The leader of the world’s biggest band is nervous.
“I think I revised this speech about 10 times, but somehow the more I worked on it, the more confused I became, like always,” said K-pop star and BTS rapper RM on Tuesday at a preview of a show he has co-curated at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art called “RM x SFMOMA: Between You and Me”
Three years ago, RM held an anonymous show in South Korea, but this is the first proper exhibition he has staged. For many of his fans — some of whom wait outside the museum trying to get a glimpse of him — his favorite activities, including museum-hopping, bicycling and being out in nature, come as no surprise. There is even a word for it: “namjooning,” a play on the singer’s first name, Namjoon. But still, the exhibition is the rare chance to view RM as a serious art collector; someone who values Korean identity in art but also loves works from many genres, eras and countries.
Philip Guston, Untitled (Red and Black Book), 1969; from the collection of RM.
(The Estate of Philip Guston / Hauser & Wirth)
Dressed in a gray T-shirt, dark collared shirt and leather pants, RM’s hair is a light burnt sienna color matching the fur of the stylized tiger on the screen behind him. From a 17th century painting by Lee Won-chan, it’s from his personal collection of more than 400 artworks. For this exhibition, 142 pieces owned by RM will be shown alongside 36 works from SFMOMA for a total of 178 works on display.
RM sees “Between You and Me” as an introduction to his inner life and reflection of contrasting aspects of his personality, whether as a public figure interacting with his adoring fans or an erudite intellectual and avid reader with a reputation as a clumsy and lovable goofball.
RM was on a hiatus from BTS and on the cusp of beginning his mandatory military service in South Korea when SFMOMA first approached him for the project two years ago. As it came to fruition, he sought to answer two main questions when contemplating which works of his collection to share with the public.
Does the artwork move him deeply? And, if the work is from a noncontemporary artist, does the piece have something to communicate in 2026?
“In an age where everything is consumed so fast,” RM explained, “I believe the attitudes of some of the past artists can resonate even more deeply today.
“I’ve always dreamed of seeing different places, times, boundaries and backgrounds all mixed together in harmony,” he continued. “It could be a mess because I’ve never formally studied, and I’m not a ‘curator, curator,’ but in any field sometimes an outsider can bring in a new breeze.”
Wonwoo Lee, “Candy,” 2023; from the collection of RM
(Wonwoo Lee / PKM Gallery)
It’s not RM’s first time working with a museum. In 2023, he partnered with Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art to provide guided audio narration for “The Space Between: The Modern in Korean Art”.
At SFMOMA, RM was joined in his effort by two co-curators: SFMOMA project manager América Castillo and assistant curator of painting and sculpture Hyoeun Kim.
Kim, who has long championed Korean artists internationally, was particularly impressed with the diversity of Korean art that RM has amassed, including its “remarkable range.”
“His collection began with 6th century works, moved through the Joseon Dynasty, and continued to major Korean modern and contemporary art. It spans nearly 1,500 years,” Kim said during the preview.
The show is arranged in eight parts and begins with a large white wall at the entrance with the title of the show scrawled in RM’s handwriting. Handwritten touches are found everywhere — “Plz take it in with your eyes and heart” is scribbled on the floor in both English and Korean. The wall text for each piece, which also includes a QR code for audio narration, is composed by RM in both languages.
An inscription on the floor of an SFMOMA exhibit curated by RM of BTS features RM’s writing as part of the wall (and floor) text.
(Christine Terrisse.)
Guests will also receive a zine-style pamphlet with the same homespun appeal explaining each of the eight sections in RM’s words alongside a diagram of the room.
“Blue Water” centers the work of Kim Whanki, the late globe-trotting abstract artist and the first RM says he “fell for.” In addition to Whanki and works by Vija Celmins and Tony Feher, some RM fans might recognize one of Roni Horn’s glass cylinder sculptures from a now-archived Instagram post where it was casually displayed in RM’s apartment.
There’s even a room filled with especially eclectic pieces called “i don’t know..but i like it.” By way of explanation, RM said, “Sometimes I don’t really know why I collected all these things.”
The last room, “Umber” or “Dasaek” (referring to the color of Korean rice fields) might be the most meaningful to the singer. It features works by the late artist Yun Hyong-keun, for whom RM has a particular personal affinity. The cover for his debut solo studio album, “Indigo,” depicts Hyong-keun’s 1972 painting “Blue,” and the album’s lead track, “Yun,” a collaboration with Erykah Badu, kicks off with recorded dialogue from the artist.
Back in 2018, around the same time RM began his art journey with not much formal training in art history, co-curator Castillo began her career with SFMOMA.
At the time, she was in awe of the power of art to connect with people, but frustrated that more people from unconventional backgrounds weren’t being given opportunities to curate major shows, thereby shaping the stories told. Her work on this exhibition is part of a continuing mission to bridge the art world and the ordinary person.
Chang Ucchin, “Road,” 1986, from RM’s collection.
(Chang Ucchin Foundation / Seoul Auction)
This mission guided her through the process of selecting works by famous artists from SFMOMA’s collection to contextualize RM’s pieces from lesser-known but equally important names.
“The first time we pulled a list on the SFMOMA side, we had like 500 options we then dwindled down,” she said in an interview while standing in the “Umber” room. “There were some artworks and specific artists that we knew from the get-go we wanted to be in the show. We wanted them to have a moment. Mark Rothko was definitely one of them.”
The sole Rothko piece in SFMOMA’s collection, “No. 14,” (1960) is featured in one of the final rooms in the exhibition. Adjacent to it is “untitled” (1986-90) by Hyong-keun. In the exhibit pamphlet, RM notes that Hyong-keun’s paintings are often compared to Rothko’s, but “their darkness is not the same.” “To my eyes, if Rothko’s darkness is one that ‘opens’ then Yun’s is the darkness that remains after he endured everything he possibly could,” he writes.
As RM steps into the spotlight of the art world, he is learning to become comfortable with the uncomfortable in-between spaces he occupies. “I started this with an innocent heart. As I’m standing here talking to you, I still feel like I’m always drifting and floating somewhere, ” he said, adding that the feeling comes when he’s in the U.S. but also when he’s in his hometown of Seoul. “It’s not a very pleasant feeling. I think I’ve leaned on art a lot because of that feeling.”
Before the preview, BTS fans, called the ARMY, passed out small gifts to the press, and afterward donors lined up for a special reception. RM’s mother, father and sister even arrived to celebrate, but he didn’t have much time to hang around. He was scheduled to depart for Bogotá, Colombia, to join his bandmates on the Latin American leg of their ARIRANG stadium world tour.
It is time to leave the quiet of the museum for the roar of the crowd.
“RM SFMOMA: Between You and Me” opens to the public on Oct 3, and runs through Feb.7, 2027. For more information visit sfmoma.org
The Fraud Act 2006 states that dishonestly making a false representation with the intention of making a gain or avoiding a loss can lead to individuals being imprisoned for 10 years and facing an unlimited fine, if charges are brought and proven.
“Surely the Man City findings are now a police matter,” said Lord Cruddas, a banker and businessman.
“If accounts have been falsified and auditors have been misled then it is potentially a criminal matter. The auditors will call in the police, directors are personally liable for any fraud of a UK company even if it is foreign-owned.”
For the case to move from football wrongdoing to something more, there would first need to be an investigation by the relevant authorities.
The bodies who can investigate potential financial crimes in the UK include regional police forces, the National Crime Agency, HMRC and the Serious Fraud Office.
BBC Sport has contacted each of those bodies and been given no indication that any kind of investigation has begun, but some do not routinely confirm investigations owing to confidentiality.
But former Manchester City chairman David Bernstein – who left the club five years before its current owners took control – raised the possibility during an interview on BBC Radio 5 Live.
“This is very serious and I wonder whether some of these issues might need to be referred to authorities outside of the league,” Bernstein said.
“My immediate thoughts are – can the board of directors continue and should the people involved be suspended immediately?”
Football finance expert Kieran Maguire feels wider investigation may be unlikely.
“HMRC might consider it but there is not a lot for them to go on,” he said. “There is certainly no corporation tax to recover. Football clubs lose money and City would have lost more money had it not been for the activities it undertook.”
Kennedy Center officials were long aware of serious structural issues that they cited as new problems after the abrupt decision to close the performing arts venue this month, a group of former employees allege in a letter to Congress.
The center’s executive director and chief operating officer, Matt Floca, did not treat the roofing issues as priorities and in April halted a funded plan to address them, according to the letter Thursday signed by David Seide, a lawyer representing the anonymous whistleblowers.
Floca denied their allegations, saying recent investigations of the leaks exposed new hazards at the building.
In a September court declaration, Floca noted there were “acute risks to public safety” when the aging building temporarily closed its doors after an inspection of a deteriorating roof terrace canopy and a partial ceiling collapse. The former employees, however, claim those “acute” issues were known previously by Floca, who joined the Kennedy Center as vice president of facilities in 2024.
“More than one year ago, Mr. Floca had requested and received the needed funds to remediate the New Problems he references,” Seide wrote, citing President Trump’s tax cut and spending bill that he signed in the summer of 2025. “Yet six months ago – with the funds in hand – he stopped the remediation process from moving forward.” In the legislation, Congress earmarked $257 million for the Kennedy Center.
The letter, first reported by The New York Times, is the latest in a series of tensions over an iconic Potomac River waterfront building that has become a focus of the Republican president in his remaking of the nation’s capital in his second term. Trump has installed his own leadership to the center’s governing board and had his name placed on the building before a judge ruled the new lettering was illegally added and ordered it removed.
The Trump-aligned board voted earlier this month to close the center indefinitely for repairs hours after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper blocked its plans to return Trump’s name to the building.
Cooper has told the center that it must give 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it, as Trump has threatened. The Kennedy Center leadership also must file a status report no later than Friday on the temporary closure and emergency repairs.
Asked for a response to the whistleblowers’ claims, a Kennedy Center spokesperson sent a written statement from Floca, who said the safety of patrons, artists and staff is his priority.
“The Kennedy Center has known for years that the roof overhang leaked,” he wrote. “What we did not know until this summer was how far the damage had spread inside it.”
Floca added that rather than halting design plans in April as the whistleblowers alleged, he had reassigned the work to a more comprehensive plan because the contractor’s quote for the initial plans were nearly three times the expected cost.
“That was a change in the approach to procuring and delivering the work, not a determination that the work was unnecessary,” Floca wrote.
Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the top Democrat on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, wrote Floca on Thursday after receiving the whistleblower letter. Whitehouse said the documents showed Kennedy Center leadership had “hoarded” congressionally appropriated funding for repairs “while blaming previous leadership for the state of repairs.”
“My initial investigation into misconduct at the Center focused on cronyism and corruption, with documents demonstrating considerable excessive and self-serving spending under President Trump’s chairmanship,” Whitehouse said. “The documents that I attach today seem to reveal deeper financial mismanagement.”
A spokesperson for the committee’s Republican majority did not immediately reply to a request for comment Saturday.
Today marks the end of an era. Mark Swed — the last full-time classical music critic at a major American newspaper — has retired. On Thursday, members of The Times editorial staff gathered to celebrate Swed, but the mood was somewhat somber. Although we were glad for our beloved colleague, this was not a happy milestone for journalism — or classical music.
Swed is the rarest of writers: a critic with deep empathy and encyclopedic knowledge who can turn the sonic details of an orchestra playing Mahler’s Seventh Symphony into an epic journey for readers. At a time when orchestra leaders struggle to find new audiences for the art form, Swed’s writing did the job for them.
And in an era when everybody is an expert on TikTok, Swed’s informed criticism was a life raft in a sea of slop. He told us why the music mattered — in its historical context, as it related to the modern landscape, and what it meant to him personally. He made us better listeners, and most importantly, he made us curious. After reading his take, we wanted to run out to a concert, an opera or a new music festival.
That this particular kind of writing — and of seeing and explaining the world to readers — is going away with Swed, is truly a tragedy. Thankfully he is leaving of his own accord, and will hopefully continue to write a monthly column, but his loss still stings.
Like many, I watched with sorrow in February as the Washington Post slashed its staff, including its classical music critic, Michael Andor Brodeur. That blow came a little less than a year after the New York Times shook up its culture desk and reassigned its classical music critic, Zachary Woolfe, to serve as the obituaries editor. (The paper is now actively searching for a new classical music critic.)
A number of staffers spoke at Swed’s retirement lunch, and deputy A1 editor John Penner was among them. In his touching speech, Penner noted that Swed was the last of his kind, adding, “with no full-time critic writing anywhere in any newspaper about classical music, American journalism will be poorer, and its readers less informed, inspired and enlightened.”
Penner continued, saying what all of us gathered in that conference room knew to be true, “Mark’s 30 years at The Times coincided with this city’s Golden Age of classical music — the era of Salonen and Dudamel and Disney Hall. L.A. has been the most important and exciting music capital in the country, if not the world. (Why else would New York be stealing Gustavo from us now?) And central to that excitement and importance has been Mark’s writing and criticism. For my money, even when there were many music critics writing for many publications, Mark set the standard for classical music criticism, while opening our ears to new and under-appreciated music.”
Hear, hear.
I’m Arts editor Jessica Gelt wishing Swed a happy retirement and humbly asking him to come back to us now and again. This is your arts and culture news for the week.
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The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY
Demand To Be Heard Festival The Sunflower Project presents a celebration centering the voices of survivors of abuse beginning with a screening of the film “Break The Silence: The Gabby Petito Story,” followed by a panel discussion with the Gabby Petito Foundation. Saturday and Sunday is the Resident Artist Showcase, featuring the work of six survivor/artists. Also Saturday are three three arts workshops focusing on music, candle making and body movement, respectively. Film screening, 6 p.m. Friday; 6:30 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Resident Artist Showcase. Wisteria Theater, 7061 Vineland Ave., North Hollywood. Arts workshops, 11:30 a.m., 1 and 2:30 p.m. Art Share L.A. 801 East 4th Place, downtown L.A. towardsthesun.org
Jonah Elijah: Ambiguously Free The first U.S. museum solo exhibition by the L.A.-based contemporary painter and mixed-media artist features work that blends personal memories with broader mythologies, religion and history to explore Black culture. On view through December 16. Xela Institute of Art, 2176 Pacific Avenue, Long Beach. xela.art
Joshua Redman Quartet: Words Fall Short The saxophonist performs a new program of music with his ensemble — pianist Paul Cornish, bassist Philip Norris and drummer Nazir Ebo, plus special guest Skylar Tang, an up-and-coming Bay Area-born trumpeter and composer. 7:30 p.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills.thewallis.org
Melrose Gallery Walk Gallery spaces, including Hostler Burrows, Lawson-Fenning, Meg Turner, Object, Seventh House, The Window and 22RE, open their doors to celebrate the local design community. Free and open to the public. 5-8 p.m. Hostler Burrows, 6819 Melrose Ave. hostlerburrows.com
SATURDAY
Midterms: This Will Hurt Someone Brightwork newmusic performs a program of contemporary works inspired by civic life and social change, including Ted Hearne’s “Bye Bye Huey,” Natalie Dietterich’s “Philosophy of Furniture,” Ian Dicke’s “Get Rich Quick” (with video), Matt Marks’ “This Will Hurt Someone,” Hesam Abedini’s “What Remains” and “Frederic Rzewsk’s “Coming Together” (with video). 8 p.m. Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. sierramadreplayhouse.org
Aperghis Trilogy Long Beach Opera performs three works by experimental composer Georges Aperghis: “Le corps à corps”,” Les Sept Crimes de l’amour,” “Récitations.” Directed by James Darrah Black. Christopher Rountree conducts. 7:30 p.m. The Queen Mary, 1126 Queen’s Way, Long Beach. longbeachopera.org
The Horror Show An immersive deep dive into the movie genre presented in six themed galleries: Gothic, Psychological, Science, Slasher, Religion and Ghosts, with behind-the-scenes looks at a range of titles that includes everything from Oscar winners to drive-in classics. But first, you must pass through “The Hallway,” bwahahaha. 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Wednesday–Monday, on view through July 25, 2027. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org
Senon Williams: here now, now gone, gone here A solo exhibition of the artist’s work, in which he collects materials such as nails, slips of paper, fragments of language and industrial remnants, then uses assemblage to rearrange them and discover deeper meaning. Noon-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, on view through Nov. 15. The Philosophical Research Society, 3910 Los Feliz Blvd. prs.org
Promised Lands: California’s Unratified Treaties and Native Resilience Archival materials, contemporary objects, images and voices from local tribal communities relate the complex history of the state with its indigenous people. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Autry Museum of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Griffith Park. theautry.org
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music Sing-A-Long Actor and comedian Melissa Peterman hosts the annual screening of the 1965 Oscar winner for best picture complete with a costume contest and more than a few of your favorite songs. 7:30 p.m. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N Highland Ave. hollywoodbowl.com
Daymé Arocena’s Alkemi The Grammy nominee and Juno Award–winner blends Afro-Cuban beats with neo-soul, jazz and contemporary Latin pop. 7:30 p.m. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org
San Pedro Festival of the Arts The 20th annual event, presented by Los Angeles Choreographers & Dancers, features 20 dance companies demonstrating a variety of styles and cultural traditions. 1-4:30 p.m. Peck Park, Upper Green near the Community Center, 560 N. Western Ave. triartsp.com
Tokio Ueyama: The Hollows Between Mountains The first museum exhibition in California of the Little Tokyo-based Japanese artist (1889–1954) features his drawings, prints, photographs and paintings as well as artists he was associated with, including Diego Rivera, Tōyō Miyatake, Edward Weston and Henrietta Shore. 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday–Sunday, on view through Feb. 28, 2027. UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art, 3333 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa. langson.uci.edu
SUNDAY
Grant Gershon conducts the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt Disney Hall, Nov. 16, 2025.
