Court order rules that Pentagon acted illegally, punishing AI company for criticism of government.

A United States judge has blocked the Pentagon’s blacklisting of technology company Anthropic.

In a 59-page written order issued on Thursday night, District Judge Rita Lin ruled that the Department of Defense had acted illegally when it designated the company a supply chain risk to national security.

The decision marks the latest turn in the Claude maker’s high-stakes fight with the US military over artificial intelligence safety on the battlefield. The government is expected to fight the ruling.

The judge’s order rebuked the Pentagon, saying it had targeted and punished Anthropic for the company’s public criticism of the Defense Department’s stance on AI deployment on the battlefield.

“The empty invocation of national security is not a blank check to punish and retaliate against government critics,” Lin, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, wrote.

Autonomous weapons and domestic surveillance

Anthropic’s lawsuit in a California federal court alleges that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth overstepped his authority when he designated the company a national security supply-chain risk.

Hegseth’s move, which blocked Anthropic from military contracts, followed the company’s refusal to allow the military to use its Claude AI models for US surveillance or autonomous weapons.

Anthropic argues that AI models are not reliable enough for autonomous weapons and opposes domestic surveillance. The Pentagon maintains that private companies should not constrain military action.

Executives have said the ban could cost the company billions of dollars in lost business.

During a hearing on July 30, Lin described the government’s position as “really troubling” and “at odds … with the First Amendment”, adding that the record had “gotten worse for the government” over time.

In the same hearing, Department of Justice lawyers argued that the nature of AI models is “so staggeringly enormous and opaque” that the Pentagon cannot evaluate them like physical hardware.

First use of obscure statute

Anthropic welcomed the ruling, stating it remained “focused on working productively with the government to harness AI for our national security so all Americans benefit from this technology”.

The designation was the first time a US company has been publicly labelled a supply-chain risk under an obscure procurement statute aimed at protecting military systems from foreign sabotage.

In its lawsuit, Anthropic alleged the government violated its constitutional rights to free speech and due process by retaliating against its views on AI safety without allowing it to dispute the claim.

The lawsuit called the decision unlawful, unsupported by facts, and inconsistent with the military’s past praise of Claude.

There was no immediate comment from the Pentagon on the ruling.

Contains spoilers! Recent Emmerdale rumours teased an exit for Dawn Taylor amid a dramatic stunt week that saw one character dead and Joe Tate injured, but will Dawn stay on the show?

Amid rumours Dawn is leaving Emmerdale, fans feared another character would die this week.

With Jimmy King dead, Joe Tate was caught up in an explosion leaving fans wondering if he would be killed off too. Thursday’s cliffhanger saw Dawn Taylor and Nicola King escaping the wedding marquee, that was meant to host pregnant Dawn’s wedding with Joe.

Dawn jilted Joe, and then changed her mind, but before they could reconcile, tragedy struck. Jimmy’s car went speeding into the marquee, injuring himself, Dawn and Joe.

Jimmy eventually died, and Nicola and Dawn were fine, leaving Joe’s fate unknown. As the marquee exploded, it was teased villain Joe had been killed off, as his loved ones watched on in shock.

But is Dawn leaving the show? It was reported earlier this year that actress Olivia Bromley had been written out of the ITV soap after eight years.

Nothing has been confirmed, but reports suggested Dawn would be leaving. It left some fans wondering if Joe would die, causing a grief-stricken Dawn to flee the village.

So while nothing has been confirmed by Emmerdale, scenes this week did tease an exit, when Dawn planned to run off with Billy Fletcher. She changed her mind, so could the exit rumours have been a mistake?

Might the escape plan have led some to think she would leave, but actually Dawn will stay? It’s these reports that sparked the exit claims in the first place, and as we say, they have not been backed up by the show or actress Olivia.

Perhaps the latest episode on Friday could add more to this, with Joe’s fate confirmed. Warning, the rest of this article contains spoilers from Friday’s episode now available on ITVX.

If you haven’t watched the episode yet, look away now! Friday’s visit to the Dales follows the immediate fallout of the explosion, as Graham Foster desperately tries to save Joe.

Joe is rescued and taken to hospital where it is revealed whether he lives or dies. We’ll leave that, and any other twists that air, for your own viewing.

The episode is now on ITVX and will air this evening at 8PM on ITV1. Producer Laura Shaw had teased Joe’s fate with the Mirror in a recent chat, where she appeared to confirm a big new storyline.

Laura hinted that Joe’s feud with his uncle Caleb Miligan would escalate after the wedding week, and would continue into 2027. We’re also expecting a “gothic and dark” autumn for the Tates.

Emmerdale airs weeknights at 8pm on ITV1 and ITVX. * Follow Mirror Celebs and TV on TikTok , Snapchat , Instagram , Twitter , Facebook , YouTube and Threads .

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Mike Gibbons sat out the presidential election two years ago, frustrated that Democrat Kamala Harris did not take a stronger stand against Israel’s war in Gaza and unable to bring himself to cast a vote for Republican Donald Trump.

That is not his plan this year.

The 33-year-old restaurant server in this eastern Pennsylvania town that once housed one of the world’s largest steelmakers is eager to vote for any Democrat he can in November. As the war with Iran that Trump initially said would last weeks surpasses six months on Friday, Gibbons is feeling the fallout every time he fills his tank at nearly $1 per gallon more than last year.

“The price of gas affects the price of everything and the price of everything’s up and my pay hasn’t gone up,” he said. “I’m doing blue no matter who this time.”

The Iran war has reshaped the rapidly approaching midterm elections, undermining Trump’s campaign pledge to steer clear of foreign conflicts and challenging Republicans who would rather focus on their tax cuts as they cling to narrow majorities in Congress.

While the president’s supporters are undeterred, the war’s unpopularity and economic ripple effects could tilt the scales in tightly contested U.S. House districts like the one in Bethlehem, where Republican Rep. Ryan Mackenzie is one of this year’s most vulnerable incumbents.

Midterm elections are always difficult for the party in power in Washington. But interviews with voters around the country show how a war that Trump expected to end with a swift victory could undermine the final years of his presidency.

Many U.S. adults say the war has not been worth fighting

About two-thirds of U.S. adults say the war with Iran has not been worth fighting, according to a July poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That includes the vast majority of Democrats and independents, as well as more than one-third of Republicans.

