing vocals on, and is one of the most emotional songs on the record.
“She was in DC at the time, in law school, and she graduates in a few weeks,” says Amos proudly.
“She’s going into criminal law and really had her finger on the pulse.
“On a daily basis she’s seeing things that the wider public probably isn’t, unless you’re a political journalist.
Tori in a shoot for the new album. An actress portrays her daughter, who co-wrote three songs and sings backing vocalsCredit: Unknown
“We’re so inundated that the little freedoms being quietly taken away can be missed.
“Criminal law is her calling.
“So, writing these songs with her, with her understanding of what’s happening in the field she’s chosen, and her exposure to the shock of what is being torn to pieces, was hugely important.
“She says we are past constitutional crisis and what’s going on is absolutely shocking.”
The final song, written last- minute for the album, is Ode To Minnesota — a response to the deaths caused by ICE agents there.
She says: “Heinous, atrocious crimes are being committed and so this is the world of the record.”
Amos, 62, has a long history of addressing America in song, and In Times Of Dragons continues that while exploring wider patterns of male power.
It’s also a reminder of her role as a feminist icon and the influence she’s had on artists such as Lady Gaga, Florence Welch and St Vincent (real name Annie Clark).
“Annie’s one of my dear friends,” she says of St Vincent.
“She’s fabulous. We have a giggle and I’m thrilled for her, for her art, and for the way she’s balancing motherhood so beautifully.
“It’s lovely to see people who came to my shows when they were younger.
“She’s talked to me about Choirgirl [Tori’s 1988 album From The Choirgirl Hotel] and what it meant to her when she first heard it, and we’ve had laughs about that.
“And it’s the same with the guys too.
“I’m off to an event later and the guy doing the Q&A used to stand by the stage door as a teenage gay kid.
“To see these people grow up, and to still be able to bask in their creativity and development, is a beautiful thing to witness.”
But while Amos is moved by the artists and fans who have grown up with her work, she is hesitant to define her own feminist legacy.
She says: “It’s not for me to say, that’s more for other people to decide.
“Believe it or not, I’m a bit introverted about that.
“What I think I’ve tried to do, and what I have done, is there for those who know it.
“What’s important to remember is that there was no social media then.
“When people ask, ‘Was it easier back then?’, well, in some ways no, and in others yes.
“We did have a music business with a few women in record companies, though only a few in executive positions.
“One or two could balls their way through, but you really had to.
“And if you didn’t have that tenacity in the Nineties — especially to get played on radio — it was tough.
“At an alternative station in the States, they might add two women out of 64 slots, and the other 62 would be men.
“I’ve spoken about that with some of my contemporaries over the years, Alanis [Morissette] being one of them, and it was not a good feeling — knowing that talented women with very good records were simply not being added to the station.
“And touring took money.
“That’s why I never had tour support.
“In the early days, I went out with just a piano, my tour manager and a sound guy. That was it.
“We kept the costs down, and luckily the shows sold out, because the Press had really got behind me.”
Today, Amos points to Dolly Parton as proof that women can keep evolving, performing and owning the stage on their own terms as they get older.
“She is fantastic and she’s aware we are a different generation that played this game and played it well,” says Amos.
“There are women who are still playing the game beautifully, and they still have the physicality and the health to do it.
“I used to have a three-and-a-half octave range when I was doing those one-woman shows.
“But with the change of life — becoming a dragon, if that’s the menopause analogy — you adapt or you collapse.
“For me, it wasn’t a crisis in the way it has been for some women we’ve read about in the Press, and I have huge empathy for that.
“But vocally, I did have to make changes.
“I didn’t want to alter the top lines of songs with those very high, wide-ranging melodies, so on the last tour I simply didn’t play them.
“Then I thought, ‘No, that isn’t what I want.
“I want the whole catalogue available to me as a storyteller’.
“So, I decided to bring in backing singers who could hit those notes.
“It was a strategic, compositional choice.
“I didn’t want to be in a position where I could only perform 40 per cent of my catalogue because of range.
Tori at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards in Los AngelesCredit: Getty
“And we’re having a blast.
“They’re amazing singers.
“I’ve gained four notes at the lower end and I feel like I’m down there rocking with Nick Cave, but that’s the trade-off.