(David Butow/For the Times)
Brahms’ Requiem The Los Angeles Master Chorale, led by Grant Gershon, opens its silver anniversary season with a program that also includes Bruckner’s “Te Deum.” 7:30 p.m. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. lamasterchorale.org
WEDNESDAY
Rubén Blades & Roberto Delgado Big Band: Fotografías Tour The Panamanian salsa greats perform classic Afro-Cuban music flavored with rock, jazz and Latin American influences. Silvana Estrada opens. 8 p.m. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N Highland Ave. hollywoodbowl.com
Menopause The Musical: 25th Anniversary Tour Four women at a lingerie sale share their experiences with “the change” through parody songs of pop hits. 7:30 p.m. Bank of America Performing Arts Center, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks. bapacthousandoaks.com
The Broadway production of “The Outsiders.”
(Matthew Murphy)
The Outsiders The Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of S.E. Hinton’s coming-of age-novel set in 1960s Tulsa arrives with Ponyboy Curtis and his fellow greasers facing off against the upper-class Socs. Through Oct. 18. Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood. Oct. 20-Nov. 1. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. tour.outsidersmusical.com
THURSDAY
Laura Benanti: Nobody Cares The Broadway star sings original songs and shares stories with her trademark wit in this one-woman show. Directed by Annie Tippe. 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills.thewallis.org
The Dance and the Railroad Asian American theater collective Artists at Play and Latino Theater Company team up for a rare revival of an early David Henry Hwang play set during the 1867 Chinese railroad workers’ strike. Directed by Katherine Chou. Previews, 8 p.m. Thursday and Oct. 2. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through Nov. 1. Los Angeles Theatre Center, 514 S. Spring Street, downtown L.A. latinotheaterco.org
Mahler’s Symphony No. 2: Resurrection Alexander Shelley conducts the Pacific Symphony with soprano Miah Persson, mezzo-soprano Dame Sarah Connolly and the Pacific Chorale. 8 p.m. Thursday-Oct. 2. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. pacificsymphony.org
The SoCal scene
Gov. Gavin Newsom mingles with guests at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art opening party.
(Carlin Stiehl/For The Times)
I spent my Saturday night at the Lucas Museum opening party where I got to stand in the lobby by the nifty elevators watching Gov. Gavin Newsom talk to Kim Kardashian. Later, I went to Skywalker Grill and saw U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi sitting at a table next to Leonardo DiCaprio and his entourage. It would be an understatement to say that the night was both bizarre and memorable.
Times theater critic Charles McNulty (the paper’s only remaining arts critic) has kept exceptionally busy this fall season. Late last week he wrote a review of “The Ford/Hill Project” At REDCAT, which transforms Senate testimony from Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford into a docu-play that explores the details of two of history’s most consequential Supreme Court confirmation hearings. “The restraint imposed by the production adds to its power. There’s no need to editorialize. The proceedings skewer themselves,” McNulty writes.
Huguette Caland in Stone Doorway, France, 1970.
(Huguette Caland Estate)
McNulty also drove to San Diego to see the Old Globe’s world-premiere musical adaptation of John Carney’s “Begin Again,” which explores the stories of two music-industry vets who embark on a grassroots recording project. The show features a score by rocker Pat Monahan and Train. “‘Heartwarming’ is a cliche of theater reviewing that I have studiously tried to avoid, but I’m tempted to use the word in my review of ‘Begin Again’,” McNulty writes.
McNulty penned one of his harshest reviews since last year’s take down of “Hamlet” after he went to Atwater Village Theatre to see Echo Theater Company’s world premiere production of “The Peterson Show,” by Janine Nabers. “Unfortunately, the production is hamstrung by fundamental problems in the writing, directing and acting, all pointing to a failure of control. Control of the story, control of the tone and control of the cast,” McNulty wrote of the show, which is about the impact of disgraced Bill Cosby-like star on his TV family.
Meanwhile contributor Tara Anne Dalbow wrote a beautiful story about the late, great artist Huguette Caland in advance of the largest U.S. retrospective of her work, opening Sunday at the Hammer Museum.
Ernest “Ernie” Wolfe III, owner of an eponymous gallery on Sawtelle, is dying of a traumatic brain injury and his family is looking for homes for his 15,000 pieces of African Art. Contributor Jane Horowitz writes about Wolfe‘s legacy and the (sometimes controversial) origins of his collection.
As one chapter closes with Swed’s retirement, a new one begins as we welcome our new entertainment and arts reporter, Laura Zornosa, who hit the ground running by writing three great arts stories: The first is about the private art collection of Armand Hammer (including Mary Cassatt’s “Summertime,”) coming up for auction at Sotheby’s; the second, covering opening day at the Lucas Museum where Zornosa interviewed guests on their thoughts about the place; and the third is a fun news brief about how Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra commissioned fanfares from half a dozen film composers, including John Williams and Ludwig Göransson, curated by “none other than Seth MacFarlane (best known as the creator and star of “Family Guy”).”
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Coy Middlebrook has been named the new artistic director of the Wallis.
(Jeff Lorch / The Wallis)
The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts announced the appointment of longtime creative staffer Coy Middlebrook as its new artistic director. “Coy brings an extraordinary depth of knowledge about The Wallis and its audiences, along with deep relationships throughout the performing arts nationally and internationally. He understands both the artistic possibilities of this institution and the importance of its relationship to our community. I am excited to work with him as we build a future that is artistically ambitious, deeply connected and open to everyone,” said Wallis Executive Director and Chief Executive, Jean Davidson, in a news release.
Meanwhile Theatre Commons LA (TCLA), the nonprofit organization created and launched a year ago as part of a concerted effort by some of the city’s most prominent theater leaders to unify the city’s sprawling theater scene, has announced its first Executive Director, David E. Shane. Shane previously served as director of program services at the Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York where, according to a news release, “he set the strategic vision and goals for a robust suite of programs serving over 450 of New York’s nonprofit theaters.” He is tasked with doing the same thing in L.A. and we wish him the best of luck.
— Jessica Gelt
And last but not least
The Getty Museum has acquired the recently rediscovered 17th-century painting “Portrait of the Count-Duke of Olivares” by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez (1599-1660). It will be displayed in the museum’s East Pavilion this fall. According to ArtNews, “The acquisition means a Velázquez painting will for the first time be represented in the collection of a West Coast museum.”
DENVER — The office of Colorado’s attorney general is a perch 10 stories above downtown Denver. From his aerie, Phil Weiser has a sweeping view of the city skyline, the gold-domed Capitol and, occasionally, a red hawk on the wing.
But looking toward November, Weiser sees something darker.
“With this administration what we have seen is it’s important that we not limit our imagination to what … type of harm could happen,” Weiser said during a sunny noon hour in the Mile High City.
For that reason, Colorado’s attorney general and his Democratic peers around the country have spent more than a year strategizing — by phone, via Zoom, sometimes in person — on ways to Trump-proof the midterm election.
They’ve researched history and the law, war-gamed what-ifs, divvied up responsibilities and drafted emergency lawsuits and temporary restraining orders so they can be hurried into court at a moment’s notice.
“We have prepared for a range of contingencies … so that we’re ready to act,” Weiser said.
“We’re not going to be reacting in real time” or pulling all-nighters, he added. “We are going to be following through on plans we’ve made, having looked at what’s possible.”
The efforts of Weiser, California’s Rob Bonta and more than 20 other Democratic attorneys general are part of a mass mobilization aimed at thwarting Trump’s unprecedented efforts to pervert and subvert November’s midterm balloting.
It’s remarkable that kind of man-the-barricades action is needed to preserve and protect the voting franchise in this, the land of the free and home of the brave. But having weighed the threats, Weiser said his greatest fear of election interference comes not from a bad overseas actor or some terrorist group, but rather our own federal government “and what this administration might do.”
So here we are.
To fend off that threat from within, state Democratic parties across the nation are aiming to recruit 10,000 volunteers to guard polling places in the event armed federal agents show up.
Various sponsors have launched education campaigns to explain election rules and offer hotlines for voters who have trouble casting their ballot.
Civil rights groups and democracy-defending organizations have staged their own tabletop exercises brainstorming and rehearsing various scenarios. A group of Democratic U.S. senators has done the same.
“What we’re doing is preparing for the fact that Donald Trump, in 2020, lied about the election in advance, lied about it in the aftermath, went to court … and then he instigated a violent insurrection in this very building,” Marc Elias, a Democratic elections attorney, told MS NOW in a July interview at the Capitol. “So I think we need to take these threats in the 2026 midterm run-up … both seriously and literally.”
In a more courageous, less heedlessly partisan world, Republicans would be working with Democrats to keep the power-drunk Trump in check. (The House and Senate supposedly comprise a separate and equal branch of government, with its own power, prerogatives and such.)
But, as Weiser noted, this Republican-led Congress “has been lacking in backbone, lacking in the role of checks and balances. That has left it to state attorneys general to fill that vacuum, going to court and essentially playing the role of a check on a lawless and often bullying president.”
The nation’s 24 Democratic attorneys general have filed more than 125 lawsuits in Trump’s second term alone, fighting his moves on trade and tariffs, energy and immigration policies and efforts to gut or eliminate programs and whole government agencies. They’ve prevailed in the overwhelming majority of cases that have been adjudicated or settled.
Even before Trump was elected again, some attorneys general began conferring on ways to fight the excesses they anticipated in a second administration. Anyone who didn’t see them coming wasn’t paying attention, said Weiser, who, most likely, will be elected Colorado’s next governor on Nov. 3.
(His victory in Colorado’s Democratic primary stemmed in good part from Weiser’s record battling Trump in court.)
Trump is constitutionally (small “c”) incapable of acknowledging the result of any election he didn’t win. He’s openly urged supporters to “cheat like hell.” Thus, one can only assume malign intent when the president tries to wantonly purge voter rolls, hijack the U.S. Postal service to gum up mail balloting and override the Constitution (capital “c”) by federalizing November’s election.
Some might call such fears melodramatic, or overblown.
Trump’s refusal to accept the outcome of elections “is historic,” the attorney general said. “It is unique. It’s a threat. And it’s why we have to stand our guard.”
Vote, to bring this rogue president to heel. Stay vigilant, to make sure that vote counts.
Leaders gather at the UN to talk peace, but the wars continue. Al Jazeera’s Emma Withrow asked Al Anoud Al Thani, Nonresident Fellow Middle East Council on Global Affairs, what diplomacy can achieve while the bombs are still falling.
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Rhode Island struck down a Trump administration directive that would have barred some immigrants from accessing certain federal programs, including Head Start preschools, community health clinics and adult education initiatives.
U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, who was appointed by President Trump in 2019, temporarily barred his administration from moving forward with the rule last year, so it never was implemented. On Monday, she made the injunction permanent.
Officials from the Republican administration had said the directive would stop “illegal aliens” from accessing federal benefits by reclassifying broad swaths of social services programs under a Clinton-era law, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act.
But the rule also would have swept up many immigrants in the U.S. legally, including work and student visa holders. It also would have barred services from Temporary Protected Status holders, who are granted work permits if the U.S. government determines conditions in their home country are too dangerous to return, along with recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, who were brought to the country illegally as children and receive temporary protection from deportation and work authorization.
Those groups, which are considered “nonqualified aliens” under the law, already are unable to access full Medicaid benefits and federally funded food aid and cash assistance.
The Trump administration issued its directive in July 2025. Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia sued.
They said the change upended three decades of policy allowing people to access community health clinics, domestic violence shelters and Head Start centers without proving their immigration status. They warned the harms could spread, deterring any immigrant from seeking services and throwing up barriers even for U.S. citizens unable to document their legal status. The new rules also would have put administrative burdens on underfunded social service agencies, including Head Start operators, which might have been forced to close if they were unable to comply with the directive’s new requirements, the lawsuit said.
In her ruling, McElroy declared the directive “unlawful” and said the Trump administration did not follow the proper avenues to rewrite the rules. She called the administration’s actions “procedurally invalid.” She added that the administration still could pursue rule changes through the federal notice-and-comment process, which officials bypassed when they issued the directive last year.
Requests for comment were sent to the departments named as defendants in the wide-ranging lawsuit. The Administration for Children and Families, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services that oversees Head Start, said it does not comment on ongoing litigation. The Labor Department referred inquiries to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement, New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James, who was among those who sued, hailed the judge’s ruling.
“From cancer screenings to food banks to early childhood education, the federal government’s attempts to decimate the social safety net would have been catastrophic for working families,” James said.
Tehran, Iran – Amid dire fuel shortages and mounting economic challenges, the Iranian government is seeking cost-saving measures for government workers and other citizens to deal with the crisis.
On Saturday, the government set office attendance hours for 8am to 1pm from September 23 to the end of the current Iranian year (late March 2027), with the remaining contractual hours to be completed remotely.
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Agencies must also designate one day a week when employees and managers travel to work by public transport. In recent days, government ministers have released videos showing themselves using the metro to commute to work as part of the campaign.
Metro and bus rapid transit (BRT) systems will also be free of charge until mid-November in a bid to encourage commuters to leave their cars at home. Worn-out government vehicles will also be replaced with electric, gas-powered or hybrid alternatives, although this is expected to take years to implement.
Government-linked offices are required to switch off heating and turn off lights after working hours, while schools, universities, healthcare facilities and operational services are to follow separate arrangements to be announced later.
President Masoud Pezeshkian signed a directive on September 12 instructing government agencies to facilitate remote work for suitable employees to save on petrol, electricity and natural gas costs for the state.
“We have begun consumption savings with the government,” Pezeshkian said earlier this month. This is seen as effectively framing remote work and other measures for government workers as in line with other energy-saving measures that the government has asked of the rest of the population.
Resource-rich Iran has dealt with energy crises before, rooted in mismanagement and dated infrastructure, when similar cost-saving measures were implemented. But the added pressure of war with the United States and Israel has forced the government to think of creative solutions to energy shortfalls.
In early September, the cash-strapped government raised the price of fuel for the third tier of quotas for a second time in less than a year, meaning that people will pay double for any petrol use beyond 110 litres (29 gallons) per month. Imported vehicles and some other categories of cars are also limited to the most expensive tier of fuel.
For the first five months of the current Iranian year, which ended on August 22, average daily petrol production was 122 million litres while consumption was at 132 milion litres, highlighting a shortfall in supply versus demand. In the first half of the sixth month, the gap between production and consumption was around the same, at a 10 million litre shortfall.
The US naval blockade of Iran’s southern ports in place since July has halted fuel imports that previously helped balance the gap. The blockade has also stopped Iran from exporting its oil via supertankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, affecting its foreign currency income. Crude stored on open waters beyond the blockade line is still being gradually sold to China.
Oil and gas facilities, petrochemical companies and major fuel depots were also bombed by the US and Israel, impacting production and distribution. Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad said in early September that “a significant portion of production capacity has now been restored, and the process is continuing”.
As rampant inflation continues to squeeze most Iranians, data released this week by the Statistical Center of Iran also highlighted the damage the war with the US has dealt to the economy.
Iran experienced a massive 10.1 percent year-on-year fall in real gross domestic product (GDP) and a 26.4 percent fall in oil and gas extraction between late March and late June 2026, the centre’s data showed.
Including oil, industries and mining were down 14.7 percent, while construction was down by 6.4 percent, services overall by 4.8 percent, and transport, storage and communications by 17 percent.
The government has not released any information on how many workers are estimated to be affected by the remote work directive, or how it expected efficiency to be impacted.
But after decades of mismanagement, corruption and inefficiency among government-linked organisations, some Iranians believe it highlights a wider issue of state inefficiency.
“My unpopular opinion is that if 85-90 percent of government sector personnel are fired and 70 percent of ministries closed down, absolutely no problem will occur in the country,” a user named Mohsen wrote on X.
A man reacts to the camera while driving past a monument depicting the clenched fist of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US-Israel strike on February 28, in downtown Tehran, Iran, on Tuesday, September 15, 2026 [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo]
Zabihollah Salmani, a deputy head of the Administrative and Employment Organisation of Iran, told reporters during a press conference in August that more than 2.43 million were on its payroll.
If council, fire brigades, social security and non-government organisation workers were included, this would bring the number to more than four million people. The average monthly pay for government personnel at the end of the previous Iranian year in late March 2026 was around 240 million rials ($104 at the current exchange rate).