Although Trump has long criticized Iran’s leadership, he did little to prepare Americans or allies for such a lengthy conflict. Republican President George W. Bush, for instance, spent more than a year making a case for launching a war in Iraq through speeches and attempts to build an international coalition. Trump did none of that.

Trump has refused to acknowledge the war’s cost, saying this month he would “never apologize” for higher prices stemming from it and insisting he did “the right thing” to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. His administration announced new sanctions this week in an attempt to further isolate Tehran.

In Congress, Republicans have shifted from initially cheerleading Trump’s moves in Iran to expressing concern about the toll of the war. But the party has largely unified to block measures that would curb Trump’s war powers and leaders have shown no interest in cutting off money for the war, preferring to portray Democrats as extremists who cannot be trusted to govern.

Democrats who were blamed just two years ago for presiding over high prices see an opportunity to turn the issue back on their opponents. As part of his comeback U.S. Senate bid in Ohio, Sherrod Brown released an ad this week filmed at a gas station as he said “the cost of gas is out of control and we’re the ones paying for it.”

Speaking to a group of older adults recently in a Republican-dominated swath of western Maryland, Democratic U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks blamed higher prices on the war. Heading into November, she encouraged fellow Democrats to stay focused on the war’s impact and what it says about Trump’s leadership.

“We ought to be saying what is obvious, which is our country is heading in the wrong direction,” she said in an interview.

That resonates with voters such as Brandon Bane, a fast-food worker in Bakersfield, California, where Republican Rep. David Valadao is also in a competitive congressional race. Bane, who described himself as a political independent, said he often has to balance paying rent and groceries, noting high gas prices have only added to the challenge.

“It hasn’t been worth it at all,” he said of the war, adding that he plans to vote for Valadao’s challenger, Democrat Randy Villegas.

Melissa Wegman, a Democratic retiree who is also from Bakersfield, said she was shocked when the pump recently whirled to $128 to fill the tank on her SUV.

“I have to manage a budget,” she said.

Some voters are sticking with Republicans

But there is a risk, too, that the war does not provide Democrats with the political boost they are expecting.

While there is plenty of frustration about prices, there are also voters willing to make adjustments without blaming Republicans. Many remain aligned with Trump and are not interested in seeing Democrats return to power.

North Carolina is a top pickup opportunity for Democrats hoping to flip a U.S. Senate seat. But at the State Farmers Market in Raleigh, North Carolina, Lucienda Lowe of Sugarloaf Orchards said her faith in Trump is solid.

“There has to be a reason why they’re over there,” she said. “They wouldn’t be over there doing that if there wasn’t something more going on than what we’re seeing.”

She has not raised her prices on apples even as fuel and fertilizer costs soar. Her family has been farming since 1846 so she feels resilient to weather the next rough patch and tells others to do the same.

“Suck it up, buttercup,” she said.

Similarly in Iowa, where Democrats are bullish on their prospects of flipping everything from a U.S. Senate seat and the governor’s mansion to several U.S. House races, Larry Cole said higher gas prices as a result of the war are just the “nature of the beast.”

The 66-year-old Republican service manager from Perry, Iowa, said he will back Republicans in this midterm elections and does not want to see Democrats gain control in either chamber. He said Trump has taken action that other presidents were not willing to do to keep Iran in check.

Trump “hit them where they need to be hit,” Cole said.

Mark Duffy, 65, of Scottsdale, Arizona, said he did not expect the Iran war to go on as long as it has, but it has not had material effects on his life.

“I didn’t think it would go this long,” said Duffy, who retired a year ago from his career selling electronic components. “I don’t think anybody did, but now the next wave is the economic sanctions, so we’ll see if that works and maybe that is a way for other people to join.”

For others, the war has only reinforced a sense that neither political party is responsive to the needs of voters.

As he left a tattoo parlor in Ashland, Virginia, 26-year-old Evan Mise said he feels the increase in gas prices and worries about whether his mom will be able to retire or whether he will someday be able to.

But he had not decided whether to support Democrats or Republicans in November.

“I feel like our government is pretty corrupt through and through,” he said. “It’s kind of just a sit-back-and-watch thing. And I think my generation especially feels helpless.”

Catalini and Sloan write for the Associated Press. Sloan reported from Washington. AP writers Allen G. Breed in Raleigh, N.C., Michael R. Blood in Bakersfield, Sarah Rankin in Ashland, Va., Jonathan J. Cooper in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

THURSDAY’S RESULTS

City Section
Bell 6, Maywood CES 0
GALA 7, Foshay 6

Southern Section
Camarillo 19, Ventura 7
Canyon Country Canyon 33, Saugus 6
Capistrano Valley 7, Segerstrom 6
Compton 35, Hawthorne 0
Eastside 47, Rosamond 0
El Segundo 13, West Torrance 0
Hart 34, Valencia 0
Hueneme 63, Del Sol 0
Irvine 13, Dana Hills 6
Mira Costa 35, Santa Monica 12
North Torrance 37, Peninsula 7
Oaks Christian 19, Simi Valley 13
Orange Lutheran 34, Trabuco Hills 0
San Marcos 36, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 6
Santa Margarita 19, Edison 13
South Torrance 39, Wiseburn-Da Vinci 0
Thousand Oaks 21, St. Bonaventure 6
Torrance 20, Carson 19
Westlake 24, Oxnard 13
Woodbridge 40, Beckman 27

Intersectional
Agoura 28, Cleveland 0
North County San Marcos 41, San Clemente 13
Torrance 20, Carson 19