“I gained more on the lower end, while recognising that if I want to play those songs, you can only transpose them down so far before they lose their essence.
“I have so much respect for Nick Cave.
“I used to run into him in the early Nineties.
“His work has always been a beacon of beauty and darkness — expansive work that makes you think.”
Like Cave, Amos remains restlessly creative, and she is already thinking about where to go next.
“After something as demanding as this, I’m doing a prequel to children’s book Tori And The Muses — that will be out next year,” she says.
“Her journey as a little girl with her muses.
“It’s due next April — and there may be music to go with it too.”
In Times Of Dragons is out on May 1.
Tori Amos’ In Times Of Dragons is out on May 1Credit: Kasia Wozniak.
Real Madrid could close gap on La Liga leaders Barcelona to six points on Friday, three weeks shy of a Clasico meeting.
Who: Real Betis vs Real Madrid What: Spanish La Liga Where: Estadio La Cartuja de Sevilla in Seville, Spain When: Friday at 9pm (20:00 GMT) How to follow: We’ll have all the build-up on Al Jazeera Sport from 17:00 GMT in advance of our live text commentary stream.
Real Madrid will continue their pursuit of league leaders Barcelona when they travel to Real Betis on Friday, but the record La Liga winners know that any slip-up now will be terminal for their hopes of lifting silverware this season.
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Barca play at Getafe on Saturday but only narrowly beat Celta Vigo on Wednesday to respond to Real’s latest win a day earlier.
It has been a turbulent season for Los Blancos on and off the field, but they are still fighting. Al Jazeera Sport takes a closer look at their latest fixture.
How is the La Liga race between Real Madrid and Barcelona looking?
Barcelona are nine points clear of Real after their 1-0 win against Celta Vigo.
The two Spanish giants have been eliminated from the UEFA Champions League, where they both stood as favourites.
The quarterfinal exits for both came as a shock and leave all focus now on the La Liga race, which has only six rounds of matches remaining.
What is Real Madrid’s form before the Real Betis match?
Real’s season has lurched from bad to worse. Their run of 13 wins from the first 14 games of the season under new coach Xabi Alonso is a distant memory.
Barcelona have long since held a grip on the La Liga title, which has been strengthened by Los Blancos winning just one of their last three league matches.
Back-to-back La Liga defeats in March at Osasuna and at home to Getafe handed Barca full control of the league although a run of three wins thereafter kept them on the Catalans’ tails.
There is little doubt, though, that no further points can be dropped from this point forward for the Madrid giants.
Including the Champions League defeats by Bayern Munich, Real’s 2-1 win against Alaves on Tuesday was their first win in five matches, a run that saw them lose three games.
Will Real Madrid play Barcelona again in a Clasico this season?
One of the hopes that Real are clinging to in the final six games of the La Liga season is that they do still have to play Barcelona in a Clasico.
The match on May 10 at Barcelona will offer the chance to trim their rivals lead, if only by three points. Three further rounds of La Liga matches will follow that game.
What happened the last time Real Madrid played Real Betis?
Real Madrid stormed to a 5-1 home win in their previous La Liga meeting this season with Gonzalo Garcia netting a hat-trick in the fixture on January 4.
Raul Asencio and Fran Garcia were also on the scoresheet while Cucho Hernandez scored a consolation goal midway through the second half for Betis.
What happened in the corresponding La Liga fixture last season?
Betis came from behind to win 2-1 at home against Real Madrid in this fixture last season.
Brahim Diaz had given Los Blancos the lead, but Johnny Cardoso and Isco, with a penalty against his former club, turned the game.
Head-to-head
This will be the 143rd meeting between the sides with Real winning 78 of the matches while Real Betis have emerged victorious on 32 occasions.
Real Betis team news
Betis have former Manchester United winger Antony back from a one-match suspension.
Junior Firpo misses out with a knock, but Diego Llorente and Angel Ortiz are still in with a chance of featuring despite ankle and muscle problems, respectively.
Real’s faint hopes of overhauling Barcelona in La Liga suffered a further blow on Thursday with both Eder Militao and Arda Guler ruled out for the rest of the season.
Brazilian defender Militao has a left thigh injury while Turkish attacking midfielder Guler is sidelined with a right thigh problem, the club said.
For now, neither Militao, 28, nor 21-year-old Guler is considered at risk of missing the World Cup finals.