Asked by reporters how many of these employees could potentially be taken off the payroll without hurting output, Salmani said, “We do not yet have these figures.” He added that agencies were being asked to submit that information.
About 1,075,000 people are on the payroll of the Education Ministry, including teachers and trainee staff, while 600,000 employees work under the Ministry of Health and its affiliated networks, according to official figures.
Amir-Hossein, a young man working at a research centre linked with the government-funded University of Tehran, said that since the start of the month, he had been assigned two days of remote work. Working hours were set for 7am-1pm before, but are to be shifted to 8am-1pm starting from Wednesday, per the government.
His work can be done on his laptop, but might require some coordination on the phone or short commutes to other centres, he said. Overall, the remote work lifestyle has been beneficial.
“Sometimes I get more work done than I would have at the office,” he told Al Jazeera, asking not to use his full name due to security reasons.
As Amir-Hossein regularly uses online ride-hailing services to commute to and from his job, working from home has been financially beneficial for him.
An Iran-based economist who spoke to Al Jazeera on background said the government measures are essentially crisis control at best, and not a long-term solution to the problem.
In Philippe Caland’s semi-autobiographical 2003 film “Hollywood Buddha,” his mother, Huguette Caland, plays herself. Wearing her signature white smock, inscribed with a flurry of painted swirls, circles, letters and cross-stitches, the Lebanese artist makes precise gray-blue lines on a canvas spread across her dining room table as her son laments a fickle movie industry.
Filmed in her Venice home, the scene, her three children agree, was true to life. Caland worked constantly: on stretched canvas, on fabric folded in her lap, on a children’s menu, on the wall of her kitchen, or the sleeve of her smock. Whatever was at hand.
“Of course it could be frustrating,” said her daughter Brigitte, an elegant, soft-spoken scholar of Semitic languages who has managed Caland’s estate since her death in 2019.
Brigitte Caland, right, and Charley Caland — the daughter and granddaughter of the Lebanese-born painter, sculptor and fashion designer Huguette Caland — stand in Caland’s former L.A. home and studio.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Sitting in that very home, which Caland had built in 1997, Brigitte recalled the many times her mother invited her over only to continue working as they talked. “I’d go to leave, and she’d put the canvas away, beg me to come back, and as soon as I did, she’d start painting again.” Still, from early on, Brigitte understood the compulsion as evidence of her mother’s resolve. “She had this incredible drive to create.”
“Huguette Caland: A Life in a Few Lines,” opening Sunday at the Hammer Museum, traces that relentless drive across nearly 150 paintings, drawings, sculptures, garments and tapestries. Organized by the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid in collaboration with the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, the show comes to Los Angeles as the largest Caland survey in the country to date. Spanning five decades and installed chronologically, it features work from the 26 years she spent immersed in Venice’s creative community even as her practice was largely ignored.
It was Caland’s generous hospitality and boisterous wit that made her custom château a gathering place for a vibrant Westside art circle. Ed Moses, who lived around the corner, visited several times a week; Larry Bell, Frank Gehry, Robert Wilhite and others joined her for long meals and even longer parties. Her work surrounded them, and her studio, the grandest space in the house, stood open just beyond the living room. Yet her guests remained uninterested. “No one,” Brigitte said, “would walk the 10 steps.”
Huguette Caland in Stone Doorway, France, 1970.
(Huguette Caland Estate)
Curator Hannah Feldman sees that tension as central to Caland’s California years. “Instead of supporting and bolstering her as a creative in their midst, she became their salon host,” she said. The lack of recognition, Feldman argues, reverberates through Caland’s heavily impastoed portraits of Moses and her enigmatic late abstractions such as the rectilinear paintings in the “Silent Letter Series.”
“To draw a line is a way to contain one’s emotion, one’s anger, one’s anguish,” wrote Caland of her challenging relations with fellow artists in “Sketchbook 2” (1990-91). “My lines tell the story of my life, of people encountered along the path, people I loved, and found and even lost.”
Caland is perhaps best known for her cheeky, erotic paintings of fulsome body parts and for a biography too often reduced to cliché: the libertine daughter of Lebanon’s first post-independence president who left her husband and children in Beirut to pursue an art career in a less repressed Paris.
Huguette Caland, “Self-Portrait in Smock,” 1992
(Huguette Caland Estate)
Feldman hopes the exhibition, which spans fine-line drawings of entangled lovers and radiant topographical tapestries, will complicate that familiar account. “There’s joy, and there’s sex,” she said, “but there’s also pathos, vulnerability. The search for autonomy is not an easy one; it comes with conflict, strife.”
Caland’s freedom was no doubt hard-won. She first picked up a brush as a married mother of three in her thirties, and only after her father’s death. In her first painting, alternately titled “Soleil rouge” and “Cancer” (Red Sun/Cancer) (1964), hazy concentric circles gather in a crimson orb at the center of the monochromatic plane. Simultaneously a tumor and a light source, the refulgent motif holds grief and release.
Soon after, Caland enrolled in art classes at the American University of Beirut, relinquished much of her constricting couture wardrobe, and adopted a uniform of loose, flowing kaftans, which she would later turn into works of art in their own right. Archival photographs show a glamorous Caland arriving at an event in a floor-length garment bearing painted breasts, a belly button and a triangle of curly pubic hair.
Huguette Caland, “Bribes de corps,” 1973
(Huguette Caland Estate)
Caland moved to France in 1970, leaving her children (then 15, 13 and 12) in Beirut with their father, a French-Lebanese lawyer named Paul Caland. In paintings from that decade, Caland’s imagery of bodies swell, split, meld and dissolve. In “Enleve ton doigt” (Remove Your Finger) (1971), lipstick-red lips receive a pale finger reaching out from a crush of fantastical profiles; two years later, in “Self-Portrait” (Bribes de corps), Caland dispersed a sensual body across a pale pink field interrupted at the lower edge by a slight, shadowed cleft — either buxom cleavage or buttocks.
The distance from her children produced another kind of line: text. Philippe recalled receiving illustrated letters almost every week, filled with drawings, doodles and notes of affection. Most of these were later destroyed when the family house was bombed during the Lebanese Civil War of 1975. “I always knew my mother loved me,” Philippe said. “The family was not torn apart. She took a break, and in the end made a home for us in Paris, where we all landed when the war was raging.”
After the death of her lover, Romanian sculptor George Apostu, whose rough-hewn wood sculptures still populate the house’s patio, Caland’s children encouraged yet another departure. Her eldest son, Pierre, a businessman and former Olympic swimmer, paid for a stay at a friend’s Venice bed-and-breakfast, all but forcing his grieving mother out of Paris and to sunny L.A. Her initial reluctance gave way to affection. The light, arid climate and mountains sloping into the sea reminded her of Lebanon. “She liked that California land sounded like Caland,” Brigitte said.
Huguette Caland works at her home and studio in Venice, date unknown.
(Huguette Caland Estate)
After making Venice her primary residence, Caland collaborated with architect Neil Kaufman on the design for her enclosed château. Its towering, mostly unbroken face and narrow swimming pool suggested a rampart and a moat, but behind the concrete exterior, Caland eliminated every door save the guest bathroom. Long vertical windows opened onto a courtyard shaded by a sprawling olive tree. Art crowded the steep stairwell; it accumulated on scattered plywood and Formica tables and unraveled across the kitchen in an intricate mural composed of tessellated marks that recall Byzantine mosaics and tatreez, a form of traditional Palestinian embroidery.
“There was no distinction for her,” Brigitte said, between the home and the studio, art and life. Caland once described her “very, very mixed media” as including “every single exchange, a look, a smile, a brief encounter.”
That original interior survives in “Hollywood Buddha” and archival photographs. Philippe now lives in the house with his family, and although the concrete exterior remains intact, the rooms and the courtyard have been remodeled around their own aesthetics and routines. Along with the technicolor mural, Caland’s singular sensibility persists in scattered drawings, a bouquet of her preferred 30-inch paintbrushes and a pair of stiff-backed pews. Her presence, too, is felt in the people who now inhabit the space, like her granddaughter Charley, 25, whose easy warmth recalls qualities long ascribed to the matriarch.
The former Venice home and studio of the Lebanese-born painter, sculptor and fashion designer Huguette Caland. The home is still occupied by Caland’s family and no longer looks how it did when she was alive, but her spirit lives on in small details.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
When the Hammer selected Caland for “Made in L.A. 2016,” the honor brought some measure of the local attention that had long eluded her. “If you had to pick one critical turning point for her career,” Pierre said, “it was the inclusion of her work in that show.” For the family, the coming survey fulfills one of her long-held ambitions.
“She told me, ‘Live your life day by day and plan it on a thousand years,’” Philippe said. Only later did he understand that the advice described her own life. “Today, her work is here,” he added. “She continues with it.”
Huguette Caland, “Le grand bleu,” 2012.
(Huguette Caland Estate)
The final painting in the exhibition, an oceanic large-format canvas titled “Le Grand Bleu” (The Great Blue) (2012), once hung high above the central hearth in the Venice house. Surrounded by undulating circles, spots and stripes, red-roofed Lebanese abodes and white-masted schooners traverse an unsettled horizon line. From the dining table below, where a young Charley often helped her grandmother fill blank planes with delicate dots, Caland could look up and see how far her line had taken her.
UCLA head coach Bob Chesney, offensive coordinator Dean Kennedy and starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava were all in alignment after UCLA’s Week 2 win over San Diego State.
The Bruins’ offense had to get better.
UCLA wasted no time following through on their promises, scoring 21 first-quarter points against Purdue — the most UCLA has scored in the inaugural quarter against a conference opponent since 2016 against Oregon State.
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While the Bruins’ offense exploded, their defense imploded, giving up 38 points and 488 yards to the Boilermakers.
But in a homage to “Pac-12 After Dark,” it was only natural that UCLA outpaced Purdue, rumbling to a 52-38 win over the Boilermakers on Saturday night at the Rose Bowl in the Bruins Big Ten opener.
Here are three key takeaways from UCLA’s third win of the season, matching its victory total from last season in just three games.
Running backs are elite
UCLA running back Anthony Woods is hoisted up by offensive lineman Julian Armella after scoring against Purdue at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
UCLA has returned to its roots.
With a rich history of churning out premier tailbacks, including Maurice Jones-Drew, DeShaun Foster and Zach Charbonnet, the Bruin offense has lacked a formidable rushing attack the last few years and finished as the nation’s third-worst ground unit in 2024.
But the Bruins may have struck gold in 2026.
UCLA ranks third in the country in rushing yards, first in rushing scores and fourth in yards per carry. Leading the charge is fifth-year tailback Wayne Knight who has 345 rushing yards and eight touchdowns in just three games — matching the Bruins’ total rushing touchdown mark from last season. Knight finished with his third multi-touchdown game of the season against Purdue, reaching the end zone twice to go alongside 200 all-purpose yards.
Through three games, Knight is exceeding the yardage and touchdown output from Reggie Bush’s 2005 season and Mark Ingram’s 2009 campaign — both of which featured Heisman Trophy wins.
But what makes UCLA’s ground attack so special is that it is a four-headed monster. And the Bruins proved it for the third straight week against the Boilermakers.
All three starting running backs — Knight, fifth-year Anthony Woods and senior Jaivian Thomas — reached the end zone and averaged more than six yards per carry in at least nine rush attempts. And Iamaleava added 55 rushing yards of his own to the 369 total the offense tallied.
After three games of consistent rushing dominance, it is becoming less of a coincidence and more of a pattern — UCLA may have one of the most potent rushing attacks in the country.
And one of its most valuable assets is the ground game’s ability to open up the passing offense.
Iamaleava answers the call
UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava hurdles over Purdue defensive back Hudauri Hines during the fourth quarter at the Rose Bowl Saturday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
Iamaleava challenged himself to play better after a shaky start to the 2026 season.
After failing to complete a touchdown pass while throwing two red zone interceptions during the first two games, Iamaleava and Chesney knew that the signal caller left plays on the table.
“It’s not his best game, he knows it’s not his best game,” Chesney said after beating San Diego State. “I just think that the grit and the toughness that he played with though when he needed to get a couple first downs that really, really mattered to keep drives alive and put his body on the line and you know peeled himself off that ground and just kept fighting for his teammates, that’s special. But there’s a whole lot we got to do there.”
Iamaleava responded Saturday night, going 19-for-31 through the air for 276 yards and three touchdowns.
Not only did Iamaleava light up the stat sheet, but more important, he also passed the eye test. After looking impatient against San Diego State, consistently leaving the pocket early and failing to let plays develop downfield, he looked like a totally different player Saturday night.
Iamaleava looked poised in the pocket, going through multiple reads and hitting pass catchers across the field in an array of spots and formations. He also protected the ball against a solid Purdue defense.
But what was most impressive from the Bruin signal caller was his resilience and toughness on the field. After taking some bruising hits during the Bruins’ first two games, Iamaleava was fearless on scrambles and designed quarterback runs against Purdue, taking big hits downfield to gain extra yards. He also looked willing to take hits in the pocket to make deep or layered throws.
Although some of the hits led to time off the field — he cut a finger on his throwing hand and later took a crushing hit to his throwing shoulder that left him lying on the turf for some time — he always returned to the game. Chesney said he repeatedly asked Iamaleava whether he was sure he could continue playing and the senior kept insisting on returning to the game once he was cleared by the UCLA medical staff.
“He’s just a straight dog, there really isn’t much to say about that,” Knight said. “He’s battling. He gets hurt and he gets back up. He plays the next play. He’s doing this for his brothers.”
Same defense, different opponent
Purdue quarterback Ryan Browne scrambles out of the pocket while being chased by UCLA players Saturday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
Purdue’s offense revealed glaring holes the San Diego State offense could not expose.
Aztec quarterback Jayden Denegal only threw for 45 passing yards against UCLA, consistently missing open receivers downfield that had gained considerable separation on the Bruins’ cornerbacks. And even when he did find them, the receivers were not able to haul in catches.
Boilermakers quarterback Ryan Browne, on the other hand, had no problem picking apart the UCLA secondary. Browne went 19-for-30 for 378 yards and three scores, and while he did throw an interception to cornerback Rodrick Pleasant, it came with less than six minutes remaining when the Bruins were already up two scores.
Purdue’s slot receivers tore through the UCLA secondary, running through multiple layers of coverage. Receivers Asaad Waseem and Xavier Townsend combined for 14 receptions, 311 yards and two touchdowns.
Not only did the Purdue offense score five touchdowns, but the pace at which the team scored illustrated the lack of resistance the Bruins’ secondary gave the Boilermakers. Three of the five touchdown drives took less than two and a half minutes, with the first touchdown coming on one play — courtesy of completely broken coverage.
When asked about the impact of Purdue’s receivers Wednesday, defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler said he would have to wait for the game to answer certain questions.
“When you have 10 personnel and that many receivers that can catch the ball, it can create mismatches, and we play a lot of man, so who’s going to fold first?” Hitschler said. “Are we going to be able to man them up or are we having to play more zone? Those are questions that will play out as the game dictates by who’s winning the one-on-one matchups. It’s the chess match that always happens in any game.”
It was obvious who won the chess match.
Two forced fumbles from linebacker Sammy Omosigho and a formidable run defense that held tailback Fame Ijeboi to 2.8 yards per carry helped mitigate the defense’s problems.
How many games UCLA can win the rest of Big Ten play may rest on the defense’s ability to rebound from a brutal win over Purdue the way the Bruins’ offense did after an ugly win over San Diego State.
Few have felt the transformation quite as deeply as Iamaleava, who was the face of both teams.
“Shoot, it means everything,” Iamaleava said of the team’s 3-0 start. “I think that just speaks to the growth of the team and speaks to Coach Ches, of how he got us to buy into this process and his winning, his winning ways. It feels good to be 3-0, and we’ve got to keep going.”
Women’s soccer scores signature win
The UCLA women’s soccer team has take on grueling schedule, facing off with four teams ranked in the top 25 so far this season.
The No. 21 Bruins (5-3-1, 2-1-0 Big Ten) made the most of their fourth opportunity for a signature win, earning a 1-0 win at No. 5 Ohio State (6-1-1, 2-1-0) on Thursday night. It was the Buckeyes’ first loss this season.
Kara Croone set up Leena Powell for the game winner fired from just outside the box in the 25th minute. UCLA goalkeeper Daphne Nakfoor recorded five saves to maintain the shutout victory.
“Amazing performance for the girls,” UCLA women’s soccer coach Gof Boyoko said. “We needed a solid performance, and they did it. We scored a good goal, we didn’t concede, and we were strong defensively.”
UCLA alum Jordin Canada, who has dealt the ball with expert precision this season, had 11 points and 10 assists for the WNBA-playoff bound Dream.
UCLA alum Gabriela Jaquez, who has enjoyed a strong rookie season with a rebuilding Sky team, finished with 14 points, three rebounds, two steals and one assist. Chicago was eliminated from playoff contention, but Jaquez has been a bright spot for the team all season.