WEDNESDAY’S RESULTS

City Section
Los Angeles Roosevelt 18, Elizabeth 0
Narbonne 30, Maywood CES 0

Southern Section
Agoura 32, Royal 13
Alhambra 19, El Rancho 18
Aliso Niguel 19, Dana Hills 0
Anaheim Canyon 21, La Habra 13
Antelope Valley 73, Rosamond 0
Ayala 30, Laguna Beach 7
Azusa 27, Mountain View 6
Baldwin Park 48, El Monte 14
Beaumont 36, Palm Desert 0
Bell Gardens 20, Hawthorne 6
Bishop Amat 36, Montebello 6
Bonita 52, Rancho Cucamonga 0
California 20, Bellflower 0
Cathedral City 16, Desert Hot Springs 15
Cerritos 13, Villa Park 6
Cerritos Valley Christian 41, Oxford Academy 0
Chino 21, Charter Oak 14
Colony 25, La Mirada 0
Compton 25, Compton Centennial 0
Compton Early College 12, Dominguez 0
Corona Centennial 26, Murrieta Mesa 0
Corona del Mar 20, Huntington Beach 18
Corona Santiago 27, El Modena 12
Covina 28, Schurr 0
Crean Lutheran 7, Segerstrom 6
Cypress 15, Lakewood 0
Downey 37, Mayfair 6
Estancia 7, Costa Mesa 6
Fullerton 36, Laguna Hills 19
Irvine University 21, San Juan Hills 12
La Canada 18, Village Christian 13
La Serna 32, St. Paul 9
Loara 32, Saddleback 20
Long Beach Cabrillo 26, Whitney 8
Long Beach Wilson 47, Paramount 0
Los Alamitos 13, Fountain Valley 12
Newbury Park 33, Buena 0
Newport Beach Pacifica Christian 46, Capistrano Valley Christian 6
Newport Harbor 25, Edison 6
Northview 27, Pasadena Poly 0
Ocean View 16, Glenn 13
Ontario Christian 34, Pomona 0
Oxnard Pacifica 18, Fillmore 7
Palm Springs 6, Xavier Prep 0
Placentia Valencia 24, Garden Grove 12
Riverside Poly 13, Arlington 6
San Gorgonio 15, Arroyo Valley 0
San Marino 24, Ramona Convent 6
Sierra Canyon 40, Harvard-Westlake 6
Sonora 33, Brea Olinda 6
South El Monte 32, La Puente 7
St. Margaret’s 34, Buena Park 0
Sunny Hills 40, Long Beach Jordan 0
Tesoro 30, Foothill 19
Warren 32, Gahr 0
West Covina 19, Montclair 0

Intersectional
Bishop Montgomery 13, King/Drew 12
JSerra 52, Torrey Pines 26
Southwest EC 40, La Quinta 6

Aug. 27 (UPI) — The National Weather Service named Tropical Storm Dolly on Thursday, as it makes its way across the Atlantic Ocean toward the eastern Caribbean.

Dolly was located about 1,315 miles east of the Leeward Islands, which include the Virgin Islands, St. Martin and several others, the National Hurricane Center said in its 11 p.m. AST update.

The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was moving west at a blistering 23 mph.

The NHC said Dolly should continue moving westward for the next couple of days over the central Atlantic and be nearing the Leeward Islands over the weekend.

“Although it will encounter warmer ocean waters, Dolly is likely to move into less favorable atmospheric conditions during the next couple of days,” the NHC said. “Some slight short-term strengthening is possible, but increasing vertical wind shear, relatively dry air and the fast forward motion of the system should begin to adversely affect Dolly fairly soon.”

It is forecast to be a post-tropical storm within 48 hours.

Heavy rain from Dolly could begin to affect the Leeward Islands late Saturday into Sunday, and the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola Sunday and Monday. The heavy rain may produce flash flooding, especially in areas of higher terrain, the NHC reported.

The name Dolly was chosen in advance and not as a tribute to the late Dolly Parton, who died on Tuesday.

“The timing of the use of the name Dolly for this storm is purely coincidental,” the NHC said.

The Iran war is settling into attrition, with no regime collapse and Gulf economies facing growing uncertainty

Analysts broadly agree the United States and Israel’s war on Iran will not see regime collapse in Tehran or a definite victory for Washington, but rather a dragged-out affair of stagnation and attrition.

The hope among the US leadership at the start of the war, which began after surprise Israeli and US attacks on February 28, was that mounting economic and military pressure on Iran would force a structural shift in Tehran. Six months on, it is clear this vision will not come about, and instead many are preparing for a protracted war and managed fallout.

Oil-dependent economies are still absorbing supply shocks after traffic in the Strait of Hormuz slowed to a trickle of pre-war levels following Iran’s attacks on shipping and a US blockade on Iranian ports.

The US military is still entrenched in a region that remains its most militarised in years. Although the war’s intensity has lessened since a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Washington and Tehran in June, there is no sign it will conclude, leading to continued uncertainty about the future.

Existing tensions, such as those between the Houthi rebels and Saudi Arabia in Yemen, look only set to increase as the war drags on. The influence of rival powers, such as those of India and China, remains stalled rather than stopped, with Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative having already established itself within the Middle East and North Africa. All in all, the region remains in flux where formal alliances with outside powers no longer guarantee safety.

The defence agreement between Turkiye, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia recently signed in Mecca will likely be the first of many such military pacts agreed in the region.

“The war has just accelerated trends, but hasn’t really started anything that wasn’t already under way. The Gulf countries were already diversifying their economies,” Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, told Al Jazeera. “Many were already looking at broadening their defence partnerships beyond existing US security guarantees, as well as increasing their own defence capability.”

Israel, for its part, is still pursuing its regional project of “paramountcy”, HA Hellyer of the Royal United Services Institute said, despite its failure to bring Iran to its knees this year.

“There is no chance of the government in Tehran falling in the next six months,” Hellyer told Al Jazeera. “If everything were to theoretically stay the same … with just increased economic pressure, that could eventually cause a ripple effect that could lead to state collapse in Iran. But we’re talking years, not months, and everything is not likely to stay the same.”

The effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and strikes on regional cities have hindered Gulf states’ plans to use oil revenues as an engine to diversify their economies and build on their reputations as a safe haven to encourage investors.

Shipments of oil, derivative products and liquefied natural gas (LNG) have been repeatedly and severely disrupted since the US and Israel launched their attacks on Iran in February.

Transit through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which saw attacks on shipping by the Houthis during Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, became even more hazardous in July, when the Iran-allied Houthis declared a naval blockade of Saudi Arabia.

“The price of oil has increased broadly in line with the Gulf states’ difficulties in exporting it,” John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Gulf Research Center, told Al Jazeera. “Is this going to go for six months? Is it going to go on for longer?”

Exacerbating the Gulf states’ difficulties is that, although the price of oil has risen, so has inflation. In addition to the economic difficulties the war has created, there is also growing pressure for Gulf states to invest more in defence.

For now, the majority of the states caught in the middle will look at ways of living with the turmoil and managing the consequences.

