While the BHV department store celebrated the opening of Shein, there were protests outside
The French government says it is initiating proceedings to suspend the online platform of Asian online giant Shein, after prosecutors said they were investigating the company over childlike sex dolls found on its website.
The economy ministry said under the prime minister’s order proceedings would last for “as long as necessary for the platform to prove to authorities that all of its content is finally in compliance with our laws and regulations”.
The government’s move was announced little more than an hour after Shein opened its first physical store in the world, on the sixth floor of Paris department store BHV.
Shoppers queued to get into the store, while protesters screamed “Shame!” at them.
Shein has promised to co-operate fully with Paris prosecutors who are also investigating three other platforms – Temu, AliExpress and Wish. Allegations surrounding the sale of childlike sex dolls on Shein first came to light from France’s anti-fraud office at the weekend.
In a statement, Shein said it had already temporarily suspended listings from independent third-party vendors in its marketplace, while it tightened up rules on how they operate.
“This suspension enables us to strengthen accountability and ensure every product meets our standards and legal obligations,” said Quentin Ruffat, the company’s head of public affairs in France.
BHV’s decision to house the fast-fashion giant has angered rival clothing brands and a number have said they will leave the prestigious department store in protest.
Protests against the opening continued inside the store, and one person let off a foul-smelling spray.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Protesters held up placards outside the BHV store and shouted “Shame!” at shoppers
Shein has become best known for its discounted and trendy clothes, but has drawn criticism over its environmental impact and working conditions.
Fashion designer Agnès B said earlier she would close her concession in BHV when her contract ended in January.
“I’m completely against this fast-fashion… there are jobs under threat, it’s very bad,” she told French radio.
Shein spokesman Quentin Ruffat earlier promised to provide information on sellers, buyers and products involved in selling the childlike sex dolls on its site.
AliExpress told the BBC it took the matter very seriously.
Temu said it was not involved in the case and did not allow the sale of such items on its platform, although it told the BBC it was working with French authorities “to reinforce our minor protection mechanism”. Wish has also been contacted for comment.
Frédéric Merlin, whose SGM company runs BHV, has admitted that he considered ending the department store’s partnership with the retailer.
However, he said Shein’s response had “convinced me to continue” and he expressed confidence in the products it was going to sell in his store. “The clothes we’re going to sell do not exploit workers or children,” he told French radio.
Shein, which was founded in China, is also set to open outlets in seven other cities, inside Galeries Lafayette department stores run by SGM. But Galeries Lafayette has refused to have anything to do with Shein and will withdraw its name from the stores in Angers, Dijon, Grenoble, Le Mans, Limoges, Orléans and Reims.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said Shein and the other three e-commerce platforms were being investigated over violent, pornographic or “undignified messages” that could be accessed by minors.
Shein and AliExpress are also under investigation over the dissemination of content related to children that are of a pornographic nature, the prosecutor’s office said.
The cases have been referred to the Paris Office des Mineurs, the prosecution service added. The office is an arm of the French police force that oversees the protection of minors.
AliExpress said the listings in question violated its policies and were removed once it became aware of them.
“Sellers found to violate or trying to circumvent these requirements will be penalised in accordance with our rules,” AliExpress said in a statement.
On Monday, Shein said it had banned the sale of all sex dolls on its platform worldwide. The Singapore-based retailer also said that it would permanently block all seller accounts related to the illegal sale of the childlike dolls and set stricter controls on its platform.
The French consumer watchdog, the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control, said the sex dolls’ description and categorisation left “little doubt as to the child pornography nature” of the products.
David Ball of Soft Cell, whose delectably sleazy synth-pop arrangement drove that English duo’s 1981 hit “Tainted Love” to the top of the U.K. singles chart, died Wednesday. He was 66.
The producer’s death was announced in a post on Soft Cell’s website, which didn’t state a cause but said that Ball died at his home in London. On Facebook, the duo’s singer, Marc Almond, wrote that Ball’s health “had been in slow decline over recent years” due to an unspecified illness.