Bruins on deck
Here are all UCLA games scheduled to be played this week across all sports, with all times Pacific:
Monday, Sept. 21
Women’s golf at Canadian Collegiate Invitational, All day
Tuesday, Sept. 22
Women’s golf at Canadian Collegiate Invitational, All day
Do you have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future UCLA newsletter? Email newsletters editor Houston Mitchell at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.
Sports editor Iliana Limón Romero contributed to this report.
Within hours of a Feb. 28 missile attack that hit an Iranian school, some Pentagon personnel knew the U.S. was responsible, according to officials involved in an internal investigation of the incident. That probe found what the officials now describe as a cascade of preventable failures.
Two Tomahawk missiles struck the building and its grounds that Saturday, killing more than 150 people, including at least 123 children. The strikes devastated the two-story school, which was built on land that was part of a military compound in the southern Iranian town of Minab. In terms of child casualties, it’s the deadliest American military targeting error of the 21st century.
United Nations investigators said Thursday that there were reasonable grounds to conclude that the strike on Minab and another U.S. attack that took place on the same day amounted to war crimes. The U.S. has yet to publicly accept responsibility for the school strike, and President Trump has previously suggested it was Tehran’s fault. As recently as July 14, he told Fox News, “I don’t think anybody’s going to ever be able to say what happened there.”
But in interviews, officials with direct involvement in the Pentagon’s internal investigation have offered some of the first accounts of the probe. The strike didn’t result from a single catastrophic decision but an accumulation of smaller ones, they said, and their review has identified a series of missed opportunities to prevent the disaster. The officials, like more than two dozen others who provided descriptions of targeting procedures or background information for this story, asked not to be named to discuss sensitive matters.
In the final days of February, the Trump administration demanded an overwhelming aerial assault. More than 1,000 Iranian targets were hit within the first 24 hours alone. That order compressed the time frame for finalizing targets, the officials said, instilling an urgency that — combined with gaps in underlying information about the site, cuts in civilian protection personnel and an overreliance on artificial intelligence technology — set the stage for the deadly error.
Full details from the investigation remain tightly held. Officials who described it said they faced constraints on the amount of information they could share. Previous news reports have indicated that by early March, a preliminary internal review determined the U.S. was likely responsible for the Minab strike.
A report on the full Pentagon investigation, which commenced in March, hasn’t been released — though the officials said it has been all but complete for several months.
Adm. Brad Cooper, who heads U.S. Central Command and ordered the investigation, told members of Congress in May that he’s committed to providing transparency. Yet it’s not clear how much detail will be included, nor how much of the report ultimately will be released to the general public.
A child runs past a banner strung across the rubble of Shajarah Tayyebeh Elementary School showing portraits of the children and teachers killed there by a U.S. missile strike.
(Vahid Salemi / Associated Press)
A Pentagon spokesperson said the incident remains under investigation and declined to comment further.
In response to questions, including about when the White House was informed that the strike was a mistake, a senior administration official also cited the ongoing probe and added: “The United States does not target civilians.”
Last week, a report from the United Nations’ Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said that the U.S. had “failed in its obligation to do everything feasible to verify” that the school was a military target and that the failure “went beyond negligence.” The U.S. Department of Defense has declined to comment on the report.
U.S. officials have said that outdated intelligence was a problem. Although the site in Minab had been identified years earlier as a military compound, there was clear evidence that it had been modified and undergone a change of purpose, the officials said. Physical changes reflecting new construction — visible on satellite imagery — dated back almost a decade, they said, and the site operated openly as a school.
Analysis of commercially available satellite images shows construction of walls and entrances that separate the school site from the military base, work that appears to have been completed by 2017. An image from 2018 shows brightly painted walls alongside a soccer pitch, assembly rows and play markings on the ground.
Some U.S. intelligence analysts took notice, the officials said. Bloomberg reported in June that one analyst detected changes to the site as early as 2019, and logged remarks about the modifications in a system that wasn’t connected to the primary military intelligence database, which informs targeting.
Inside Centcom, which conducted the U.S. attack, some personnel relied too much on the artificial intelligence embedded in Maven Smart System, the officials said. Maven, which is made by Palantir Technologies Inc., allows users to view and coordinate complex military operations — from targeting to command and control — using AI-enabled software that fuses more than 150 different data inputs into a coherent set of information to inform commanders’ decisions.
In the past year, the Defense Department has rapidly made Maven a cornerstone of the U.S. military apparatus. Several former senior U.S. military officials now work for Palantir, including some with high-level security clearances in Centcom’s Tampa headquarters. Their role is to keep the software functioning inside secure military environments.
Some Centcom personnel expected Maven to flag stale information or inconsistencies in the underlying intelligence assembled for potential targets, the officials said. It’s not clear why they had such expectations.
A Palantir spokesperson said that the company “is not responsible for the underlying data nor identifying intelligence deficiencies” and that there’s no evidence that its software was at fault in the Minab strike.
Two people familiar with the firm’s Pentagon contracts said the government retains primary responsibility for the quality of the information that’s fed into Maven. But they said it’s not uncommon for personnel who use tools such as Maven to develop operational understandings that differ from contractual terms.
After the Minab strike, Palantir built new capabilities into Maven that “re-review underlying intelligence to identify factors that would disqualify a target and flag inconsistencies and inaccuracies that human review may have missed,” according to a person familiar with the matter. That work has already caught some anomalies, the person said.
The ‘kill chain’
As Feb. 28 approached, Pentagon officials were tasked with identifying strikes they thought would paralyze Iran’s military before Tehran had a chance to respond, the officials said.
High on Centcom’s list: the naval division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the most powerful force across the country’s military, economy and politics. It’s tasked with defending — and at times, disrupting — the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. The Minab school site — with its uncorrected classification as a Revolutionary Guard facility — was fed into Maven along with other potential targets. It ultimately emerged as one of the recommended Day 1 targets, people involved in the investigation said.
As all targets do, the Minab site moved through a multi-stage assessment process known by the military as the “kill chain.” Steps in that process have traditionally involved intelligence analysts, imagery specialists, targeteers, lawyers, operational commanders and launch crews, according to U.S. military doctrine and interviews with current and former Defense officials. Today, Maven sits at the heart of those operations — between the initial intelligence inputs and the latter review stages, officials said.
In past conflicts, preparing lists of proposed targets — work that includes assessing how they align with an operation’s objectives — had taken hours for staffers to complete. Ahead of the U.S. attack on Iran, much of that work was condensed into several minutes via Maven, people involved in the Pentagon’s internal review said.
Officials involved in the investigation pointed to gaps that they said were left after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismantled most of the Pentagon’s civilian harm mitigation, or CHM, units — cutting headcount across a number of teams by roughly 90% to fewer than 20 staff members, people with direct knowledge of the matter said. Centcom’s team was reduced from 10 to 1.
No CHM team member reviewed the Minab site before the strike, according to officials involved in the internal investigation. That was a consequence of the cuts in staffing but also a decision not to involve the group in planning and operations, the officials said. While not mandatory, that sort of review had become routine in recent years, they added. It’s unclear whether such checks, which include mapping the civilian environment, assessing noncombatant presence and developing lower-risk strike options, would have been enough to raise questions about the Minab site.
The Biden administration had built up civilian-harm-prevention capabilities within the Pentagon after an August 2021 drone strike in Kabul killed 10 civilians — based on the misidentification of an aid worker as a threat. Hegseth has characterized his subsequent cuts to those efforts as a shift away from “Biden-era, non-lethal programs.”
“America, regardless of what so-called international institutions say, is unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history,” Hegseth said at a news conference March 2, days after the Minab attack. “All on our terms with maximum authorities. No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise, no politically correct wars.”
Under Hegseth’s leadership, the U.S. military has prioritized speed of delivery. People involved in the Pentagon probe said a rush to finalize targets shortly ahead of Feb. 28 contributed to the tragedy.
“Haste can lead to errors,” said Laurie Blank, who was appointed a special counsel at the Pentagon’s general counsel during the Biden administration from 2022 to 2024. She drew a distinction between planned targets and those that arise in the heat of battle. “A rush to hit pre-planned targets just isn’t the same thing,” she said, “especially when the operations are launched by choice and not in response to an attack where you are responding without time to plan.”
Why Minab?
A little more than 800 miles south of Tehran, the city of Minab sits on the critical Strait of Hormuz, at the crossroads of centuries-old trade routes and the nation’s modern military might. As the U.S. attack on Iran began, it was deemed a high-value target, according to people involved in the investigation.
As the strait’s significance grew in the 1980s, so did the number of military assets devoted to protecting it and projecting power into the Persian Gulf. The Revolutionary Guard’s missile units, naval facilities and logistics compounds operate alongside neighborhoods where fishermen, teachers and civil servants have lived for generations in the city of 76,000.
Shajarah Tayyebeh Elementary School was built almost a decade ago on land originally occupied by a Revolutionary Guard naval unit. The Pentagon had cataloged the site as a military base several years earlier — a determination that wasn’t updated before the February attack. The New York Times reported in June that targeting officials used satellite imagery that hadn’t been updated in seven years and that did not show a school at the site. Investigators have focused on the Defense Intelligence Agency’s failure to reclassify the location, officials involved in the inquiry said.
On Feb. 28, Minab awoke to clear skies. Shopkeepers unlocked their storefronts. Fishing crews unloaded ice chests along the docks. Children in green-plaid uniforms walked through the gates of the 260-student school, before heading into classrooms.
Firsthand descriptions of the events that took place in and around the school that day have been gathered by a group of human rights advocates, lawyers and digital forensics experts who’ve spent months reconstructing the attack. Members of the informal consortium — including some based in the U.S. and Europe — asked not to be named given the sensitivity of their outreach efforts with victims’ families. Their work and an assessment by the U.K.-based watchdog group Airwars — viewed as a highly reliable source by some Pentagon officials — provides the following account:
After the first reports of attacks on Iran emerged that Saturday morning, teachers called parents and asked them to collect their children, saying the school planned to close early. Shortly after 11 a.m., a first missile hit part of the school, triggering an explosion that reverberated across the neighborhood. Panicked shrieks filled the air. Teachers ushered children from the playground back inside to take cover in a prayer room.
Within minutes, a second missile struck, sending metal fragments across the school. Part of the roof collapsed. Only a few children inside the prayer room survived, buried beneath the rubble.
Rescue vehicles rushed to the scene while passersby helped the wounded. Some injured children were pulled from the rubble while dozens more, deceased, were slowly identified. One rescue crew member stumbled upon a child’s hand, detached and laying on the ground. He wept as colleagues continued to hunt through the debris alongside him.
Some parents were left to identify their dead children by fragments of clothing or belongings — a pencil case, bracelet or shoe — as many faces were no longer distinguishable. The father of Arash Gol-Azin didn’t learn the fate of his 7-year-old son until reaching the morgue. Only then did he spot him by identifying his sock.
Payam Akhavan, a Toronto-based lawyer who has practiced before the International Criminal Court and is an expert on civilian protection, said it’s important for investigators to determine what efforts U.S. officials made to try to ensure they were targeting a military installation.
“The Geneva Convention says you must take all feasible measures to determine that this is, in fact, a military objective,” said Akhavan, who spoke before Thursday’s U.N. report was published. “This does not mean that every mistake is a war crime, because mistakes will be made, even if you take all feasible measures.
“But if all feasible measures were not taken,” he added, “then that raises a question of criminal responsibility.”
At least 1,701 civilians were killed in the opening 39 days of the war, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based group Human Rights Activists in Iran. That’s an average of 43 people a day, and the group — viewed by some in the Pentagon as an authoritative source for Iranian casualty figures — said it’s a low estimate.
“We should be asking how so many civilians were killed amid an unprecedented tempo of strikes over just a matter of weeks,” said Skylar Thompson, the group’s deputy director.
More recently, Iranian officials and a United Nations body said the U.S. was responsible for a Sept. 1 strike on Kuhestak — some 20 miles south of Minab — that hit a residential area where a wedding party was underway and killed at least five people with dozens more injured. The U.S. is investigating the incident, Vice President JD Vance said earlier this month.
Target libraries
For decades, American military planners had maintained extensive target libraries in anticipation of potential conflict with Iran, encompassing everything from limited strikes to maritime war and major air campaigns. The list stretched into the thousands and included air bases, missile factories, nuclear facilities and ports, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with the plans.
Some potential targets had remained on the books for years, accumulating layers of satellite imagery, intelligence reports and legal reviews.
But these catalogs can age quickly, according to people who’ve dealt with them. Buildings appear and disappear. Headquarters switch locations. Where a military barracks once stood, schools, hospitals and mosques may now exist. So the libraries’ contents require close and continual review well before any particular building or site winds up on a target list.
Maintaining the lists is critical but labor-intensive. Officials involved in the internal investigation of the Minab incident described gaps in vetting — or checking whether the underlying information is accurate, reliable and timely — that came well before the school site was selected.
Some of the most sensitive sites, such as Iran’s nuclear facilities — attacked by Israel in its 12-day war with Tehran in June 2025 — faced relentless attention from U.S. intelligence analysts ahead of the 2026 war, according to officials with direct knowledge of the matter. Less prominent locations, such as Minab, went months without receiving another close look, the officials added.
War planners start to think they’ll have time to revisit the less urgent sites, current and former Pentagon officials said.
That assumption evaporated during the final days of February as diplomatic talks between U.S. and Iranian officials in Geneva faltered and then collapsed on Feb. 26.
Work that had unfolded in previous conflicts over weeks or months — matching sites from the library, such as buildings, airfields or bases — was completed in a matter of days, according to officials involved in the inquiry. More than a thousand potential targets had to be reassessed and approved.
By the time the first Tomahawk missile bound for the Minab site left its launcher on a ship operating in the Arabian Sea, roughly three dozen people were involved along the kill chain, the officials said.
Most sat in secure facilities more than 7,000 miles away in Tampa, Fla., studying maps, imagery and databases in preparation for a war that, until 48 hours before the Minab attack, many officials had believed for decades wouldn’t occur.
Typically, part of their work entails refining a list based on satellite imagery and on-the-ground intelligence that’s used to create a pattern-of-life analysis reflecting human movements on the site and changes over time. In Iran, a bitter U.S. adversary for almost half a century, such intelligence was limited, especially in the south of the country, people involved in the probe said.
Additional steps in the kill chain address other types of issues. Lawyers assess whether each proposed target is a lawful military objective. Specialists estimate potential collateral damage. Weapons experts debate not only which missiles to fire but when.
Every stage leaves a record. Analysts sign off on each piece of the chain. They’re told to report any inconsistencies to superiors.
Then a series of questions is asked by the senior commander: Is the target lawful? Is there sufficient intelligence? And have reasonable precautions been taken to minimize civilian harm? In the early hours of Feb. 28, the answer to each question about the Minab site was yes, according to the officials involved in the probe.
The Pentagon’s internal investigators, who examined the satellite imagery, intelligence databases, targeting materials, operational chat logs and computer records that analysts used, concluded that there was high confidence throughout the kill chain that the Minab site was a Revolutionary Guard facility, according to people involved in the probe.
“Insufficient intel wasn’t really viewed as a concern before the war,” said one Pentagon official involved in the internal probe. “We were confident in our intel. Minab proved you should never be too confident.”
Political pawns
Government researchers and auditors have noted deficiencies in the primary intelligence database that’s used to develop strike targets, and the Pentagon is working to replace it with one that will introduce more automation. And Minab isn’t the first time that flawed intelligence has directed U.S. precision weapons toward the wrong target.
The accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in the Serbian capital Belgrade in 1999 killed three people and injured 27 others. A mistaken 2015 airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz in Afghanistan killed 42 people. More recently, soon after the Pentagon’s civilian-harm-mitigation teams were disbanded, a strike on the Ras Ina port in Yemen in April 2025 resulted in at least 80 civilian deaths.
In the months since the attack, the children of Shajarah Tayyebeh Elementary have become symbols. Their faces were plastered on the backs of the seats of Iranian planes ferrying diplomats to Islamabad for talks with the U.S. in April. They adorn memorials on the streets of Minab. Some families have complained that their injured children haven’t received the treatment they need. Critics accuse Iranian officials of leveraging the school attack to their political advantage.
In the U.S., the disaster has become a different sort of political touchstone. Democratic lawmakers, who are seeking to take control of the Congress in the November election, are asking how the attack could have happened.
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, accused the Pentagon of deliberately withholding the results of the investigation, and his Republican counterpart, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, called for congressional briefings on what went wrong.
That call is echoed by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who also sits on the committee, which helps set spending caps for the Pentagon’s roughly $1-trillion annual budget.
“The administration should have been forthcoming within hours or days, and here we are months later and nothing has been provided,” Blumenthal said.
Is President Trump holding the Kennedy Center hostage? The allegation has been made at least twice, most recently by John F. Kennedy’s niece Kerry Kennedy, and earlier by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex-officio member of the board, who has sued to keep Trump’s name off the building.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “hostage” as, “a person taken by force to secure the taker’s demands.” Swap, “person” for the “Kennedy Center” and “taker” for “Trump,” and you have a pretty straightforward “yes.”