Famous for its walls bearing scribbles and sketches left behind by patrons for over 60 years, El Batey, a bar in Old San Juan, is a Puerto Rican institution serving locals and tourists alike.

It was inside this famed establishment that filmmakers Lorraine Jones Molina and Cristian Carretero first met one night back in 2008. Since then, the two have joined forces in both life and art; they are a married couple, as well as parents and close collaborators on film projects.

Their first feature, “Esta Isla,” which is now available on VOD, made history as the first Puerto Rican film to win at the Independent Spirit Awards in February, taking home the John Cassavetes Award honoring a production made for under $1 million. At the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, it received three prizes, including best new narrative director.

A politically charged, coming-of-age road-trip movie, “Esta Isla” follows Bebo (Zion Ortiz), a young man from the “caserios,” or projects, and Lola (Fabiola Victoria Brown), a well-off girl unhappy in her bubble of privilege. Violence forces Bebo to run away to the mountains. Lola tags along and together they come across a series of people who expand their worldview.

There’s a grounded, earthy lyricism to the images captured in “Esta Isla” that show a Puerto Rico that’s at once lush and entrancing but also undiscovered and unseen in cinema.

Fabiola Brown, pictured above, plays “Lola” in the new Puerto Rican film “Esta Isla.”

(Experimento Ludico)

Key to their professional success thus far, the filmmakers believe, is their loving personal bond. “We’re always together and talking about ideas. When we were working on ‘Esta Isla,’ it helped a lot to really dig deep and have long conversations about certain details and topics,” Carretero says during a recent video call. “We do mostly everything ourselves, just me and Lorrie. Sometimes I do camera, Lorrie does sound. We keep it pretty small.”

In 2010, Carretero and Jones Molina founded the production company called Experimento Lúdico in the western town of Mayagüez with the intent of decentralizing production on the island. Most opportunities for filmmaking are still based in the San Juan metropolitan area.

“I’m from Arecibo, from the north, and Cristian is from here, from Mayagüez. That’s part of who we are, and we want to tell these stories from here. It’s part of resisting. It feels like somebody has to do this,” Jones Molina says with a laugh, while sitting next to Carretero.

Lorraine Jones Molina and Cristian Carretero are the filmmakers behind the Puerto Rican road trip movie “Esta Isla.”

(Experimento Ludico)

When Carretero and Jones Molina first met, it was the documentary scene that sustained Puerto Rican cinema because those stories could be told with fewer resources. Karen Rossi’s 2007 environmentalist doc “Isla Chatarra,” for example, inspired Jones Molina.

She and Carretero later directed the 2016 medium-length doc “Seeds, Chronicles of the Earth,” about GMO experimentation on the island.

Most of the fiction production on the island then pertained to Hollywood films, such as “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” (2011). In the 2010s, however, a string of fiction films, including Ari Maniel Cruz’s “Under My Nails” (2012) and “Before a Rooster Crows” (2016) and Ángel Manuel Soto’s “La Granja” (2015), pushed local storytelling forward.

And while those movies, just like “Esta Isla,” don’t address the socioeconomic issues facing Puerto Ricans didactically, their mere existence is in itself a statement. “Making Puerto Rican films in Puerto Rico is political,” says Jones Molina. “Talking about who we are, our identity, our culture, our history and saying that we are here and we exist is political.”

Residents in San Juan are currently experiencing a water crisis, and while the scarcity hasn’t directly affected Jones Molina and Carretero in Mayagüez, this problem is not new and has only turned more urgent in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

That’s why they deliberately wrote a scene in “Esta Isla” showing people getting water from a water truck.

“It’s crazy that we filmed that a couple of years ago to talk about that issue, and it’s just gotten worse,” says Carretero. “Now we have a drought, and you have to have water rationing. It’s something that is reflective of a bigger problem in the island: the neglect of the most important needs of the citizens.”

Puerto Rico’s status as a colony of the U.S., where the interests of corporations supersede the well-being of the local population, is the source of many of its challenges. And for a long time, even referring to Puerto Rico as a colony was taboo. A history of persecution on behalf of the U.S. government ingrained fear in Puerto Ricans.

“The FBI would keep ‘carpetas,’ or files with information on regular people, who were suspected of organizing or fighting for independence,” Carretero says. “People were being surveilled by the FBI, and they’d pay family members or people they knew to survey them.”

“Esta Isla” touches on the troubled relationship between Puerto Rico and the U.S. via Lola’s deceased father, who is a stand-in for Filiberto Ojeda Ríos, a Puerto Rican revolutionary and leader of the pro-independence militant group Los Macheteros. After years on the run, the FBI assassinated him in 2005. In the film, the character Cora (Teofilo Torres) lives in the mountains and works the land. The location used for his house carries great significance.

“The inside shots, with the bullet holes, and the windows, and the books, all of that is from Filiberto’s actual house where he was assassinated,” says Jones Molina. “When you go there, you see all those bullet holes; it’s heavy.”

To that, Carretero adds: “There’s an inferiority complex that the colony perpetuates, which has to do with not knowing where you come from. Once you know all these names and all the stories of women and men who’ve worked for the good of Puerto Rican people, here and in the States, it opens up this whole other space for inspiration that’s from our ancestors”

Carretero and Jones Molina found the core concept for “Esta Isla” on the first page of Octavio Paz’s seminal novel “The Labyrinth of Solitude,” where the Mexican author discusses adolescence as a moment in a person’s life where they open up to the world, while at the same time noting that societies themselves also go through a coming-of-age.

Zion Ortiz, pictured above, plays “Bebo” in the new Puerto Rican film “Esta Isla.”

(Experimento Ludico)

“Puerto Rico is still an evolving organism. It’s a country, a people and a culture still evolving,” Carretero explains. “We’re still trying to understand who we are and where we’re going. Are we a country? Are we not? Are we part of the U.S., or not? Are we Americanos, or somos latinoamericanos? Tantas preguntas that are still unresolved.”

Jones Molina continues: “There’s this idea that you have to just be grateful that you’re a part of the United States and don’t complain. But when you question that, and when you want to really look at why you love and care about your country and your culture and want to educate yourself, then you’re definitely going through this kind of coming-of-age.”

For this filmmaking couple, reaching maturity as artists forged in the complex context of a modern colony hinges on acknowledging their limitations and still persevering.