“It is hard to write this, let alone process it, as Dave was in such a great place emotionally,” Almond said on Soft Cell’s site. “He was focused and so happy with the new album that we literally completed only a few days ago. It’s so sad as 2026 was all set to be such an uplifting year for him, and I take some solace from the fact that he heard the finished record and felt that it was a great piece of work.”
Ball and Almond performed as Soft Cell at last month’s Rewind Festival in England; the LP they’d just wrapped is set to be titled “Danceteria” after the New York City nightclub that became an incubator of new wave and synth-pop in the early ’80s.
Soft Cell was an “experimental electro band [writing] weird little pop tunes about consumerism,” as Almond told the Guardian in 2017, when the duo decided to record a cover of “Tainted Love,” which the soul singer Gloria Jones had introduced to little success in 1964.
Ball devised his take on the song using his “dodgy old Korg synths” as well as a state-of-the-art Synclavier that cost more than £100,000, according to the Guardian. Soft Cell’s cover felt “twisted and strange,” Ball said, which suited the “weird couple: Marc, this gay bloke in makeup, and me, a big guy who looked like a minder.”
With Almond’s panting vocal over Ball’s sexy yet sinister production, “Tainted Love” hit No. 1 in the U.K. the same year as the Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” and “Prince Charming” by Adam & the Ants. In the U.S., “Tainted Love” peaked at No. 8 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1982.
Today the song has been streamed more than 1 billion times on Spotify, kept alive in part by Rihanna’s prominent sample of “Tainted Love” in her 2006 hit “SOS.”
Ball was born May 3, 1959, in Chester, England, and grew up in an adoptive family in Blackpool. He and Almond formed Soft Cell in 1979 after meeting as students at Leeds Polytechnic, where Almond was known for a performance art piece in which “he’d be naked in front of a full-length mirror, smearing himself with cat food and shagging himself,” Ball told the Guardian.
The duo released its debut album, “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret,” in 1981, then followed it with two more LPs before splitting in 1984. “Few groups took as much pleasure in perversity,” said Rolling Stone, which called “Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret” a “conceptual salute to the sex industry.” In 2022, Pitchfork said the duo’s debut offered “a snapshot of pre-AIDS queer life at its heady peak.”
After Soft Cell’s breakup, Ball collaborated with Genesis P-Orridge of Throbbing Gristle and formed a dance group called the Grid with the producer Richard Norris; he also worked in the studio with the likes of Kylie Minogue, the Pet Shop Boys and David Bowie.
Soft Cell reunited in 2001 and again in 2018; the statement on the band’s website said “Danceteria” would come out in early 2026. According to the statement, Ball’s survivors include four children.
Do you wish that discovering shows playing at live theaters around Los Angeles was as easy as finding movies in local cinemas? Now it is. A new nonprofit called Theatre Commons L.A. — founded by some of the city’s most prominent theater leaders — launched earlier this week with easy-to-navigate local theater listings for more than 100 houses big and small.
The listings can be filtered by date, neighborhood and genre, and users can simply click on links to buy tickets. I’ve tried it and am happy to report that it takes all the guesswork and Googling out of finding a show that fits your schedule and suits your interests. It also introduced me to a whole host of new shows that I didn’t even realize were playing.
“Theatre Commons LA is about making it easier to make theatre in Los Angeles — and easier for people to find and enjoy it,” wrote Pasadena Playhouse producing artistic director Danny Feldman in an email. “By connecting artists, companies, and audiences, we’re working to build a more connected ecosystem for LA’s bold, local, living theatre.”
That connection is key. Because Los Angeles is a tough city to get a handle on. I’m old enough to remember getting hopelessly lost when I first moved here — crying in my old Toyota Corolla on freeway offramp, clutching a Thomas Guide that I could not make heads or tails of. Ironically, given the subject of this newsletter, I was trying to get to a theater downtown.