The ongoing Kennedy Center dumpster fire points to an unusual presidential obsession with the nation’s premier performing arts venue that dates back to Trump’s first term when he became the first sitting president in history to twice miss the annual Kennedy Center Honors.
In his second term, Trump turned that snub upside down by firing the board and strong-arming his way into being named chairman. If he expected to be welcomed into the arts community with open arms, he was gravely mistaken. His takeover resulted in a wave of high-profile cancellations that ultimately led to a massive dip in ticket sales. The exodus became even worse when the Trump-appointed board voted to add Trump’s name to the building late last year. The reaction, it seems, injured the president’s fragile ego and incurred his wrath.
By early February the president announced he would close the center for a two-year, $257-million renovation. Calling the historic venue “dilapidated,” Trump said he would be the one to restore it to glory. Behind the scenes another story was unfolding, and six months later the Washington Post reported that “ticket sales and fundraising collapsed” after Trump’s name was added to the building, “even as the center’s leaders publicly touted a financial turnaround.”
This week saw chaos at the venue that even the most seasoned journalists struggled to keep up with as the board voted to close the building on the same day that a federal judge upheld an order that Trump’s name could not be restored to its facade after he ordered it removed in late May.
Trump took to social media to decry the decision, threatening to withhold his support for the renovation and noting that the center could be “ripped down” if he wasn’t formally honored with his name on the building. Despite a preliminary injunction barring the venue from closing, people were kicked out of the building and barricades erected in the name of public safety that same day.
Those prone to hyperbole might be tempted to call this presidential tantrum disguised in procedural clothes a constitutional crisis. Or you could just say that Trump has taken the Kennedy Center hostage. The taker wants his name on the building, and the center will not be released for renovation or reopening if that doesn’t happen.
In the meantime an image of Trump on Air Force One was captured that shows him holding a large placard that reads, “Kennedy Center DEMO[LISHED],” leaving concerned parties to wonder just what exactly the chairman of the board has in mind. Is he using a Sharpie at this very moment to slash a line through the image at the center on that board, or is it just a prop to be trotted out in a cruel bit of future social media hazing?
Getting lost in all the drama: a beloved arts venue has gone pointlessly dark, and the people who loved it are heartbroken. If no one is inside to hear the wind whistle, does it make a sound?
I’m Arts editor Jessica Gelt, willing to rustle up a ransom. This is your arts and culture news for the week.
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The week ahead: A curated calendar
FRIDAY
Oliver Lee Jackson: Form Follows Feeling The Bay Area painter, sculptor, and printmaker’s work, created over decades, is inspired by the human figure in its composition and structure. Opening reception, 6-8 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Lisson, 1037 N. Sycamore Ave. lissongallery.com
“Vitruvian Figure (Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum),” 2026, 3D model by Paul Pfeiffer.
(Paul Pfeiffer/Perrotin)
Paul Pfeiffer: Olympia In new work focused on Los Angeles, the artist explores the intersection between media, spectacle, architecture and the body ahead of the city hosting the 2028 Olympic Games. Opening reception, 6-8 p.m. Friday; Pfeiffer in conversation with Britt Salvesen, 3 p.m. Saturday; exhibition, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Nov. 7. Perrotin, 5036 W Pico Blvd. perrotin.com
SATURDAY
“Couple walking, Park Avenue,” 1960.
(Estate of Roy DeCarava)
Roy DeCarava: the sound i saw The exhibition presents more than 130 images created between the late 1940s and 1960s, depicting the photographer’s intense interest in the relationship between the visual and the aural. Accompanying the exhibition, in the gallery next door, will be “SIDE B: the sounds,” a listening room featuring DeCarava’s personal playlists and favorite jazz album. Opening reception, 6-8 p.m.; exhibition runs through Oct. 31. David Zwirner Gallery, 606 and 6166, N. Western Ave. davidzwirner.com
Sutton Foster The two-time Tony winner and TV star performs Broadway hits and standards with Pacific Jazz Orchestra, featuring new arrangements by conductor Chris Walden. 8 p.m. The Soraya, 18111 Nordhoff St., Northridge. thesoraya.org
Mia Middleton: Summoning Cleo New work by the artist explores interpreting familiar forms through a surreal lens. Opening reception, 5-7 p.m. Saturday; exhibition runs through Oct. 24. Roberts Projects, 442 S. La Brea Ave. robertsprojectsla.com
Mrs. Warren’s Profession Real-life mother and daughter Cyndy Fujikawa and Nell Murphy star in this production of George Bernard Shaw’s 1893 play about a Victorian woman coming to terms with how she built a business empire. Directed by Michael Rothaar. Opening night, 8 p.m. Saturday; 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays (check website for exceptions), through October 25. Pacific Resident Theatre, 707 Venice Blvd, Venice. pacificresidenttheatre.org
Grammy Award-winning composer and bandleader Arturo O’Farrill and Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra open the Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ Jazz series.
(John Abbott)
Arturo O’Farrill & Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra The pianist and composer, a six-time Grammy winner, and his ensemble kick off the Segerstrom Center for the Arts’ 2026-27 Jazz series with Afro-Cuban rhythm, modern jazz harmony and big-band sounds. 8 p.m. Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. scfta.org
Other Places An alternative art fair devoted to contemporary art spaces and projects, plus workshops, readings, talks and performances. Noon-7 p.m. Angels Gate Cultural Center, 3601 S. Gaffey St., San Pedro. opaf.info
Karma The gallery presents solo exhibitions by painters Randy Wray (“Hothouse”) and Felipe Suzuki, one featuring vivid abstractions, and the other, work created through the lens of memory . Opening reception 6-8 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Oct. 24. Karma, 7351 Santa Monica Blvd. karmakarma.org
SUNDAY
Alexander Apóstol “Regime: Dramatis Personae” (2017), a series of black-and-white portraits of archetypal figures in both populist and authoritarian governments, uses photography to analyze the intertwining of art and political power in Latin America. 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday; 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday; through Jan 3, 2027. Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. moca.org
Textile Alchemy: The Art of Reiko Sudō and NUNO More than 100 limited-edition textiles, along with numerous objects, including drawings, sketches, raw materials, tools, mock-ups, and prototypes, are part of the largest retrospective ever of the Japanese designer’s work created with her textile collective and other collaborators from throughout Japan, Through March 7, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Resnick Pavilion, 5905 Wilshire Blvd. lacma.org
TUESDAY
The entrance of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles in Exposition Park.
(Ron De Angelis/For The Times)
Lucas Museum Of Narrative Art Where else will you see Luke Skywalker, Vincent Van Gogh, Norman Rockwell, Gordon Parks and Charles Schulz under one roof? The new museum officially opens Tuesday, featuring 100,000 square feet of space spread across more than 30 galleries, exhibiting a mind-bending range of visual storytelling. Check out our full coverage. Public opening, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday; regular hours, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fridays; 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturdays; 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays. Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, Exposition Park, 3800 S. Vermont Ave. lucasmuseum.org
THURSDAY
Bilal The Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter delivers a blend of soul, funk, and jazz. Queens-born R&B musician Yaya Bey is the opening act. 8 p.m. Carpenter Center, 6200 E. Atherton St., Long Beach. carpenterarts.org
Each Other’s Hands: Trans Mutual Aid, 1966—1996 Oxy Arts, Occidental College’s community-based arts hub, presents an exhibition featuring the work of six L.A. artists. curated by Umi Hsu. The opening reception marks the launch of the 2026 CIRCA Queer Histories Festival hosted by One Institute. Opening reception, 7 p.m. Thursday; 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Oxy Arts, 4757 York Blvd. oxyarts.oxy.edu
Arts Anywhere
Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars The newly remastered 4K version of Howard Brookner’s 1987 documentary, the essential yet long elusive film about the 1984 L.A. Olympics Arts Festival, can finally be streamed courtesy of Criterion Channel. It is everything LA28 doesn’t want you know. criterionchannel.com
— Mark Swed
Culture news and the SoCal scene
Christian Barillas, Melinda Page Hamilton and John Lavelle in “The Visit” at Pasadena Playhouse.
(Jeff Lorch)
Pasadena Playhouse opened a new production of Swiss dramatist Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s revenge tragicomedy “The Visit,” and The Times got in on the action. Contributor Jenelle Riley wrote a preview about how the new show features more than a dozen creatives behind the Playhouse’s production of Peter Shaffer’s “Amadeus” earlier this year, including director Darko Tresnjak and actor Jefferson Mays. “Amadeus” was a major hit, so Artistic Director Danny Feldman welcomed the team back with open arms.
Meanwhile, Times theater critic Charles McNulty attended opening night and declared the play a refreshing success (with a few caveats), and expressed “gratitude for the high-level production, gratitude for making the case for why the play still matters, and gratitude for the opportunity of allowing us to make up our own minds about whether the work earns its designation as a modern classic.”
Castulo Guerra as Tlahtoani Klion in a dress rehearsal ahead of its premiere of “Antigone: In the Language of the Kings” by the Latino Theater Company at the Getty Villa.
(Ariana Drehsler/For The Times)
McNulty also headed to the Getty Villa for its annual outdoor theater production. This year, the Villa’s outdoor stage marks its 20th anniversary with a co-production with Latino Theater Company of Sophocles’ “Antigone,” reimagined to take place in pre-conquest Tenochtitlan and performed in English, Spanish and Nahuatl. “If the drama is oversimplified, it nonetheless makes for a gripping spectacle,” McNulty writes.
Finally, a very busy McNulty checked out out a revival of José Rivera’s “Marisol” in an Open Fist Theater Company production at Atwater Village Theatre. The play originally opened in the early 1990s around the same time as Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America,” and McNulty says this new staging is gratifying because it allows a new generation to “embrace the play’s kinetic freedom.”
There are as many acrobats as actors in “Water for Elephants,” which is running at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre through Sept. 27 before heading to Segerstrom Center for the Arts (Nov. 10-22, with stops in Portland, Seattle, Reno, Sacramento, Tempe, Fresno and Eugene in between). Contributor Jenelle Riley headed backstage before opening night to watch the high-stakes performers warm up with poles, hoops, ropes and more. When the curtain raises, there’s a real circus onstage.
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Long Beach Opera will perform its 2026-27 season aboard the Queen Mary.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Long Beach Opera announced its 2026-27 season, which is slated to be performed aboard the historic Queen Mary. First up: three works by composer Georges Aperghis, with vocal performances from coloratura soprano Habin Kim. Next: soprano Amanda Forsythe and Opera Prima in a performance of “Tormento Seicento.” Four additional productions include: an Anna Schubert recital, Peter Brook’s “Impressions of Pelleas,” Handel’s “Tolomeo” and Ana Sokolović’s “Svadba.”
The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and Daniel Gryczman, the federation’s board chair, sued Pasadena’s Norton Simon Museum for the return of the diptych “Adam and Eve,” a pair of 16th century masterpieces by Lucas Cranach the Elder. The suit was one of two filed in the state “since California and Congress passed a pair of laws bolstering U.S.-based claims to Nazi-looted artwork around the world,” reports the Times’ Kevin Rector.
Christian Moore hit an infield single with two outs and the bases loaded that bounced off reliever Taylor Rogers’ leg to score Zach Neto and give the Angels a 6-5, 11-inning victory over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday night.
Vaughn Grissom hit a solo homer in the ninth off Twins reliever A.J. Minter to tie it at 5.
In the 10th with one out, the Twins’ Royce Lewis hit a shallow flyball out to Angels right fielder Josh Lowe. Ben Ross tagged at third, but Lowe’s strong one-bounce throw got to catcher Moisés Ballesteros in time for a sweeping tag of Ross at home to end Minnesota’s threat.
In the eighth, Angels’ pinch-hitter Adam Frazier doubled down the right-field line against reliever Yoendrys Gomez to drive in two runs to narrow the Twins’ lead to 5-4.
Angels reliever Tayler Saucedo (1-1) got the win an inning of scoreless relief. Rogers (6-4) took the loss in 1⅔ innings of work.
Minnesota remains technically still in the race for the American League wild card, but has almost no chance. The Twins are at least 6½ games behind five teams for the last wild-card spot with seven games remaining.
The Angels’ Jose Siri hit a two-run homer in the fourth and the Twins’ Ryan Kreidler launched a solo shot in the fifth.
Twins starter Joe Ryan gave up two runs and seven hits while striking out five in five innings.
Angels starting pitcher Reid Detmers lasted five innings, surrendering four runs and six hits while striking out five. He has 204 strikeouts this season, the most of any Angels pitcher since Shohei Ohtani had 219 in 2022.
Sam Catling lived the dream by ditching a supermarket job for a supposedly fun role as a cruise ship entertainer. He opens up about his day to day life on a cruise ship, the long hours he worked, and how much he took home each month
Sam Catling landed the dream job despite never working on a ship before(Image: Sam Catling)
Working on a cruise ship is the kind of job everyone fantasises about now and again. And when Sam Catling was just 18, he landed what many people would consider a dream role – a cruise ship entertainer.
Sam, now 38, now shares his memories of his time at sea, as well as interviewing others from across the maritime industry in his podcast Deck Tales, and he’s even written a book, Seems Like Smooth Sailing, that gives an unflinching account of what it’s like to work at sea for months on end.
He jokingly refers to himself as a former ‘trolley wally’ and says his CV consisted of a paper round and a job collecting trollies at Asda when family members suggested he’d be a great cruise ship entertainer. His mum and granny had just come back from a cruise and had chatted to onboard entertainers about how they got into the role, before suggesting the idea to the outgoing Sam.
He spoke about how he managed to land the role, despite his lack of previous boating experience: “I used to get The Stage magazine delivered to my newsagent on a weekly basis, and I kept looking through the ads, and eventually I saw one that said ‘now receiving applications for entertainment hosts’ so I applied.
“The first question was ‘What previous experience do you have working in entertainment?’, and eventually I wrote ‘Ive had extensive experience pushing trolleys around Asda car park for the past two years’.”
With a drama GCSE and a few workshops under his belt, Sam soon found himself in Gibraltar on a boat that was in dry dock, attending two weeks of rehearsals as the ship was refurbished. In addition to entertainers such as himself, who did events from game shows to karaoke, there were a show team with West End-style performers who Sam said were a “triple threat” with dancing, singing, and acting skills.
The job was gruelling, with Sam revealing he worked seven days a week. Visits home were extremely rare, crew stayed on the ship the duration of their contracts, which for Sam’s first cruise was six months. The days were long too, with Sam admitting he became “quite the social drinker” due to his schedules requiring him to sit down and socialise with guests.
His shifts would often finish past midnight, and he’d head to the crew bar after work until 2am, before getting up at 7am to face the next day. Sam said he became skilled at power napping: “Between your different activities that you’d host I was down in my cabin having a power nap. If I had an indoor cabin I’d just close the door and you were in pitch black darkness, so it was really easy to just have a 30 minute nap.” But he admitted: “You wouldn’t know what time of day it was because you’re cutting out all the sunlight.”
His accommodation was included, as was food and expenses, and Sam said: “You’re not paying rent, your food’s taken care of, you’ve no heating and electric and gas bills and all of that stuff. It’s all taken care of, which is nice! You don’t have to worry about all those things. But then you are spending money when you go ashore, you know, going to eat out, because after a couple of weeks of being on board you are sick of the food.”
Sam revealed that, when he worked on ships around 2006, he was taking home about £1,200 to £1,300 a month from working seven days a week. Accommodation was shared, and Sam said only managers and the top talent such as the main singers in the shows would get their own cabins.
Despite this salary being representative of a job over 20 years ago, cruise ships don’t pay much more now. According to career site prospects.ac.uk, which advises students on employment routes, those with little experience shouldn’t expect big money for their long hours: “Entry-level cruise ship jobs, such as hospitality, housekeeping, retail, or waiting staff positions, typically pay around £1,000 to £1,500 per month, often with accommodation and meals included.”
But it claims that experienced crew can get decent salaries at sea: “With experience and progression into specialist or management roles, salaries can rise to between £2,000 and £4,000 per month. Senior officers, entertainment managers, engineers, and technical staff may earn considerably more.”
Sam worked on cruise ships for four years, and nowadays he runs his podcast, which he describes as his “passion” with over 60 episodes available, as well as taking on handyman jobs and occasionally working as a TV extra.
“I want to continue doing this until I’m an old man, because there’s 70% of the planet that’s covered in ocean, so I don’t think I’m going to run out of guests anytime soon. The podcast started with just being a platform for cruise ship crew, but now it’s something else. It’s cargo ship captains, I’ve spoken to a pirate, I’ve had a deep sea salvage scuba diver and tugboat captains.”
He added: “I just really wanted to drill down into something unique and authentic, and within a specific niche that people might not know about; the stories at sea that most people don’t hear. The public might not have an interest in ships, but people are still people, and the stories that happen at sea are there for everyone to hear about.”
MIDVALE, Utah — Snow-covered mountains ringing a valley of wide, free-flowing roads remind Venezuelan transplants that the growing suburbs south of Salt Lake City offer what Miami can’t.