“We also wanted to show that you can make films with very little; you don’t have to wait for the perfect moment or all the different resources. That’s what we call tropical realism. Not only the style of the filmmaking, but it’s also the means, and how that matches your reality,” explains Carretero. “We cannot pretend to be something that we are not. We have to develop our own language, our own way of filming, our way of telling our stories.”

BEIRUT — Iran’s economy, already strained by high inflation, years of Western sanctions and a war that has sharply reduced oil revenue, is poised for more instability as the Trump administration tries to coerce other countries into ending all financial dealings with the Islamic Republic.

A decision by the United Arab Emirates to suspend trade relations with Iran last week kick-started the White House’s latest attempt to isolate Tehran into submission. Iran entered the war with its foreign commerce concentrated among a relatively small group of countries, leaving it with fewer places to turn now.

The success of the U.S. strategy largely will hinge on China, the main buyer of Iranian oil and its top trading partner. Russia, a fellow target of sweeping U.S.-led sanctions, has a military conflict and economic crisis of its own and probably can’t offer longtime ally Iran much hard financial support.

Regional partners like Turkey, Pakistan and Iraq maintain important relationships with both Iran and the U.S., giving them reason to avoid exposure to the secondary sanctions that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said awaited nations that did not cut economic ties with Iran.

“Those who stand with the United States will reap the rewards of our partnership,” Bessent said Monday while outlining the plan he called “Operation Economic Outcast.” “Those who tether themselves to the Iranian regime should expect to share in the isolation.”

The Emirates will be hard for Iran to replace as a conduit for foreign goods and payments

Despite Western sanctions, Iran in 2024 exchanged $125 billion worth of goods globally, according to Trade Data Monitor, a private firm. Iran is not a member of the World Trade Organization.

The bulk of its declared international trade, though, was with a handful of partners. The UAE, China and Turkey supplied nearly three-quarters of Iran’s merchandise imports. Four countries — China, Iraq, the UAE and Turkey — accounted for more than two-thirds of its non-oil exports.

On the supply side, the UAE held outsized importance. It was Iran’s biggest source of imported items and a gateway to financial channels that helped Iranian businesses make and receive international payments. Both roles kept Iran connected to the global economy.

As a reexport hub, the UAE processed shipments from foreign suppliers reluctant to deal directly with Iranian customers.

“From Iran’s perspective, the UAE can be replaced, but the Iranians are openly saying it’s not going to happen overnight,” said Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington.

China has deep economic ties to Iran but depends less on the relationship

Beijing has economic interests in the Persian Gulf beyond Iran, and so far has avoided getting drawn into the conflict the U.S. and Israel initiated. China buys the overwhelming majority of Iran’s crude through opaque trading networks that bypass sanctions.

Its manufacturing clout and stranglehold on critical mineral supplies nonetheless give Beijing more room than Iran’s other partners to resist U.S. pressure, said David Lubin, a senior research fellow at Chatham House. Aggressive action against major Chinese banks and businesses could revive trade tensions as Chinese leader Xi Jinping prepares to meet with President Trump in Washington next month.

“I don’t see China playing ball by any means,” Lubin said.

China is both Iran’s largest reported export market and a supplier of essential parts and products, according to WTO and United Nations data.

During the Obama administration, Beijing did agree to reduce energy imports from Iran, said Atlantic Council fellow Daniel Fried, a former U.S. ambassador to Poland.

“We will want the Chinese to go a lot farther than they have gone in the past,” Fried said. “But it’s a lot harder now.”

China has experience helping an ally survive sanctions: It has long been North Korea’s economic lifeline and main diplomatic backer. Experts say China has avoided fully enforcing U.N. sanctions on North Korea and sent clandestine aid to help its impoverished neighbor stay afloat.

Expanding bilateral trade would create problems for Iran’s neighbors

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who has been his country’s lead negotiator over the last six months, was in Iraq the day of the UAE’s trade suspension. A purpose of his visit, he said, was “speeding up efforts to expand joint cooperation among all countries in the region, without foreign interference.”

The U.S. dollar’s preeminence in international trade and finance, however, means none of Iran’s trading partners would antagonize Washington lightly, Vatanka said. “We’re still at a point where if the U.S. wants to hurt you, it will matter,” he said.

Underscoring potential consequences, Turkey settled a years-long U.S. dispute in July over the role of a state-owned bank in helping Iran evade sanctions through an oil-for-gold scheme. Trump also moved to lift sanctions on its fellow NATO member stemming from Turkey’s purchase of a sophisticated Russian missile system.

“I really don’t think Turkey would like to become the next country helping Iran to evade sanctions right now,” said Riccardo Gasco, an analyst at the IstanPol think tank in Istanbul.

Iran is a vital import source for Iraq and retains influence there through allied political factions and armed groups. Baghdad has sought closer economic and security ties with Washington. Since it invaded Iraq in 2003, the U.S. has significant control over the nation’s foreign currency reserves because they are housed in the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.

Oman, a frequent intermediary between Washington and Tehran, has found its balancing act suddenly precarious. Trump threatened Oman last week over its ongoing negotiations with Iran on the future management of the Strait of Hormuz.

One easy route for goods slipping past sanctions on Iran would be ports like Gwadar near the Persian Gulf in Pakistan, said Peter Harrell, a visiting scholar at Georgetown University.

“Ship an intermodal container of drone parts to one of the ports in western Pakistan and unload it onto a truck and have it driven across the border into Iran,” he said.

While Pakistan, a key ally and economic partner of China in the region, wants to increase trade with Iran, it faces competing pressures. It is serving as a key mediator between Tehran and Washington and has deep security ties with Saudi Arabia, Iran’s longtime regional rival.

Caspian Sea trade route alternatives unlikely to grow quickly

With the Strait of Hormuz mostly blocked and Russia’s war with Ukraine endangering ships on the Black Sea, Iran has sought to develop a “road of life” on the Caspian Sea, said Nikita Smagin, an independent analyst and a former Russian state news agency correspondent in Tehran.

Russia reportedly sent drones to Iran this year, repaying Tehran’s favor after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It also rerouted exports to Iran via Caspian Sea ports like Astrakhan. Agricultural products make up 80% of Russia and Iran’s reported trade.

“Both economies are exporting natural resources and have little to offer each other,” Smagin said.