Visitors to L.A., and even plenty of seasoned Angelenos, often find the city sprawling and fragmented. The vast landscape is carved up by thriving neighborhoods, each with singular identities molded by unique cultural, business and arts offerings. TCLA aims to bring these diverse theaters together under a common umbrella to pool resources, and promotional and engagement opportunities, as well as to expand a sense of community in a difficult moment for the art form.
“It is no secret that the last few years have been particularly hard for theater in LA from the pandemic to the recent wildfires and curfews,” Center Theatre Group’s artistic director Snehal Desai wrote in an email. “What has become clear during this period is that the Los Angeles theater community is rich in artists, talent and leadership but our resources are scattered and there is not a consolidated place for information and outreach,” he continued. “Theatre Commons LA is a way to bridge those gaps — to share knowledge, opportunities, and support so that everyone, from small ensembles to major institutions, can thrive together. It creates the space our community has been asking for — where artists, institutions, and audiences can come together to imagine what Los Angeles theatre can be next.”
A volunteer steering committee, including Desai and Feldman, launched TCLA and its listings website with the financial support of the Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative. Last month, the Perenchio Foundation made a substantial investment meant to sustain the organization’s future growth, including the hiring of an executive director. (Please see the photo caption above for a list of the other steering committee members.)
Earlier this week also marked The Times’ launch of “The 52 best places to see plays and musicals in Southern California,” curated and written by Times theater critic Charles McNulty, assistant entertainment editor Kevin Crust (who also edits this newsletter) and me. The list contains short summations of each theater’s defining traits and connects to a map that plots each theater in its own pocket of the city. It was a real labor of love and I urge you to use it in conjunction with the new TCLA website to plan your next night out.
I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, mulling over more than a dozen entertainment options for the weekend. All of them good. Here’s this week’s arts and culture news.
On our radar
Complexions Contemporary Ballet comes to the Music Center on Friday and Saturday.
(Rachel Neville)
Complexions Contemporary Ballet The New York-based company celebrates its 30th anniversary with “Retro Suite,” a collection of works from 1994 to the present, created by co-founding artistic director and principal choreographer Dwight Rhoden. Complexions is known for its high-energy mashup of traditional ballet with hip-hop and street dance, as well as for the multicultural makeup of its troupe and its novel approach to incorporating visual art and theater into its choreography. — Jessica Gelt 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. musiccenter.org
Children make art at the 2024 Grand Ave Arts: All Access event.
(John McCoy)
Grand Ave Arts: All Access A day of free art, music and culture along downtown Los Angeles’ cultural corridor. Participating institutions include the Broad, Center Theatre Group, Classical California KUSC, Colburn School, Dataland, Gloria Molina Grand Park, L.A. Opera, the L.A. Phil, Los Angeles Central Library, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Metro Art, MOCA, the Music Center and Redcat. 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Grand Ave. from Temple to 6th Street, downtown L.A. grandavearts.org
Cyndi Lauper wrote the music and lyrics for the new musical “Working Girl,” based on the 1988 movie.
(Larsen & Talbert / For The Times)
Working Girl This musical adaption of the 1988 film — directed by Mike Nichols, written by Kevin Wade and starring Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver and Melanie Griffith — has assembled an all-star team of its own. The music and lyrics are by Cyndi Lauper, Theresa Rebeck has written the book and Christopher Ashley directs. The Wall Street Cinderella story centers on a Staten Island secretary who, tired of being misused, underestimated and passed over, cunningly takes her corporate future into her own hands in a revenge tale that has everyone rooting for the underdog. Yet another La Jolla Playhouse world premiere that has “Broadway hit” written all over it. — Charles McNulty Tuesday through Nov. 30. La Jolla Playhouse, Mandell Weiss Theatre, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive. lajollaplayhouse.org
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The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY Tiago Rodrigues In “By Heart,” the Portuguese playwright and actor invites 10 audience members onto the stage to learn a poem as he shares stories of his grandmother and explains the connections created by the words. 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. UCLA Nimoy Theater, 1262 Westwood Blvd. cap.ucla.edu
SATURDAY John Giorno “No Nostalgia,” an exhibition devoted to the late poet, artist and activist (1936-2019) who turned words into performance, sound installation and painting. The show includes a select group of Giorno’s work ranging from early prints to his black-and-white text and rainbow paintings, a selection of materials from Giorno’s archive showing how he pieced together his poems and his 1969 work Dial-A-Poem. 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, through April 25, 2026. Marciano Art Foundation, 4357 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. marcianoartfoundation.org
The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra performs Saturday at Zipper Hall in downtown L.A. and Sunday at the Wallis in Beverly Hills.