One million Venezuelans were released into the United States after crossing the Mexican border during a record immigration surge, and many shunned Miami and other longtime immigrant footholds for smaller places with less established communities — a pattern found in an exclusive Associated Press analysis of federal data from fall 2018 to summer 2025.
These cities and towns promised better jobs, cheaper homes, less traffic and higher quality of life, outweighing Florida’s allure of tropical weather and ease of getting by on Spanish alone.
Enrique Vera, 32, crossed the border in Yuma, Arizona, in 2021 and went to Miami to settle with his mother, who’d been there six years. But he found Florida untenable, he told AP — “the work, the conditions, the low pay.”
After less than two weeks there, Vera and his mother accepted a cousin’s invitation to Utah. In the southern suburbs, with massive new housing tracts and pristine shopping centers, Vera found factory work but soon quit to turn a hobby baking for co-workers into his own business. Today he employs 15 people — many, like him, asylum seekers — at a warehouse and two bakeries.
Utah — known as a relatively immigrant-friendly state despite deep Republican roots and support for President Donald Trump — became a top destination for Venezuelans crossing the border, along with parts of the Chicago, Denver, Atlanta, Dallas and Houston metro areas, AP’s data show. Venezuelans also went to smaller cities including Madison, Wisconsin; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Savannah, Georgia.
It’s a pattern playing out across the U.S.: Some Cubans eschewed Florida and went to Louisville, Kentucky, and Odessa, Texas; Colombians chose the Boston and Denver areas; and Paterson, New Jersey, was the top pick among Peruvians.
These communities have both benefited from the influx of people and struggled to integrate their new arrivals.
Venezuelans stand out for their sheer numbers. About 8 million people, or one-fourth of the country’s population, have fled since 2014, many to the United States. About 30,000 of the 1 million released into the U.S. in AP’s data said they were going directly to Utah.
For Venezuelans in Utah, Trump’s deportation drive has instilled widespread fear
Despite the growing population here, there are few Venezuelan flags, bumper stickers or displays of patriotism on the bustling commercial strips of Midvale, an older suburb of about 40,000 people at the interchange of two highways. Signs are generally in English. The Venezuelan population has mixed in with the largely white population as new houses, malls, office parks and warehouses have gobbled up barren hillsides to meet demand for cheaper land.
President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown instilled fear and made Venezuelans less visible since 2023, when arrivals peaked in Utah and in the United States as a whole. Everyone here seems to know someone who returned to Venezuela voluntarily because they feared being detained and deported or because they lost their work authorization.
In May 2025, Alberto Salcedo opened the parking lot of his Centro de Apoyo Familiar Church to Venezuelan food trucks. The asylum-seeking evangelical pastor dreamed of creating a vibrant gathering spot for Venezuelan immigrants. Nearly 20 vendors and 5,000 visitors came each week, he said, with trucks serving empanadas, arepas, even burgers and sushi. But that dropped down to maybe five vendors and a few hundred people. The fear of deportation is real, he said.
Restaurant owner Fidel Arrieta said it’s affected his business, too. He opened Arempa’s, his first restaurant in downtown Salt Lake City in 2019, drawing non-Latino customers and Venezuelan immigrants alike. Arempa’s — where the walls are filled with photos of Venezuelan waterfalls, an image of Mona Lisa eating an arepa and Miss Venezuela portraits — grew to five restaurants. But three closed in the last year as business slowed.
Arrieta’s wife — co-owner Sandy Arrieta — wanted to stay open. But he believes nothing will turn around while Trump’s in office.
“Until the government changes, the problems will not end,” said Fidel, 65, who immigrated in 1994.
For proof of the growing Venezuelan population, look no further than Utah’s churches
In 2001, Gregorio Rausseo immigrated to Utah, knowing no one. Fast-forward more than two decades, to 2023: Rausseo had just started as pastor at Saint Therese of the Child Jesus Church and was ready for the annual celebration of the patron saint of Zulia, an oil-rich Venezuelan state that includes Maracaibo, the country’s second-largest city. He was shocked to see more than 1,000 parishioners snake into the lobby and parking lot.
“I asked the deacon, ‘All of them are Venezuelan?’ He said … ‘They are all Maracuchos,’” a term for someone from Maracaibo.
Today, Rausseo estimates about 40% of his church’s more than 700 families are Venezuelan immigrants.
Carlos Trujillo, a 42-year-old lawyer who handles immigration cases, puts Venezuelan immigrants in three categories: those who came for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; those who came to join family or friends; and those who came knowing no one. He has repeatedly heard variations of, “This is a place where I can bring my family and have a start.”
Trujillo — who immigrated in 2001, as an 18-year-old whose parents decided he would do better living with family closer to the Mormon church headquarters — said his firm has about 1,700 immigration cases, with staff fielding calls in a large room resembling a call center.
Many of the Venezuelans here came after COVID hit, flying to the Mexican border before January 2022, when Mexico tightened travel restrictions for Venezuelans. That prompted hundreds of thousands to walk through the Darien Gap, a jungle in Panama and Colombia, on a grueling journey through at least eight countries.
Ashly Estupinan, 18, walked the jungle with her grandmother. In Mexico, they used the appointment app CBP One to enter the U.S. in San Diego. Trump ended CBP One on his first day in office, two years after his predecessor, Joe Biden, started it and let more than 900,000 people come legally with two-year permits.
Estupinan, who graduated high school this spring, and her grandmother chose Utah because her uncle was there. “It’s very tranquil, very pretty, the people are very friendly,” she said.
Word of mouth and family advice brought many to Utah
Juan Gonzalez, 41, a cook at Arempa’s, walked the jungle for four days with his brother — passing corpses, he said — before eventually crossing the U.S. border in Texas. He went to Utah on the advice of a distant cousin.
“He had gone to other states, and Utah struck him as the best one,” Gonzalez said, noting he’s drawn to the state’s “strong economy.”
Many Venezuelan immigrants here work in food service — at restaurants or selling meals from their homes. Some proudly noted that a local Walmart now stocks special flour for arepas.
Others cycle through low-wage jobs: construction, nail salons, warehouse and factory work.
Gonzalo Rodriguez, 39, worked as a laborer, carpenter and office manager before rising to general manager of Fillerup Employment Services, a construction company. He said it had about 25 Venezuelans in its workforce of about 300 when he arrived in 2020. By 2022, that grew to 165.
At one point, Rodriguez said, Venezuelans camped in tents on the sidewalk at the company’s office park in suburban Sandy, waiting for work and accepting food while migrant shelters were full.
Julio Gonzalez, 33, climbed company ranks from laborer to human resources manager after crossing the border in 2021 with his wife and son, then 9, in Del Rio, Texas. A friend in Utah told him it was a good place to live. Many here agree, saying they’ve felt no pervasive racism in Utah.
It was a welcome change for Gonzalez, who said he lived in Panama for six years under anti-Venezuelan xenophobia that prompted his move to the United States.
Hector Escalona, 42, also started in construction at Fillerup, then opened a barber shop in 2022. He now has 27 barber chairs at three shops, and many employees are Venezuelan. He said he’s expanding his business even with uncertainty about his asylum case.
Others have had less financial success.
Adaya Amaya, 47, ran a catering business from her home and now operates a food truck but barely gets by. She crossed the border in 2021 with her daughter, now 9, and father, now 74. They relied at times on a food bank. She knows other Venezuelans who’ve slept in their cars.
Her father gave up his asylum claim in June to return to Maracaibo because he didn’t want to burden her.
Some wonder: Is goodwill toward immigrants cooling in Utah?
In the 2024 election, Trump — and his immigration enforcement campaign messages — won Utah by 22 points. The same year, Carlos Moreno, who won asylum after fleeing Venezuela in 2009, was elected to the Salt Lake County Council.
The state’s immigrant-friendly reputation is tied to the Utah Compact, a 2010 document signed by hundreds of local governments, businesses and civic leaders that endorses “common-sense immigration reforms that will strengthen our economy, as well as attract talent and business to our state.”
But Trujillo, the immigration attorney, said goodwill cooled during the Biden-era immigration surge and some elected leaders who were allies became more guarded in public comments.
Gov. Spencer Cox called the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang “a growing threat in Utah” in 2024, but few major crimes in the state have been linked to the group.
Venezuelan immigrants repeatedly told AP that a small minority of their own are their worst enemies — not just those who commit crimes but those who drink in public, play loud music and repair cars in the street. They say that while some of that behavior may be accepted in Venezuela, they must adopt local norms.
“It makes me angry,” said Joiren Rangel, who arrived in 2018 and worked at an Amazon warehouse before opening two Venezuelan restaurants, one of which closed last year. “We saw that we were in a different country and had to abide by the rules. In Venezuela, I would drive with my daughter seated on my lap. I would never do that here.”
Many here are still waiting on their asylum cases
Some asylum seekers were told to wait 10 years for an initial appointment in 2023, but the government has moved aggressively to winnow the backlog. Still, about 500,000 Venezuelans have pending cases in immigration court, more than any other nationality.
Loreana Pachano, who spent much of her childhood in Miami, has been waiting 10 years for an asylum interview. She was increasingly impatient but now wonders whether she might do better if her case remains open until after Trump leaves office.
She and her husband settled in Florida but tired of long commutes and anti-Venezuelan sentiment. They moved to Utah after a friend told her that construction wages were significantly higher. “If we had to start from scratch, how about we start from scratch somewhere else?” she remembers thinking.
Now a real estate agent, she sells houses to asylum seekers who crossed the border and has seen the impact of Trump’s policies — for example, a bank closing on a house that a Venezuelan client gave up because she lost work authorization when Trump ended Temporary Protected Status for more than 600,000 Venezuelans.
“It feels like we’re building on quicksand. We’re trying to build a future here for ourselves, for our kids,” said Pachano, who flips homes and owns trucking and construction businesses with her husband while raising their 3- and 7-year-old daughters.
“Are we going to be here by the time we reach retirement age? We don’t know. You don’t know when the rug is going to be pulled right under your feet.”
Spagat writes for the Associated Press. AP reporter Aaron Kessler contributed to this report.
Among novelist Mona Awad’s prized possessions is a handmade rabbit brooch with delicate hanging daggers. It’s a gift from a reader. The present was inspired by Awad’s goth-tinged comic novel “Bunny,” which has garnered a cult following on social platforms like BookTok over the last several years with readers who call themselves “bunnies.” Driven largely by these devoted fans, the book’s sequel “We Love You, Bunny” hits shelves this month in paperback, while Awad hops across the U.S. on her latest book tour.
The bunnies are so enamored with Awad’s horror-adjacent satires centered on academia and female friendships (and often compared to “Heathers” and “Mean Girls”), they have created their own online — and offline — aesthetic universe.
Their videos and artwork, spanning Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, bring the novels’ surreal, “creepy-cute” aesthetic to life. The fan art features moody Ivy League backdrops with bunny ears, heavy tomes, blood-red candles and saccharine doll-like fashion. It’s a style ripped straight from the book’s antagonists — one of whom wears a pink dress patterned with beheaded girls. Some bunnies cosplay lace-adorned, ax-wielding characters and post the images on social media, or illustrate them.
Sara Ah Sing, a 30-year-old multidisciplinary artist in San Diego who considers herself a bunny, is one such illustrator. She discovered Awad’s fiction when she went down a BookTube dark academia genre-themed rabbit hole. “I was taken aback by how intense and vivid the descriptions were, and not only detailed, but very viscerally described … Mona Awad is not a generic prose writer,” Ah Sing says.
Author Mona Awad writes and dreams up her fiction in La Jolla, where she has a second home.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
She recalls a protagonist called Cupcake. “She’s described as a person who looks like a cupcake … something like ‘The Children of the Corn’ going to prom. And, it’s like, OK, what does that mean? For an artist it begs for interpretation — and I just have to illustrate it.”
Her imagination has been reignited with the sequel, “We Love You, Bunny.” Ah Sing illustrated its tortured central character, Aerius, as a muscled romance book cover star — with a twist. “Instantly when we meet him in the new book, he’s described with all these delicious descriptions. He’s got all these very specific tattoos that are in very specific places on his body,” Ah Sing says. “He’s wearing pearls and has auburn hair that covers one eye — it’s like a playground for your brain reading that kind of stuff.”
Awad’s vivid descriptions have led to all kinds of fan-led creations. Los Angeles-area Bookstagrammer Michelle Grondine, 40, is inked with five “Bunny”-inspired tattoos. “I have one on my inner ankle, one on my forearm, one on my collarbone, one on my lower back of a cat reading ‘Bunny’ and one on my thigh,” Grondine says. Each of the tattoos varies in style, not unlike the distinct personalities in the book’s fictional MFA cohort.
Grondine plans to attend Awad’s upcoming event at Skylight Books in Los Angeles on Sept. 21 with her best friend, Valentina Feldstedt, who lives in Northridge. The two met online after Grondine spotted Feldstedt’s “Bunny” social posts, and they quickly bonded over their shared obsession. They have collected various editions of the series (including the Barnes & Noble-released “We Love You, Bunny,” which features a bonus chapter), gone to see Awad live several times and crafted Taylor Swift Eras tour-style friendship bracelets for fellow fans and Awad (whom they call “our alpha bunny.”)
“Bunny” author Mona Awad’s spread of her fan art and gifts in her home in La Jolla.(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
Feldstedt, 30, has her own “Bunny” tattoo, which she says doubles as an excuse to pitch the novel to strangers. “It’s weird, but if you get it, you get it,” Feldstedt says. “And if you don’t, you’re not a bunny — and that’s fine.”
Awad says her sequel, in part, owes to bunnies like Ah Sing, Grondine and Feldstedt. “When readers started finding it online and creating and expanding the universe of it, it gave me permission to go back to it,” Awad reflects.
She walks around her Boston home and plucks up a fan-made crocheted rabbit toting an ax. Another fan, a nail artist, crafted spooky bespoke black and purple press-ons decorated with intricate white hares. Awad says there’s a song written about the book by an indie band from western Massachusetts called the Greys, and you can buy fan-crafted “Bunny” merch on Etsy.
A poster signed by fans at Mona Awad’s book signing for “We Love You, Bunny” at the Center for Yoga in Los Angeles.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
But “Bunny” didn’t always have such a rabid fan group. In fact, when the first book was published in 2019, it received critical acclaim, but Awad was disappointed it wasn’t selling as well as her previous novel, “13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl.”
“I was like, well, maybe it’s just a weird book,” she recalls on a Zoom call in her literature-lined home. A few years later, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Awad got a call from her publisher. The book was selling, and they couldn’t figure out why. “It was beginning to sell more than 1,000 copies a week, which is crazy two years after publication,” she says. Around that time, BookTok and BookTube had discovered her novel. Next came the bunny ears.
“More and more readers were tagging me on Instagram, and they were dressed in bunny ears, or they had a bunny tattoo, or they were sharing visual art that they had made, envisioning the characters — paintings, ink drawings, cartoons, comics, so many different iterations of this — and then all of these reels and collages that were just so incredible to see,” she says, pausing to emphasize her amazement. “I was really startled by it. It just kind of came in this wave, and then it just grew from there.”
Jane Friedman, a books industry veteran who tracks publishing news, trends and the intersection with technology in her newsletter “The Bottom Line,” says that intense literary fandoms aren’t entirely new. “Apart from BookTok, there have always been these really obsessive fan communities,” Friedman says. “The internet and social media just made it easier for them to come together, making them far more powerful.”
Friedman emphasizes that some critics are concerned that a so-called BookTok phenomenon pushes literature toward consumerism and waters down literary quality. “You can sometimes see authors chasing a trend rather than writing what they would ordinarily write, hoping their book will go viral,” Friedman says. “But I don’t think that’s the case here. It’s probably a mix of timing, serendipity, literary quality and, you know, the stars aligning.”
Awad was born in Montreal to a French Canadian mother and an Egyptian father. She grew up in a French-speaking family, and when her mother enrolled her in an English-speaking school, she recalls feeling like a complete outsider. It was an experience that would happen again and again — like later when her family moved to a Toronto suburb (where, of course, she had a few goth years), and again in her 30s during grad school when she earned her MFA at Brown University.
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1.Superfan Valentina Bunny lives in Northridge.(Valentina Feldstedt)2.Madelyn Bunny hails from Kentucky.(Madelyn Chimento)3.L.A.’s Michelle Bunny has five rabbit tattoos with plans for more.(Michelle Grondine)4.Valentina Bunny, left, and Michelle Bunny with author Mona Awad.(Michelle Grondine)5.Chloe Bunny lives in Australia.(Chloe Bunnie)
“It was kind of my first taste of New England, which was very, very mythical to anybody who doesn’t come from there … It was disorienting in ways that I suppose were productive in retrospect, but it was hard. It was my first taste of being critiqued. It was my first experience of sharing work with others and having them talk about it with me, and it wasn’t easy,” she says. “I mean, the whole world of the MFA felt like fodder for horror.”