The other countries that border the Caspian — Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan — probably won’t rush to join in, said Umud Shokri, a fellow at George Mason University.

Yet Russia and Iran are already in an “axis of the sanctioned,” said Mark Galeotti, executive director of the Mayak Intelligence firm. For decades the pair have collaborated to thwart trade restrictions, and increasing bilateral trade in both “strategic goods” and contraband like military technology, microchips and Gucci handbags could be a next step.

“Pomegranates and tomatoes only go so far,” he said.

Chehayeb and McNeil write for the Associated Press. McNeil reported from Brussels. AP writers Amir Vahdat in Tehran and Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

Peter Cullen, the voice actor whose regal timbre as the heroic Optimus Prime in the “Transformers” franchise and deep tone as the gloomy Eeyore in “Winnie the Pooh” projects who was beloved by generations, has died. He was 85.

Cullen died Wednesday in his Los Angeles home, his agent Kevin Motley confirmed to The Times on Thursday. A cause of death was not given.

He “passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family — and held in the hearts of his many friends and countless fans worldwide,” his family said in a statement. They ask “that you honor his remarkable legacy by serving your communities and leading others with compassion, integrity, and loyalty and always remember ‘be strong enough to be gentle.’ ”

A prolific voice actor whose work spanned television shows, movies, video games and even theme park rides, Cullen amassed more than 200 credits over his career. This includes the eponymous giant ape in the 1976 remake of “King Kong,” the villainous vehicle KARR (Knight Automated Roving Robot) in the “Knight Rider” TV series and the clicks and trills of the deadly alien hunter in the original “Predator” film.

But Cullen is best known for his work in animation and children’s cartoons in the 1980s and ‘90s.

His signature role was Optimus Prime, the leader of a heroic faction of sentient alien robots known as Autobots who battle the villainous Decepticons in the “Transformers” franchise. Cullen often spoke about how his voice for the leader — who transforms into a truck — was inspired by his older brother, Larry, a Marine who had served in Vietnam.

On the day of his “Transformers” audition, Cullen had mentioned to Larry, his roommate at the time, that he was on his way to try out to be the voice of “a hero truck.”

Larry responded, “Well, if you’re gonna be a hero, be a real hero. Don’t be a jerk … Be strong enough to be gentle. Be understanding. Be compassionate, and be able to kick ass — in a good way,” Cullen previously told The Times.

“He said it in a voice that was subdued and calm,” Cullen continued. “He’s 13 months older and 6 inches taller. Made of steel. He was my hero. [His words] weighed heavily on me. So I’m at the audition reading the breakdown of the character and what I have to say in the audition. I can just feel Larry’s words coming out of my mouth. So, I took his sound — my first words were, ‘My name is Optimus Prime.’ ”

“Transformers” voice actors Peter Cullen, left, and Frank Welker at the 2024 Comic-Con Fan Expo in Rosemont, Ill.

(Rob Grabowski / Invision/Associated Press)

Cullen originated the role in the 1980s animated “Transformers” series, referred to by fans as “G1” or “Generation 1.” The era also includes the big-screen “The Transformers: The Movie” (1986), which featured the beloved character’s controversial death, but the character eventually returned after fan outcry.

When “Transformers” jumped to live action in Michael Bay’s 2007 film, Cullen was once again tapped to voice Optimus Prime. He continued through the follow-up films, including “Revenge of the Fallen” (2009), “Dark of the Moon” (2011), “Age of Extinction” (2014) and “The Last Knight” (2017), as well as the 2018 prequel “Bumblebee” and “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” (2023).

He told NPR that returning to play Optimus Prime in these films was “like slipping into an old pair of shoes that you hid in the back of your closet.”

Cullen was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for his work as Optimus Prime in the TV series “Transformers: Prime” in 2011 and won a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Children’s and Family Emmy Awards in 2023.

Peter Claver Cullen was born on July 28, 1941, in Montreal, to American parents Henry and Muriel Cullen. One of four children, he graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1963. He later did Shakespeare for a summer in Stratford, Ontario, before working for a year at the Crest Theatre in Toronto as a member of the repertory company, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

He told NPR he discovered his talent for doing different voices while working on a farm as a child and imitating animals.

Besides Optimus Prime, one of Cullen’s favorite roles was Eeyore, the endearing but pessimistic donkey from “Winnie the Pooh.” Cullen first voiced the character in “The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” series, which aired from 1988–1991. He continued his work as Eeyore through numerous franchise installments, including “The Tigger Movie” (2000), “Piglet’s Big Movie” (2003) and “The Book of Pooh” series.

“I enjoyed doing Eeyore because he was simply charming,” Cullen said to NPR. “And I get an awful lot of reactions from, especially, young kids, when I go up and just say [in Eeyore’s voice], ‘Hello. Thanks for noticing me.’ And to see their faces light up, that to me is one of the great joys.”

Cullen is survived by his four children, Angus, Claire, Pilar and Clay, according to the Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday he is renaming Lake Ontario to be known as “Lake America” in the United States as he exacerbates his trade war with Canada.

The Republican president signed an executive order directing the Interior Department to update the lake’s name in the U.S. geographic naming service. Trump cannot force Canada to follow his preferred naming convention, however.

Trump has been floating the idea of the name change in recent days as the U.S. announced it was imposing 50% tariffs on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods over the weekend after talks between the countries broke down. Trump has been needling America’s northern neighbor since he returned to the White House last year, suggesting the ally with whom the U.S. once had warm relations instead should be absorbed as the 51st state.

Canada responded to Trump’s import taxes this week by imposing retaliatory tariffs on $20 billion worth of American goods, including steel, dairy products, appliances and farm equipment.

Trump, who signed the order as he was sitting at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, had a large sign behind him propped on a stand with a map of the Great Lakes. Over Lake Ontario, in big red letters, the map read “Lake America.”

On the other side of the president was another map with the words, “MAKING THE GREAT LAKES EVEN GREATER.”

The lake is one of multiple Great Lakes that the U.S. and Canada share borders along.

The office of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There is no single international body that determines names of international bodies of water, and Trump has wide latitude over how the U.S. government recognizes geographic places and landmarks.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who has traded insults with Trump, this week brushed aside the prospect of Trump changing the lake’s name as “a lot of rhetoric.”