(Brian Feinzimer for LACO)
Romantic Resonance When a talented 19th century French pianist named Louise Farrenc became tired of giving concerts accompanying her flutist husband, she founded Éditions Farrenc in Paris, which became one of the country’s leading music publishing houses. She also gained a smallish reputation as a composer of mainly salon pieces for piano. But she had far greater ambitions nearly impossible for a woman at that time to realize. Farrenc composed three large-scale symphonies that are only now, more than a century after her death in 1875, being noticed. Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s music director, Jaime Martín, is one of her champions, and he is pairing Farrenc’s impressive Schumann-esque “Second Symphony,” written in 1845, with Brahms’ “First Piano Concerto,” featuring the dauntingly virtuoso pianist Marc-André Hamelin. — Mark Swed 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Zipper Hall, 200 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A.; 4 p.m. Sunday. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. laco.org
Night of Ritual and Revelry LACMA hosts this after-hours party with a focus on plants. The evening includes open galleries, plant-themed activities, a costume contest, food and drink, plus an outdoor screening of the 1986 cult classic “Little Shop of Horrors” hosted by Meatball. Guests must be 18 or older to attend. 7 p.m. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Smid Welcome Plaza, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org
Ragamala Dance Company performs Saturday at Broad Stage.
(Three Phase Multimedia)
Ragamala Dance Company Ragamala Dance Company — founded and run by the mother-daughter trio Ranee, Aparna and Ashwini Ramaswamy — brings Aparna’s most recent work, “Ananta, the Eternal,” to BroadStage with live music accompaniment. The company specializes in the South Indian dance form Bharatanatyam, and the troupe is known for its soulful embodiment of classical dance techniques and its bold and beautiful traditional costumes. — Jessica Gelt 7:30 p.m. BroadStage, Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica. broadstage.org
Songs of Emerging Endangerment This sound installation by artist TJ Shinn, commissioned by the local multidisciplinary arts organization Clockshop, is set to sound hourly from dawn to dusk. The project features a 30-foot-tall sculptural air raid siren that mimics bird calls to map systems of global migration. Opening Saturday, 2-4 p.m., and through Feb. 22, 2026. Los Angeles State Historic Park. 1245 N. Spring St. clockshop.org
SUNDAY Colburn Orchestra Grammy Award-winner Carlos Miguel Prieto conducts the flagship ensemble from the Colburn School of Music in a program featuring Ravel, Dvořák and Schoenberg. 3 p.m. The Saroya, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. thesoraya.org
The Heart Sellers Lloyd Suh, author of “The Far Country,” a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for drama, examines the deracinating effects of immigration in his work. In “The Heart Sellers,” two immigrants, one Filipino, the other Korean, strike up a friendship after a chance meeting at that quintessential American crossroads: the supermarket. Set in 1973, after the 1965 Hart-Celler Act abolished the national quota system that restricted immigration from non-European countries, they bond over what they left behind, the strange universe they’ve entered and the challenge of cooking a frozen turkey. Jennifer Chang directs this comedy about the power of friendship to redefine the idea of home. — Charles McNulty Through Nov. 16. South Coast Repertory, Julianne Argyros Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scr.org
MONDAY Bright Harvest: Powering Earth From Space This documentary follows Caltech professors Harry Atwater, Ali Hajimiri and Sergio Pellegrino on their quest to provide an endless supply of clean sustainable energy for the 2023 launch of the Space Solar Power Demonstrator. Followed by a Q&A with the three professors and filmmaker Steven Reich. Admission is free; reservations recommended. 7:30 p.m. Beckman Auditorium, Caltech, 332 S. Michigan Ave., Pasadena. caltech.edu
TUESDAY Carrie A screening of Brian De Palma’s 1976 adaptation of the Stephen King horror novel, starring Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, John Travolta, Amy Irving and William Katt, hosted by drag entertainer Jackie Beat. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Vidiots, Eagle Theatre, 4884 Eagle Rock Blvd. vidiotsfoundation.org
WEDNESDAY Pacific Jazz Orchestra’s Big Band With Jane Monheit Step into the elegant past for a program of timeless swing music, big band standards and seductive ballads. 7 and 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. Blue Note L.A., 6372 W. Sunset Blvd. bluenotejazz.com
THURSDAY
Lon Chaney in 1925’s “The Phantom of the Opera.”