Being an outsider looking in remains a central theme across her novels, including her other critically acclaimed works, and it resonates deeply with readers. The wildly imaginative “Bunny,” often described on TikTok as a “fever dream,” has been translated into 17 different languages. Awad notes that she has an especially huge readership in war-plagued Ukraine, where the book is a breakout bestseller. “It’s so moving to me,” she says. “What they say is that it’s a very anti-fascist book, and it’s a very anti-establishment kind of book. It is about resisting the pull of the clique, finding your own ground, standing on your own ground, and being authentically yourself and embracing that.”
It’s a theme she will continue in the third Bunny book. “The minute I turned in ‘We Love You, Bunny,’ I missed the characters and the world,” Awad reflects. She knew there would be another one. Although Awad has deep roots on the East Coast where she’s taught university-level creative writing courses — her students perhaps not so unlike some of the MFA characters in her “Bunny”-verse — nearly all of her books were written in Southern California, where she has a second home and plans to write her next novel. She notes that a short story she wrote in 2025 for the New Yorker was set in the San Diego area, as was her novel “Rogue.” “It’s been such a generative place for me,” she says. “I’ve become sort of superstitious about it.”
Her next book is taking shape as she works and dreams near the ocean. Meanwhile, her existing work is set to make waves in Hollywood. “Bunny” is slated to be adapted into a film by J.J. Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot, and was recently acquired by a major streaming service — although Awad can’t disclose which one yet. She says she’s been deeply involved. “I feel like my vision of the book is being honored, which is really meaningful. Part of the reason that’s so important to me is because I want to honor my readers’ connection to it.”
That deep bond is something Awad witnesses firsthand nearly every night on the road, where her digital fandom materializes into physical rooms filled with devoted readers (often donning rabbit ears). “The thing that moved me the most about going on tour for the hardback — and it’s happening as I’m on tour for the paperback too — is seeing just how many people bond over the book,” Awad reflects. “Not only the art that has been generated by ‘Bunny,’ but so much community and friendship has been formed. You see this kindred spirit through reading, and it’s the most beautiful thing.”
Mona Awad presents “We Love You, Bunny” at Skylight Books on Sept. 21. 1818 N. Vermont Ave., L.A.
José Rivera’s “Marisol” came out around the same time as Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America,” and both plays, vibrating with millennial anxieties, carry the earthly battle for human survival up to the heavens.
There’s a dramatically prominent Angel (Taylor Scott) as well in Rivera’s drama, now in an Open Fist Theater Company revival at Atwater Village Theatre. This celestial warrior has been protecting Marisol (Jade Santana) without her knowing it throughout her life. Marisol, referred to by a publishing colleague as “Miss Puerto Rican Yuppy Princess of the Universe,” still lives in the Bronx and is assailed by dangers just getting to and from work every day.
After an incident on the subway with a deranged man threatening her with a golf club, Marisol returns to her cramped, noisy apartment to learn that her guardian angel is abandoning her to enlist in the battle to replace a senile God, who (to judge by the ailing state of the universe) has grown too old for the job.
Jack Sharpe and Jade Santana in ‘Marisol’ at Open Fist.
(John Dlugolecki)
Marisol will have to fend for herself in New York, a dystopian landscape where crime is rampant, poverty is pervasive and the unhoused are threatened by roving gangs of Nazi skinheads who set them on fire for kicks.
What follows is a modern picaresque journey, in which a clever underdog has to rely on her wit and wiles to survive a corrupt and perilous world. Rivera’s play, which won an Obie Award, caught fire in its 1993 New York premiere at the Public Theater with its theatrical street sense, savage imagery and Puerto Rican-inflected magical realism.
The apocalyptic fears boiling up in the play are perhaps even more acutely felt today, with the ravages of climate change compounding each year and the threat of AI hanging an existential cloud over our heads.
But what’s most satisfying about this reencounter with “Marisol” is seeing a new generation embrace the play’s kinetic freedom. Rivera, who received an Oscar nomination for his adapted screenplay for the 2004 film “The Motorcycle Diaries,” solidified his reputation with this play after his breakthrough work “The House of Ramón Iglesia.”
Director Amanda Weier and her company approach “Marisol” as though it were a new play. The quicksilver changes of scene in this urban hellscape are handled with crisp dispatch. Subway cars and burned-out streets don’t require much in the way of elaborate illustration for the overhang of menace to be felt.
Occasionally, particularly in the early going, the blocking and Christopher Moscatiello’s sound design seemed to be working at cross-purposes. The production’s adventurousness, traversing every corner of Brad Bentz’s scenic design, can have a diffuse effect.
But the clever props design (Bruce Dickinson and Anna Krause) fills in any shoestring gaps. And Mylette Nora’s costumes artfully conjure both the underworld and the spiritual realm.
Jade Santana and Hutchins Foster in ‘Marisol’ at Open Fist.
(John Dlugolecki)
Santana’s Marisol, likable yet spiky, anchors the revival. Her interactions with the golf club maniac (Matthew Goodrich) and the scarred homeless man (Hutchins Foster) are fearfully intense, as they should be.
Grace Soens, who plays June, Marisol’s confederate at work, and Jack Sharpe, who takes on the role of Lenny, June’s mentally disturbed brother, expand this unstable world, where it’s hard to know who to trust.
“Marisol” is rife with ambiguity. One of the biggest questions is whether Marisol is dead or alive. But the surreal reality extends to the map of New York. Marisol can no longer tell if she is heading north or south. And the number of characters wielding golf clubs as deadly weapons raises the concern that the villains are interchangeable — and that the good guys have all fled.
One thing that’s certain is that Marisol will have to take up the fight for her own future. With no one left to protect her, she’s learning to look after herself and those she cares about. To become, in other words, the hero that’s needed to turn this momentous struggle around.
‘Marisol’
Where: Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave, L.A.
When: 8 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 4 p.m. Sundays. (Check for exceptions and additions.) Ends Oct. 24
Last week, Miami authorities identified the five people who died as Rolando Aleman Leon, 55; Yoel Rodriguez Naranjo, 53; Julio C Pineda, 75; Carlos Acosta Fajardo, 53; and Javierkys Reyes Quevedo, 47.
Five others were also injured.
“Our deepest condolences are with the families and loved ones of those who lost their lives,” 21 Air chief executive Keith Winters previously said.
“Our immediate priorities are supporting those affected, assisting the appropriate authorities, and ensuring that accurate and verified information is communicated as it becomes available,” he added.
NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy called the crash site a scene of “utter devastation”.
The safety board’s investigators have recovered the flight recorders to analyse the conditions leading up to the crash.
Investigators released details that a pilot onboard the cargo plane noted that it was going too fast before it overshot the runway, the NTSB said in the early stages of investigation.
It said that one of the pilots warned the other pilot multiple times about “the aircraft’s excessive speed” but noted “there was not a consistent verbal response”, even as an altitude alarm sounded.
There were other electronic warnings designed to alert the pilots to danger while landing, investigators reported.
When her home burned down in the Eaton fire, artist Susannah Mills felt lost and adrift — but never alone. Her home was part of an Altadena artists collective called JJU, or John Joyce University, named after a beloved carpenter who lived there for 26 years. And although the residents were forced to scatter in the wake of the January 2025 devastation, they remained in contact, looking for ways to support one another through what is still an ongoing process of recovery.
A few months after her loss, Mills was accepted into an artist residency at BKN, a retreat in the northern Stockholm Archipelago, where she expanded her watercolor practice from relatively small works to large scale, and explored installation. Like JJU, BKN prides itself on building community, and while there Mills began talking with BKN curator Anna Viola Hallberg about bringing other L.A. fire survivors to Sweden to experience the same sense of connection and relief Mills was feeling.
Hallberg had already been thinking along those lines and suggested they create another residency to do just that. In the fall of 2025, Mills and Hallberg, with the help of another L.A. artist, Rick Gradone, started an organization named Los Angeles Wildfire Survivors, or L.A.W.S., and raised the funds to send 13 Eaton and Malibu-based artists to BKN for two months.
The result was life-altering for the artists, most of whom were still working to rebuild from the devastating loss — and some of whom had been so occupied with the logistics of recovery that they had not been able to make time to work.
“It creates a network, and people who work together in the residency continue to help each other,” said Hallberg in a recent interview. “So there’s a really true new arts community that lingers beyond the residency.”
It soon became clear to the team behind L.A.W.S. that more needed to be done, and they solicited another round of applications for a residency, set to begin later this month at Pilchuck Glass School in Washington state. Eight Eaton fire survivors have been selected in a competitive process, and plans are in the works to bring another cohort of artists to Sweden next Spring.
“We want to expand this outside of Los Angeles ultimately, because there are fires everywhere and there is climate disaster everywhere,” Mills said, explaining that the group’s mission is growing as changing weather patterns result in escalating cataclysm and displacement of artists globally.
“The media focuses on the disaster really fast, and they don’t understand just how long the recovery takes,” Gradone said in a recent interview. “So this puts some kind of resource in place where people can continue to to get help, especially artists who lose everything that they’ve made, lose their studio spaces and homes. That can’t be recovered in six months.”
L.A.W.S. operates as a not-for-profit and has applied for official nonprofit status, a process that can take some time in California. It is also actively looking for fiscal sponsorship. Up until now the group has relied on its personal connections to raise money to support its artist residencies. Mills’ partner, Brian Huskey, is a comedian and actor who has rallied celebrity friends to auction off small pieces of art on cards in support of L.A.W.S. But there is a need for more help as the group grows.
“Word has really caught on with people who want to have this experience, which I’m really happy about,” said Mills.
I’m arts editor Jessica Gelt, wishing I could turn back time, Cher-like, to an era before the world fast-tracked climate change with its laissez faire approach to global warming. This is your arts and culture news for the week.
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Bruce Willis, left, talks with director M. Night Shyamalan on the set of the 2000 film “Unbreakable.”
(Frank Masi / Touchstone Pictures)
Unbreakable M. Night Shyamalan’s 2000 superhero thriller with a twist stars Bruce Willis, Charlayne Woodard, Robin Wright, Samuel L. Jackson and Spencer Treat Clark. 7 p.m. Vidiots, The Eagle, 4884 Eagle Rock Blvd. vidiotsfoundation.org
SATURDAY
“the wheat leaping constantly from the shute,” Marley Freeman (2026). Oil, acrylic on linen, 58 by 54 inches.
(Marley Freeman / Parker Gallery)
Marley Freeman The artist’s new exhibition of paintings, “worthless serpentine,” takes its title from the writings of Joan Didion. Opening, 6-8 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Tuesday–Saturday, through Oct. 31. Parker Gallery, 6700 Melrose Ave. parkergallery.com
SUNDAY
Doyle Lane: Master Of Clay The first major museum retrospective of the Los Angeles ceramic artist features more than 100 works from the 1950s through the 1980s, from functional pottery to monumental murals, as well as archival documents. Through Feb 22. The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. huntington.org
Marie Atoinette A 20th anniversary screening of the semibiographical period film with a postpunk- and new wave-fueled soundtrack with writer-director Sofia Coppola and star Kirsten Dunst in person. Coppola and photographer Andrew Durham will sign copies of their new book, “Making Marie Antoinette,” at the Academy Museum Store in a separately ticketed event prior the screening. 6:30 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd. academymuseum.org
TUESDAY
Andrea Bocelli performs live in Vienna on Aug. 22.
(Thomas Kronsteiner / Getty Images)
Andrea Bocelli The Italian tenor arrives at the Hollywood Bowl for two nights on his Romanza 30th Anniversary World Tour. 8 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave. hollywoodbowl.com
WEDNESDAY
Elliott Hundley “Book of Sand” is an exhibition of new paintings, sculptures and tapestries focusing on the artist’s “own exuberant internal universe” created through compiling paint, paper cutouts, string, encaustic and other found materials. Artist led walk–through, 11 a.m.; opening reception, 6-8 p.m.; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, through Oct. 24. Regen Projects, 6750 Santa Monica Blvd., Los Angeles. regenprojects.com
The Peterson Show The world premiere of Janine Nabers’ play about a group of former child stars from a beloved TV show about a Black family come together after a scandal entangles their famous TV father. Directed by Michelle Bossy. Previews, 8 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, opens, 8 p.m. Saturday (sold out), runs through Oct. 26. Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave. echotheatercompany.com
THURSDAY
The Case-Book of C. Auguste Dupin The world premiere of a new play adapted and directed by John Strysik, based on the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays, through Oct. 18. Mary Levin Cutler Theatre, 241 S. Moreno Drive, Beverly Hills. theatre40.org
The Ford/Hill Project A Waterwell Production created by Lee Sunday Evans and Elizabeth Marvel, this documentary theater piece is based on the verbatim Senate testimony of Anita Hill and Christine Blasey Ford during Supreme Court confirmation hearings, 30 years apart. The cast includes Rosemarie DeWitt, Betty Gabriel, Dulé Hill and Jerry O’Connell. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd St., downtown L.A. redcat.org
The SoCal scene
A view of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles from a garden.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
Hey, have you heard? The Lucas Museum of Narrative Arts will open Sept. 22 and began member previews late last week. Just kidding. Of course you have heard, because hot takes currently abound on the new $1-billion museum. Love it or hate it, it’s here to stay, and Team Arts spent the week rolling out a spate of stories explaining how we got here, as well as what you can find in the shiny new 300,000-square-foot Ma Yansong-designed building.
Randolph Thompson, Desiree Mee Jung, Adam J. Smith, Nicole Javier and Julanne Chidi Hill in “Pericles” at Boston Court Pasadena.
(Brian Hashimoto)
Times theater critic Charles McNulty spent an evening at Boston Court Pasadena watching Ellen McLaughlin’s modern verse translation of Shakespeare’s “Pericles,” which takes place at a disaster relief center, where anxious evacuees improvise a play to escape their fear of the storm they are fleeing. “It’s hard to allow yourself to fully believe in the incredible turn of events when the prevailing attitude is so emphatically tongue-in-cheek,” McNulty wrote of the West Coast premiere.
McNulty also had lunch in Manhattan with playwright Samuel D. Hunter, who has two plays running in L.A.: “Grangeville,” which McNulty calls “Los Angeles’ most acclaimed theatrical offering of the summer” and has been extended at Ruskin Group Theatre through Sept. 21; and “A Case for the Existence of God,” in a recently opened Rogue Machine production at the Matrix Theater’s Henry Murray Stage. “Drama in Hunter’s hands is built around an encounter. He doesn’t force his characters to jump through hoops,” writes McNulty in a profile. “He listens to them, as they navigate their complicated feelings, closely tracking the way their intersecting paths lead them toward incremental revelation.”
IAMA Theatre Company is set to launch its ninth annual New Works Festival, which will take place Sept. 14-28 at Atwater Village Theatre, and will feature staged readings of six new plays. Tickets are $18 for each reading and can be found at iamatheatre.com. This year’s festival includes “The Half-Sibling Play” by Agyeiwaa Asante; “All Remaining Assets” by Serena Berman; “The Starters” by Laura Winters; “Betta Mus Come” by Alicia Carroll; “Werewolves” by Liba Vaynberg; and “The Great Florida Python Challenge” by John Lavelle.
Additional tumult is coming for the Smithsonian Institution as secretary Lonnie Bunch announced he will step down from his leadership position. The news comes in the midst of President Trump’s pressure campaign on the organization and his administration’s attempts to alter what Smithsonian museums include in their exhibitions.
Work at a specialized underground weapons test site in New Mexico, contracted earlier this year, was linked to planning for a potential new operation targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, according to a report from CNN. The U.S. military has notably left Iran’s hardest-to-reach site under Pickaxe Mountain untouched so far, but President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials have been openly talking about striking it.
On February 27, the day before U.S. and Israeli forces launched their initial wave of strikes on Iran, the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) quietly announced it had awarded a sole-source deal to Pate Construction Co., Inc., for new construction at the so-called Alternate Seismic Hardrock in Situ Test (ALT-SHIST) site. The work was needed to support an upcoming classified live-fire test. ALT-SHIST is situated within the White Sands Missile Range (WSMR), a sprawling U.S. Army-managed complex in New Mexico’s Jornada del Muerto desert basin. DTRA is a relatively small and obscure organization that plays a leading role in U.S. military efforts to develop new and improved ways to respond to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) threats.
WSMR and DTRA have come up in discussions about strikes on Iran in the past. The U.S. military’s heaviest conventional air-dropped weapon, the 30,000-pound-class GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bomb, has been extensively tested at multiple sites there in the past. DTRA was also directly involved in its initial development. MOPs made their combat debut during U.S. strikes last year on underground Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow and Natanz as part of Operation Midnight Hammer. The possibility has been raised that a different site within WSMR may have been used to test the plan of attack against Fordow, which involved two ventilation shafts being hit with six GBU-57/Bs each. The bombs were dropped in rapid succession, with each one burrowing deeper and deeper into the facility below. WSMR also happens to contain the site of the first atomic bomb test in 1945.
A map showing the general location of White Sands Missile Range, with an inset giving a better sense of how expansive it is. Holloman Air Force Base, which juts into the southern end of the range complex, is also highlighted. Google Maps
“The plans for the test [at ALT-SHIST] were connected to the Iran war,” CNN said in its story, published yesterday, citing unnamed sources “familiar with the matter.” Beyond that, the planned testing was tied to a “need to develop a way to target Iran’s deepest-buried underground facilities and, likely, simulate U.S. strikes against specific nuclear facilities.”