The name Lake Ontario comes from the Huron Indigenous people’s word “oniatarí:io,” that means “lake of shining waters.” The province of Ontario, founded in 1867, took its name from the lake.

Trump said that while his action was not meant to send any particular geopolitical message, “Canada’s been ripping us off for a long time” on trade and military issues.

“They wanted to be treated like a state and they’re not a state,” the president said. “We just can’t do that anymore.”

“We love the people of Canada,” Trump added. “I don’t think their representatives do an appropriate job. Maybe they’ll change. I really don’t know. It doesn’t make much difference.”

The move is reminiscent of his move last year to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.”

Trump scribbled his name with a Sharpie pen on the executive order, then held it up for the cameras, offering, “And we filed all the necessary papers, documents, everything else.”

“We’ve notified all of the various people that we have to notify. So, we’ve done everything that you have to do,” he said. “And this is official, effective immediately.”

The executive order Trump signed shows that the changes, in fact, are supposed to be made within 30 days.

He also suggested his push to rename bodies of water may not be finished.

“So, if you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now, all we need is an ocean,” Trump said. “So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them.”

Price and Weissert write for the Associated Press. AP writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this report.

Argentina midfielder Exequiel Palacios has become the first World Cup winner to sign for Ipswich Town after joining from Bayer Leverkusen.

Palacios, 27, left the Bundesliga club for an undisclosed fee and has signed a four-year contract with the Premier League newcomers.

He was part of the Argentina side that both won the World Cup in 2022 and reached the final this summer while he also won the Copa America twice with his country.

“This is a club with great ambition and I am excited to play football in England and compete against some of the best clubs and players in the world,” Palacios said.

Palacios, Ipswich’s 11th signing of the transfer window, started Argentina’s 3-1 win against World Cup debutants Jordan in the group stage in his only appearance at the 2026 tournament.

Ipswich manager Gary O’Neil added: “He is a player who has had real success at the top level of the game, winning the biggest prize of all in the World Cup, as well as major trophies at club level.

“That experience will be vital for us as we continue to work to improve the squad this summer.”

Trials for a vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain are ongoing, as DRC authorities try to control the Ebola outbreak.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has begun vaccinating people against Ebola, with health workers and other front-line workers being prioritised.

However, the vaccine being distributed this week is licensed for another strain, and its effectiveness against the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola has not been determined.

There is currently no approved vaccine or treatment for the new strain, and clinical trials are ongoing to find a suitable vaccine for the Bundibugyo strain.

The first injections are being given to health workers in the Congolese city of Kisangani.

More than 50,000 doses of the vaccine have been received, according to the Congolese health minister, Samuel Roger Kamba.

The outbreak is concentrated in the Ituri province, which borders Uganda.

Kamba said: “We will cover all the provinces that are around Ituri, moving in the ring towards the centre of the outbreak.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) said last week that 70,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine had been approved for use in the DRC.

About 20,000 of the doses allocated to the DRC will be used in a clinical trial to test its effectiveness against the latest strain. Health workers are calling for more doses.

As of Tuesday, the DRC had recorded 5,713 confirmed cases of Ebola, including 2,744 deaths, according to government figures. The outbreak is the deadliest of all past Ebola outbreaks that have hit the DRC.

The outbreak is spreading under extremely difficult conditions, fuelled by insecurity, displacement, a health workers’ strike and intense population movements.

The WHO has said it remains out of control and is on track to surpass the 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola outbreak, the deadliest on record, which killed more than 11,000 people, primarily in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Venezuelan popular artist Luis Mariano Rivera was born on August 19, 1906. His music is a tribute to life and a commitment to his community’s identity and cultural sovereignty. Rivera’s works remind us that when a people sow their land and tell their stories, they become resistant to oppression and invincible against foreign domination.

A brief and affectionate profile

In the fertile and sunny lands of eastern Venezuela, specifically in the lush village of Canchunchú in Bermúdez Municipality, Sucre State, Luis Mariano Rivera was born on August 19, 1906, 120 years ago. His life was shaped by the rural realities of this area, which combined the abundance of nature with the profound inequalities of a latifundista-dominated agrarian economy.

His childhood was marked by early orphanhood and farm labor. Far from leading to resentment or resignation, this experience shaped in Rivera a loving and vital sensibility that allowed him to dismantle traditional notions of property and patriarchal-landowner hierarchy, enabling him to identify with the land, plants, and animals that surrounded him. This connection to the land enriched his imagination, and his extended family ultimately came to encompass the entire territory.

Rivera’s creative work blossomed after he turned 48. A self-taught musician, poet, and playwright, he composed his first verses using the Venezuelan four-stringed cuatro guitar as his primary instrument. His artistic output became an act of defiance that placed elements dismissed by the dominant culture at the center of Venezuelan poetry: local biodiversity, manual labor, trees, fruits, and wildlife.

Through his popular theater plays and musical compositions, Rivera portrayed a cosmogony in which nature is not merely a resource to be exploited, but a subject with rights to be loved and respected.

Although he never joined any political party nor sought public office, his approach to life and art constitutes a profound political statement. In a Caribbean and Venezuelan context where the neocolonial oil rentier model displaced agricultural production and fueled the exodus from the countryside to the city, Rivera’s insistence on staying in Canchunchú and singing about rural life was a clear act of resistance.

His politics were rooted in pacifism, fraternity, and love for the land. In the face of the metastasizing commodification of life, he prioritized the ethics of care, respect for natural cycles, and community solidarity. Various artists of national and international renown, including Alí Primera, Lilia Vera, Cecilia Todd, Soledad Bravo, Gualberto Ibarreto, and Morella Muñoz, performed his songs, transforming his local message into a banner of continental identity. Alí Primera, in particular, saw Rivera as a beacon of popular dignity, celebrating his ability to transform everyday rural life into revolutionary and loving poetry.

Luis Mariano Rivera passed away on March 15, 2002, in Carúpano, Sucre State, at the age of 95, after nearly a century devoted to cultivating the poetry of life, simplicity, and affection. His legacy is recognized as a symbol of the musical identity that flows directly from the harmonious relationship with the land and the wisdom of the people.

Sound, memory, and collective identity

In many of the ancestral cultures of Abya Yala, sound is part of the creation myth of the women and men who originally inhabited these territories. For all of humanity, sounds have played an important role in the formation of identities. Languages and music stem from this very relationship and our need to connect, to name ourselves, and to determine our own destinies.