(Universal Pictures)
The Phantom of the Opera L.A. Opera’s tradition of presenting classic silent horror films for Halloween continues this year with the 1925 version of “Phantom” starring Lon Chaney. Frank Strobel conducts the L.A. Opera Orchestra performing Roy Budd’s original score live. 8 p.m. Thursday and Oct. 31. The United Theater on Broadway, 929 S. Broadway, downtown L.A. https://www.laopera.org/performances/2026/phantom-of-the-opera
Mark Ryden The new solo exhibition “Eye Am” envisions a lurid, mischievous world via twelve paintings and a selection of drawings. Opening reception 5-8 p.m. Thursday; book signing, 1-3 p.m. Oct. 31; exhibition continues through Dec. 20. Perrotin, 5036. W. Pico Blvd. perrotin.com
Nicole Scherzinger Just months removed from her Tony Award-winning triumph as Norma Desmond in “Sunset Boulevard” on Broadway, the former Pussycat Dolls singer makes her Walt Disney Concert Hall debut. 8 p.m. Thursday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com
Culture news and the SoCal scene
The Laura Gardin Fraser “Lee-Jackson Monument” at the “Monuments” exhibit at MOCA.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Los Angeles is home to the “most significant American art museum show right now,” writes Times art critic Christopher Knight in his review of “Monuments,” which opened Thursday at the Brick and the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Geffen Contemporary. Featuring nearly a dozen, mostly Confederate, statues that have been toppled or removed from public spaces over the past decade, the show “pairs cautionary art history with thoughtful and poetic retorts from 20 artists, including a nonprofit art studio,” writes Knight.
I wrote a preview of the show, which includes a few backstories about the people featured in the decommissioned statutes. Men like “newspaper owner Josephus Daniels, who helped foment the 1898 Wilmington massacre in which a mob of more than 2,000 white supremacists killed as many as 300 people in the course of overthrowing the city’s duly elected biracial government.”
Times theater critic Charles McNulty wrote a column examining the ways that various playwrights are engaging with the idea of AI in their work. For examples, he digs into two plays, Lauren Gunderson’s “anthropology,” which is staging its North American premiere in a Rogue Machine Theatre production; and Jordan Harrison’s “Marjorie Prime,” which is having its Broadway premiere this fall. “Gunderson and Harrison are looking ahead to see how AI might be super-charging our disembodiment. To anyone paying attention, business as usual is no longer an option. The very basis of our self-understanding is on the line,” McNulty writes.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha” at Pasadena Playhouse, created and performed by Julia Masli and directed by Kim Noble.
(Jeff Lorch)
McNulty also attended opening night of performance artist and comedian Julia Masli’s one-woman show, “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha,” at Pasadena Playhouse. He describes the 75-minute improvisational work as “less a traditional comedy show than an experiment in collective consciousness. It doesn’t take much to transform a room of jaded strangers into a representative slice of compassionate humanity.” That’s because Masli devotes her time in the spotlight to solving audience members’ problems, finding their shared empathy in the process.