CNN said it was unable to independently verify whether or not the test in question had occurred.
A formal justification for the sole-source contract to Pate Construction that DTRA released in February did not mention Iran or elaborate on the need for the new testing at ALT-SHIST, but stressed there was an urgent requirement critical to U.S. national security.
“The services required are the immediate and mission-critical enabling services for a ‘real-world’ national security ordinance [sic; ordnance] test. This is not routine construction; it is the highly specialized remediation and operational preparation of a unique, subterranean test facility at White Sands Missile Range (WSMR),” according to the justification document, which DTRA officials had approved on February 24. “The work is a critical path dependency for a live-fire test designed to validate classified capabilities against rapidly emerging threats.”
“As the incumbent contractor for over a decade, Pate Construction Co., Inc. possesses unparalleled and non-transferable tacit knowledge of this specific subterranean test facility. This is a unique Government structure with complex geological and security considerations, and Pate Construction Co., Inc.’s direct, hands-on experience is a tangible asset that no other source possesses,” the document adds. “Pate Construction Co., Inc. is the only contractor that currently maintains a fully mobilized presence at WSMR with the specific heavy equipment and security-cleared operators required.”
CNN‘s piece says apparent work at ALT-SHIST was visible in satellite imagery of the site between mid-February and mid-March, but the outlet said it was unable to confirm whether or not this was related to the contract with Pate Construction.
We reviewed satellite imagery showing work at a remote DTRA/STRATCOM test site that coincided with this contracting action, but we couldn’t confirm its purpose.
The Pentagon didn’t respond to our questions regarding the test, and we couldn’t independently confirm it occurred. pic.twitter.com/k8zyvqWy56
ALT-SHIST is an active test site, and any work observed there earlier this year could well have been linked to other projects. For instance, additional publicly available DTRA contracting documents offer details about planned work on a specific part of the ALT-SHIST site, called Tunnel 7, tracing back to last year, as part of a project nicknamed Millstone Willemite 6 (MW-6).
“This task requires the construction contractor to repair and address the damage to Tunnel 7 caused by prior incidents, in accordance with government-provided designs, specifications, and other contract documents,” according to one contracting document dated September 15, 2025. “The contractor will also be responsible for providing support during testing activities, as well as safing after each test and general support between tests. All tunnel construction must be completed by 15 June 2027.”
“The contractor shall repair a D-shape tunnel and overburden using the D-shape of 20 feet depth and width, inside the tunnel. The contractor shall remove and repair any damage to the ribs, crown, and invert to Tunnel 7,” that same document continues. “After the repair of Tunnel 7, the contractor shall provide general construction support to instrument the tunnel in preparation for testing and then safe the tunnel for re-entry post-testing.”
The schedule for the MW-6-related work indicates that it is separate from what Pate Construction was hired to do at the site back in February.
A view out into a mountainous part of the White Sands Missile Range complex. USACE
ALT-SHIST, which was first established in 1995, is also not the only site DTRA makes use of within WSMR. As its name indicates, it is an alternate to the original SHIST site, use of which began in 1993.
“There was a small addition made to the SHIST site, but that area has been heavily used since 2007,” according to an environmental impact study the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) completed in 2015. “The granite bedrock at these sites has been fractured and damaged by extensive testing. There are no existing granite areas adjacent to those sites where similar testing can be performed.”
A map showing the relative locations of SHIST and ALT-SHIST, as well as other test sites, at the northern end of the WSMR complex. USACE
USACE conducted that study in support of the establishment of a new test site at WSMR, simply called the Granite Test Site, to succeed the original SHIST. The Granite Test Site is now in use. There are many more sites within the range complex designed to simulate underground and otherwise hardened targets. This is also just one aspect of the wide array of testing that occurs on a daily basis at WSMR.
However, the presence of large areas of undisturbed granite is a key factor here, as that is particularly relevant for testing weapons designed to penetrate into extremely deeply buried facilities. CNN‘s piece yesterday noted that Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain site is built underneath a granite mountain.
“The mountain in White Sands, they specifically picked mountainous areas that were solid rock, and they used state-of-the-art tunneling technology to make the kind of cavities in the mountain that you would put this kind of [Iranian nuclear] facility in,” Gary Stradling, a retired scientist who previously worked for the Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), told TWZ in an interview last year. “I think that there is a lot of work that DOD has done in these kinds of facilities that is highly classified, and I couldn’t talk to you about it. This is very sophisticated work. It is not casual, and it’s not speculative. These are real experts who are doing the work. Careful, technical, quantitative work to be able to deliver this kind of war-fighting capability to the services.”
TWZ spoke to Stradling, who did work tied to earth-penetrating munitions at various points during his lengthy career, in the wake of Operation Midnight Hammer.
Me, standing at the edge of a MOP crater on a mountain top at White Sands Test Range, where detailed studies of massive earth penetrators were studied for effectiveness against deeply buried targets by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) —formerly Defense Nuclear Agency.… pic.twitter.com/JYq1V2xO6q
The U.S. military notably did not strike Pickaxe Mountain, which is situated immediately to the southwest of Iran’s nuclear facility at Natanz, during Operation Midnight Hammer. The site also went untouched by Israel during last year’s 12 Day War. American and Israeli forces did not target it during major combat operations earlier this year, either. All of this underscores the targeting challenge the site presents, even for strikes using MOPs, which TWZ explored in detail earlier this year and that has continued to make it a point of particular discussion.
CNN‘s report yesterday was primarily focused on a new assessment of ongoing construction at Pickaxe Mountain from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank in Washington, D.C.
Satellite “images reveal more road activity at Pickaxe Mountain in 2026 than at any point in the site’s history,” according to a report CSIS published yesterday. “There is a clear surge in construction activity in 2026 that corresponds to the raising and hardening of the portal accesses, paving of the internal road network, reinforcement around access areas, and the flattening and removal of excavation spoil.”
“This assessment can neither refute nor substantiate the Israeli intelligence claim that Iran moved centrifuges into Pickaxe Mountain,” CSIS’s report also noted. “The continuous construction, the absence of an increased internal security posture, and the lack of observed nonconstruction vehicles and equipment suggest the underground facility is not yet capable of enrichment work, if that is the intended purpose. Further analysis of daily activity would be needed to establish the site’s pattern of life beyond its current construction footprint.”
This is in line with TWZ‘s own previous reporting on Pickaxe Mountain back in July, when there were already signs of growing activity following the establishment of a shaky ceasefire between the United States and Iran the preceding month. As we wrote at that time:
“As with the strikes on Fordow, multiple bombs could be dropped on the same impact point to try to penetrate further down into Pickaxe Mountain. Whether there might be similar ventilation shafts or other weak points that could be exploited at Pickaxe Mountain is unknown. …”
A graphic with details about the employment of MOPs on strikes at Fordow during Operation Midnight Hammer. DOD
“A strike ‘right in the front door’ on the tunnel entrances at Pickaxe Mountain would be another option to at least hamper access to the facility inside for a time. This could be combined with strikes aimed at sections of the tunnel networks that run deeper inside the facility, but that are still close enough to the surface to be reachable by available conventional munitions. For instance, MOPs may not be able to hit the main cavern areas, but they could possibly hit certain tunnels that might lead to them.”
“Even a combined strike on entrances and shallow tunnels at Pickaxe Mountain could still present certain challenges. Firm intelligence on exactly where the tunnels snake under the mountain could be limited, making it difficult to select the best impact points. This is exactly why the U.S. military has been investing heavily in advanced, void-sensing fuzes for MOP and other bunker buster bombs for decades now. These fuzes detect when a munition has penetrated into a sufficiently large space, such as a room or tunnel in an underground facility, to help maximize damage. Fuzes that can effectively ‘count’ floors also help to ensure the munition has burrowed sufficiently deep before detonating.”
…
“…the U.S. military could conduct follow-on strikes on the entry points at Pickaxe Mountain to disrupt any attempt to regain access, as well.”
“Destroying Pickaxe Mountain will be a scientific and targeting challenge,” CSIS also noted in its report yesterday. “It is an underground fortress buttressed by granite. It is one of the only facilities in Iran’s nuclear program that the United States has not yet struck. Structurally degrading Pickaxe Mountain requires more than just kinetic force – it takes actionable high-confidence intelligence and sophisticated mathematical modeling.”
With all this in mind, it is not at all hard to imagine how new testing at ALT-SHIST, as well as other sites, would be essential for exploring additional options for striking Pickaxe Mountain and/or other deeply-buried targets in Iran using MOPs and/or other munitions.
A US Air Force B-2 bomber drops a GBU-57/B MOP during a test. USAF
It’s also worth noting here that GBU-57/Bs are understood to be in relatively short supply, though it is unknown how many of them are currently in inventory. Furthermore, the U.S. Air Force’s B-2 Spirit bombers are currently the only aircraft certified to employ the huge MOPs operationally. There was a report in 2024 that prime contractor Boeing was working to expand its capacity to produce these bombs. A MOP successor, the GBU-76/B Next Generation Penetrator (NGP), is in development now, but prototyping work is expected to run through the end of Fiscal Year 2028.
President Donald Trump certainly has raised the prospect of a strike on Pickaxe Mountain publicly on several occasions since July. He has also repeatedly said that the site is being persistently surveilled, particularly from space.
“There’s another place called Pickaxe Mountain, another nice place. We may have to give them a shot there, too, because someone said there was a little movement at the site,” Trump said yesterday during a speech at a convention the Republican Party is hosting in Dallas, Texas, ahead of this year’s midterm elections. “We don’t need much. We see everything, you know, because of Space Force.”
“We may hit Pickaxe [Mountain] very soon,” the President also said while speaking to reporters at the White House last Friday.
Trump on Pickaxe Mountain: We may have to give them a shot there too. We see everything. We can the see tag on their coat. “Muhammad Al-Fayed” It’s never Muhammad Jones. pic.twitter.com/UQm939OruL
Whether growing activity at Pickaxe Mountain finally prompts a U.S. strike at the site, either alone or as part of a larger operation, remains to be seen. If and when such a mission is launched, past and future testing at sites like ALT-SHIST in New Mexico will all but certainly have played an important part.
U2 will be honored as the 2027 MusiCares Persons of the Year, the Recording Academy announced Thursday, half a century after the four members of the Irish rock band met as high school students in Dublin in 1976.
The award, which recognizes an act’s philanthropy and cultural impact and comes with an all-star tribute concert typically held two nights before the annual Grammy Awards, will be presented to the group’s Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles on Feb. 5.
In a statement, MusiCares Executive Director Theresa Wolters hailed the band’s work on issues “spanning global health, disaster response, addiction recovery, mental health and access to music education” and said that what “resonates so strongly” with the Recording Academy’s charitable arm is the members’ “belief that success in music comes with an opportunity to care for the people around you.”
Added Harvey Mason Jr., the academy’s CEO: “Not only has their music defined generations, but they’ve been equally exemplary in their dedication to humanitarian work and using their platform for good.”
The statement quoted the members of U2 as saying they’re “huge fans of MusiCares and the lifelines they provide across the incredible pool of talent that is the music industry. We’ve been recording and touring for 50 years because of that pool, from producers and engineers to carpenters and riggers.” The band said they are “very excited to be in the front row of our first ever U2 gig,” adding, “We know we’re gonna be outplayed.”
In late January, Mariah Carey received the MusiCares award at a gala that featured performances by Foo Fighters, Jennifer Hudson, Teddy Swims, Busta Rhymes, Laufey, Jon Batiste and Charlie Puth. Previous honorees include Joni Mitchell, Dolly Parton, Lionel Richie, Bob Dylan and Barbra Streisand; Bono was previously named Person of the Year on his own in 2003.
U2’s recognition comes in the wake of a much-discussed residency at Sphere in Las Vegas, where the band looked back at its 1991 album “Achtung Baby” in a high-tech multimedia presentation. In July, the group released “Street of Dreams,” the lead single from a studio album due out later this year.
BEIJING: A week after his robot outran humanity’s fastest man, Jack Guo is already chasing a harder goal.
TianGong Ultra stunned spectators at the World Humanoid Robot Games when it covered 100 meters in 8.64 seconds, almost a full second faster than Usain Bolt’s world record. Behind the feat were days of round-the-clock testing and repairing battered robots between races.
“When it started smoothly and got past 50 meters, that was when I finally relaxed,” said Guo, who leads development of Ultra and Omni, a smaller model used in 400m races, at the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, known as X-Humanoid.
Just a week later, the bespectacled 34-year-old engineer is already focused on a bigger challenge.
“We want to turn high performance into high reliability and high usability,” he told Reuters in his first interview with foreign media.
The record-breaking run offers a rare window into China’s growing lead in humanoid robotics, where state-backed research, deep supply chains and intense competition are accelerating advances in machine mobility. Yet Guo’s next goal underscores a harder task facing the industry as it struggles to turn dazzling demonstrations into useful workers.
Inside the workshop
X-Humanoid sits in Yizhuang, a high-tech development zone in Beijing’s southeast and one of China’s main robotics clusters. Long home to automakers, the district now boasts a robot sales center and even a robot-themed restaurant, part of the capital’s push to showcase the industry.
An engineer works near Tiangong Omni humanoid robots in the research and testing area of the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, also known as X-Humanoid, in Beijing, China, September 4, 2026. (Reuters)
The first-floor showroom traces generations of TianGong robots, including one that still wears the vest from a winning half-marathon run last year.
On the ninth floor, white Ultra and Omni humanoids stand suspended in metal frames. One wears a red “Champion TianGong” headband.
During a Reuters visit, engineers repaired and tested robots, with one removing a head cover, another tightening a leg, and others running walking trials.
In the adjoining office, Guo’s team develops software before testing it on physical machines.
Established in November 2023, X-Humanoid is backed by state-owned and private investors including robotics firm UBTech, along with domestic tech giants Xiaomi and Baidu. It develops hardware, motion-control software and AI for the wider industry while commercialising its own robots.
X-Humanoid has not disclosed how many of its own robots it has sold or deployed commercially.
Its customers include universities, research institutes and companies exploring industrial applications. At Foton Cummins’ engine factory in Beijing, the company’s robots have been trialled moving boxes, with its Tianyi 2.0 robot lifting 8-12 kg boxes onto shelves in what the factory described as an early-stage exploration.
Useful work begins
Ultra was not originally designed to win a race. It started as an experiment to push the boundaries of humanoid movement.
Guo likens today’s humanoids to the earliest cars: first make them controllable, then pair reliable bodies with smarter AI “brains” capable of handling complex tasks on their own.
He said the immediate challenge was making the robot body and movement-control system stable and reliable for everyday use. Developing the AI needed for more complex autonomous tasks would take longer.
Making a robot run develops generalized mobility, improving its ability to cope with different terrain.
An engineer works near Tiangong Omni humanoid robots in the research and testing area of the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, also known as X-Humanoid, in Beijing, China, September 4, 2026. (Reuters)
The smaller Omni has already shown what that can mean in practice. In an internal test this year, it climbed from the first floor to the 17th floor of X-Humanoid’s headquarters.
Guo expects smaller humanoids to find early roles in commercial services and light industry, while Ultra could eventually perform outdoor inspection or emergency rescue.
One major challenge is braking. Ultra weighs 75kg and at top speed can exceed 17 meters per second. At the Games, a crash mat sat beyond a short run-off area, leaving sprinting robots in the 100m races to slam into the barrier.
Future versions could be lighter, brake harder and adopt a safer posture, Guo said.
Conquering speed
Ultra arrived at the Games armed with three running strategies trained in simulation. One was battle-tested, two faster on paper but less proven.
Each strategy is a trained motion-control system that continuously adjusts joints and balance, allowing the robot to sprint upright without an operator directing every step.
Ultra used a different program in each race, running 9.39 seconds in the preliminary, 8.86 in the semifinal, and 8.64 in the final.
Between races, engineers returned to their test site to push faster programs harder and adjust navigation and running controls. Engineers pulled several all-nighters, sometimes testing into the following day before returning to the venue.
Pushed to their limits, robots stumbled, lost balance and crashed, forcing teams to roll out backup machines while repair crews scrambled to fix the damaged ones.
Earlier in development, the breakdowns were even more dramatic. “Legs broke, waists broke,” Guo said.
A late surge
Even on the morning of the final, the team was testing a newly trained running program. It worked repeatedly during trials, but not on the competition track. Differences between individual robots also created headaches, leaving Guo uneasy before the race.
Ultra’s heavier legs limited early acceleration, but once it passed about 10 meters per second, it could keep building speed and reel in rivals.
The team had shaved roughly half a second from its starting response by the semifinal, Guo estimated. From there, attention shifted to outright speed.
In the final, a faster reaction time and late acceleration allowed Ultra to pull off a more decisive overtake.
Backstage, the team celebrated. At the closing ceremony, a row of TianGong humanoids donned red capes emblazoned with “Champion,” some waving pom-poms.
“Finally, I could get a good night’s sleep,” Guo said.