Times classical music critic Mark Swed has been chronicling the departure of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s beloved musical and artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel. In a recent column, Swed writes about the hoopla on display during the “first three love-fest weeks of Dudamel’s final season.” There was lots of “Gracias Gustavo” merch, and a daylong “Gracias Gustavo” block party at Beckmen YOLA Center in Inglewood, which included a performance by rapper D Smoke. And let’s not forget Tuesday night’s “Gustavo’s Fiesta” at Walt Disney Concert Hall. Dudamel also gave “four soul-searching performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2,” Swed writes. “His Mahler is neither overly exuberant nor constrained by grief and Berliner decorum. This performance heralds a new Dudamel, conductor of prophetic grandeur.”
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A rendering of a still image from Refik Anadol’s giant LED wall, “Living Paintings Immersive Editions,” at Jeffrey Deitch.
(From Refik Anadol Studio)
Last September, I wrote a feature on immersive media artist Refik Anadol and his plans to open the world’s first museum of AI arts, called Dataland, in downtown’s Grand L.A. complex across the street from Walt Disney Concert Hall. Anadol hoped to open the museum — which features five distinct galleries in a 20,000-square-foot space — this year. But this week, the artist announced that the project is now set to debut next spring. Anadol also released a first look at one of the galleries called Infinity Room. You can watch the teaser, here.
Everybody is talking about the brazen jewel heist at the Louvre. You can almost hear the key-clacking of dozens of hopeful screenwriters already drafting their spec scripts. The story is too outrageous to feel true — masked men cutting through a window in broad daylight and entering a gallery full of people before escaping without a trace on a pair of motorcycles. The value of the precious jewels they got away with is estimated to be about $102 million. If you have been living under a rock for the past week, you can read all about it, here.
— Jessica Gelt
And last but not least
Did you know that L.A. is experiencing a golden age of pizza? Neither did I. Fortunately, Times food critic Bill Addison has compiled a list featuring 21 of the city’s best slices.
Bereaved families are calling for a public inquiry into what they say are “repeated failures” by the UK government to protect vulnerable people from a website promoting suicide.
A report by the Molly Rose Foundation says departments were warned 65 times about the online forum, which BBC News is not naming, and others like it but did not act.
The suicide prevention charity says at least 133 people have died in the UK as a result of a toxic chemical promoted by the site and similar forums.
The government has not said whether it will consider an inquiry but said sites must prevent users from accessing illegal suicide and self-harm content or face “robust enforcement, including substantial fines”.
Families and survivors have written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer asking him for an inquiry to look into why warnings from coroners and campaigners have been ignored.
David Parfett, whose son Tom took his own life in 2021, told the BBC successive governments had offered sympathy but no accountability.
“The people who host the suicide platforms to spread their cult-like messages that suicide is normal – and earn money from selling death – continue to be several steps ahead of government ministers and law enforcement bodies,” he said.
“I can think of no better memorial for my son than knowing people like him are protected from harm while they recover their mental health.”
David and six other families are being represented by the law firm Leigh Day who have also written a letter to the prime minister highlighting their concerns about the main suicide forum.
The letter says victims were groomed online, and tended to be in their early 20s, with the youngest known victim being 13.
It argues a public inquiry is needed because coroners’ courts cannot institute the changes needed to protect vulnerable people.
According to the report, coroners raised concerns and sent repeated warnings to the Home Office, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and Department of Health and Social Care on dozens of occasions since 2019, when the forum that has been criticised by the families first emerged.
The report highlighted four main findings:
The Home Office’s refusal to tighten regulation of the substance, which remains easily obtainable online, while UK Border Force “struggles to respond to imports” from overseas sellers
The media regulator Ofcom’s decision to rely on “voluntary measures” from the main forum’s operators rather than taking steps to restrict UK access
Repeated failures by government departments to act on coroners’ warnings
Operational shortcomings, including inconsistent police welfare checks and delays in making antidotes available to emergency services
A government spokesperson said that the substance in question “is closely monitored and is reportable under the Poisons Act” meaning retailers should tell the authorities if they suspect it is being bought to cause harm.
But campaigners say the government’s response has been fragmented and slow, with officials “passing the parcel” rather than taking co-ordinated action.
Adele Zeynep Walton, whose sister Aimee died in 2022, said families like hers had been “ignored and dismissed”.
“She was creative, a very talented artist, gifted musician,” she told BBC News.
“Aimee was hardworking and achieved great GCSE results, however she was shy and quiet and struggled to make friends.
“Every time I learn of a new life lost to the website that killed my sister three years ago, I’m infuriated that another family has had to go through this preventable tragedy.”
The demand for an inquiry follows concerns raised by the BBC in 2023, when an investigation revealed sites offering instructions and encouragement for suicide and evading regulations.
Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, said the state’s failure to act had “cost countless lives”.
He also accused Ofcom of being “inexplicably slow” to restrict UK access to the main website the Foundation has raised concerns about.
UK users are currently unable to access the forum, which is based in the US. A message on the forum’s homepage says it was not blocked to people in the UK as a result of government action but instead because of a “proactive” decision to “protect the platform and its users”.
“We operate under the protection of the First Amendment. However, UK authorities have signalled intentions to enforce their domestic laws on foreign platforms, potentially leading to criminal liability or service disruption,” the message reads.
In a statement, Ofcom said: “In response to our enforcement action, the online suicide forum put in place a geo-block to restrict access by people with UK IP addresses.
“Services that choose to block access by people in the UK must not encourage or promote ways to avoid these restrictions.”
It added the forum remained on its watchlist and a previously-launched investigation into it remained open while it checked the block was being maintained.
If you, or someone you know, has been affected by mental health issues BBC Action Line has put together a list of organisations which can help.
Sea otters love to play, play, play, play, play and they also have to eat, eat, eat, eat, eat — at least that’s what people say — so the Monterey Bay Aquarium is tapping Taylor Swift fans for help.
The Central Coast aquarium launched a fundraising campaign Thursday involving a re-release of one of its classic T-shirt designs to support its sea otter program and other marine conservation efforts after noticing a curious flood of $13 donations it could attribute only to Taylor Swift fans.
The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter is seen sporting a vintage 1993 Monterey Bay Aquarium shirt with sea otter art in “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” her movie celebrating the release of her latest album, “The Life of a Showgirl.” Swift’s fiancé, Travis Kelce, a tight end with the Kansas City Chiefs, is a known sea otter fan, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium had previously invited the couple for a special visit.
“Swifties, you truly walk the talk,” the aquarium said in a post on its website announcing the new campaign. “We tracked down the original artwork — first printed in the 1990s — and are bringing it back to say thank you, sustainably.”
The limited-time fundraiser, which offers the new eco-conscious reprints of the shirt in adult and kids sizes to those who donate $65.13, hit its initial goal in a mere seven hours, according to an update posted Thursday by the aquarium. When this story was published Friday, the total was approaching $2.2 million and the shirts were available on back order only.
“Intentional or not, by putting our sea otter conservation work in the spotlight, this has brought a new era of support and awareness to the Aquarium’s long history of ocean conservation,” the Monterey Bay Aquarium said on its website, which also features some fun Swift and sea otter crossover facts.
In addition to debuting the music video for “The Fate of Ophelia,” Swift’s “Release Party” movie included behind-the-scenes footage and commentary from the artist about her songs. The 89-minute movie made $34 million at the box office over its one weekend in theaters.
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday vetoed legislation that would have phased out a range of popular consumer products, including nonstick pots and pans, that contain synthetic chemicals with potential links to cancer.
“I appreciate the efforts to protect the health and safety of consumers, and while this bill is well-intentioned, I am deeply concerned about the impact this bill would have on the availability of affordable options in cooking products,” Newsom wrote in his veto statement. “I believe we must carefully consider the consequences that may result from a dramatic shift of products on our shelves.”
The legislation would have prohibited the selling or distributing of cookware with intentionally added perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, by 2030. It phased out PFAS in products for infants and children, ski wax, dental floss, food packaging and cleaning products starting in 2028. Previously used items would have been exempt.
Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), who introduced the legislation, Senate Bill 682, said he will continue to work on the issue moving forward.
“We are obviously disappointed,” he said. “We know there are safer alternatives — [but] I understand there were strong voices on both sides on this topic.”
Allen previously explained he introduced the bill to help protect the state’s water supply from contamination.
A study released in 2023 by the U.S. Geological Survey found tap water in urban areas of Southern and Central California is more likely to contain PFAS than the drinking water in most of the nation’s other regions.
“The water agencies, sanitation agencies and local governments are faced with increasingly impossible-to-meet standards just to keep the water supply for our constituents clean,” Allen said during a Senate committee meeting in April. “They’re facing the costs while the producers who keep pushing these products out on the market are not being held accountable.”
PFAS are commonly dubbed “forever chemicals” because of their well-established longevity. They are linked to adverse health effects, including liver enzyme changes and kidney and testicular cancer, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The chemicals have been used for decades to prevent food from sticking to pans or packaging, or to make materials more resistant to stains. California has taken steps in recent years to ban their use in certain items, like cosmetics and menstrual products.
Dozens of organizations weighed-in on Allen’s bill, with the Sierra Club, California Health Coalition Advocacy and the League of California Cities supporting the legislation.
The Chemical Industry Council of California and the Cookware Sustainability Alliance were among those opposed.
Steve Burns, president of the sustainability alliance, was especially concerned by the provision barring the distribution of the banned products.
“California is the entry point for nonstick cookware and other products that come into the Port of Long Beach, the Port of Los Angeles or the Port of Oakland, and then get distributed throughout the country,” he told The Times. “They go to warehouses, distribution centers and get loaded up on rail or usually trucks — so there’s a lot of jobs in the California economy that depend on products that have Teflon.”
Burns said science hasn’t shown that all PFAS are harmful and argued California should have studied the issue further. He pointed to Illinois, which recently passed similar legislation but ultimately nixed the line banning nonstick cookware. An amendment instead directs the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to assess scientific data on fluoropolymers, the type of PFAS used in nonstick pots and pans.
Several states have recently moved toward restricting items with PFAS. Last January, Minnesota became the first state to ban PFAS in cookware. The Cookware Sustainability Alliance filed a lawsuit arguing the law discriminated against out-of-state commerce. A judge dismissed the suit in August.
The sustainability alliance has shared letters of opposition on its website from several prominent chefs and culinary personalities, including cook and television host Rachael Ray and Mark Dommen, the chef at Hestan, a new restaurant in Napa slated to open later this year.
Dommen explained the legislation would have placed an unfair burden on restaurants and food service providers.
“Non-stick cookware is essential to our daily operations and eliminating these products without a viable alternative would drive up costs, disrupt our supply chain, and put California restaurants at a competitive disadvantage,” Dommen wrote.
Ray, who has a cookware line, argued easy-clean cookware helps families eat healthier by making it easier to prepare meals without extra oils or fats.
Her letter drew a gentle rebuke from actor and environmental activist Mark Ruffalo, who implored Ray on social media to reconsider her stance and said her advocacy on behalf of the cookware industry was putting the bill in jeopardy.
“Some of us have so much PFAS in our blood that we face a far greater risk of developing cancer,” he wrote in a recent letter shared on X. “Let’s work together to get PFAS out of the everyday products we bring into our home.”
Scientific studies about the health effects of PFAS will continue, according to the CDC.
“Ongoing research has identified associations between PFAS exposure and several health impacts,” the agency’s website states. “There are many factors that can influence the risk of these effects, such as exposure, individual factors and other health determinants. Research is ongoing to understand the mechanisms of PFAS toxicity.”
Times staff writer Melody Gutierrez contributed to this report.
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