Every landscape has its own sonority. In other words, a set of sounds that form its geohistory. This includes our ways of speaking and our music, but also the sounds of the wind, the rain, the sea, the river, birds, insects. In short, all the sounds of life expressing itself, as well as the sounds of human inventions that are now part of our daily lives.

Within this spectrum, there are human beings who manage to connect the sounds of past, present, and future memories to bequeath a sonic identity that transcends the purely artistic realm, becoming the very landscape narrated in their poetry. Luis Mariano Rivera is an example of this transcendental audacity to place oneself beyond time with a unique music.

At the age of 48, driven by the desire to express himself without relying on others to write his letters and thoughts, he taught himself to read and write. Already in his mature years, he began composing verses, parrandas, merengues, and eastern joropos through which he paid tribute to the flora, fauna, and everyday life of his village.

Rivera’s remarkable sensitivity stems from his direct observation of the countryside. His lyrics preserve idioms, sayings, and oral expressions from eastern Venezuela that would otherwise have been lost. Long before the rise of globalized environmental movements, his songs already championed the balance between humans, wildlife, and flora from a local, community-based, and decolonizing perspective. Rivera’s legacy transcends mere musical composition; he represents a defense of communal life and a living example of how it is possible to reclaim one’s own history to create sounds that cement collective identity.

For him, Canchunchú was not merely a geographical reference point, but the center of the world. By singing about his village and embracing rural daily life as a symbol of belonging with a claim to universality, he created an affective geohistory that recognized the dignity of life as equivalent to that of the cherry, the guácara [snail], and the mango. He showed to his community that their own reality is worthy of being celebrated and sung about. As such, his work did not stem from ego. It was born out of the village’s celebrations and gatherings, and like collective knowledge, it has no other purpose than enjoyment and the strengthening of collective unity.

Singing honestly about one’s own village, honoring the vernacular of one’s community without resorting to artificial language, taught us a sense of pride in our ways of feeling, understanding, and reasoning. 

Rivera’s music, paraphrasing Alí Primera, grounds us in our own land, with the profound simplicity of one who surrenders to the magnitude of the surrounding beauty. His deep connection to his native Canchunchú never served as chauvinistic isolation or picturesque folklorism. Rather, it was a gateway to the human condition prior to the violent irruption of Western capitalist modernity, with its imposition of individuality, the commodification of nature, and linear progress, at the expense of communal memory. Rivera’s work operates in the opposite direction: it reconnects with an organic body of knowledge that does not require academia to be legitimate, because it is engraved in the lived collective experience.

It is no secret to anyone that traditional community music, as well as rural poetry, serves as a means of transmitting memory. It is not mere entertainment. Rhythmic patterns, melodic turns, and poetic meter interact with the biological, agricultural, and communal cycles that humankind has cultivated for millennia.

Rivera did not theorize about nature: he embodied it. His philosophy sprang from working the land, from sweat, and from the sounds of the countryside. It is the knowledge transmitted through the body and emotion, that “communal way of life” that predates modernity and remains a reservoir from which to conceive alternatives to capitalism, fascism, imperialism, and Zionism.

True universality does not consist in erasing differences under a single mold with domineering hegemonic pretensions, but rather in reaching our very roots. When we reaffirm the dignity of our communities, we validate the “peripheries” as the center of our own worldviews without the need for external recognition.

Rivera demonstrates that the periphery is a center in and of itself by stripping away the pretensions of colonial modernity. His music taps into the common core of humanity: the wonder of being alive, communal solidarity, and respect for the sacred meaning of life. And this is not a nostalgic gaze toward the past, but rather a reservoir of meaning and hope for the present. It reminds us that beneath the veneer of modernity, the human species remains hardwired to come together, celebrate, and sustain communities.

Finally, Rivera’s production is above all an expression of love. Love toward the full life experience. But when a poet sings about love, it is usually limited to romantic love, or heartbreak in the absence of corresponding feelings. Nevertheless, Rivera did count on a “spiritual companion,” to use his own words: Maximina Marsella, known as La Negra Marsella and whom he affectionately called “la negra,” in what is a very common expression in Venezuela. She was presented as the only woman capable of understanding his silences and his late passion for words. He dedicated many love verses to her, expressing how they shared feelings and devotion for the small things in life and the land.

Writing our own history and cultural sovereignty

The act by which a dispossessed individual reclaims control over the written word is, in essence, an act of sociopolitical liberation. For Luis Mariano Rivera, the decision to learn to read and write on his own as an adult was not merely a matter of functional education or an attempt to conform to bourgeois standards. It represented taking control of his own narrative and a fundamental reaffirmation of his personal and communal sovereignty. In a system dominated by the colonialism of knowledge, where official writing has historically functioned as a mechanism of subordination and administrative control, mastering the alphabet from the campesino perspective means dismantling the monopoly on truth. Rivera lucidly understood that mastering the written code granted him the historical ability to cease being a passive subject, an object of study in folklorism, and become the chronicler and philosopher of his own time. He ceased to be narrated by others and assumed authorship of his territorial memory.

This literacy and poetic endeavor took place against a profoundly adverse historical backdrop. Throughout the twentieth century, Venezuela underwent a traumatic transformation driven by the emergence of the neocolonial oil enclave. Urban modernization advanced aggressively through its ideological and economic strategy of marginalizing the countryside, dismantling traditional community structures, and promoting rural depopulation in favor of slums in the major cities.

The extraction of hydrocarbons by transnational corporations tied to the geopolitical interests of US and European imperialism came alongside an overwhelming wave of cultural propaganda. This ideological penetration sought to impose the American consumerist lifestyle, eroding peasant identity and dismissing local agriculture as synonymous with backwardness and savagery. Venezuela, which was barely emerging from the devastating aftermath of the war of independence and successive nineteenth-century insurrections, revolutions, and civil wars stoked by local elites and foreign capital, saw its food sovereignty and historical memory shaken.

Amid this landscape of alienation, where the country was rapidly transforming into a consumerist, import-dependent enclave, Rivera’s insistence on remaining in his Canchunchú valley and singing about the communal way of life was not a nostalgic or folkloric retreat, but rather a deeply political and assertive affirmation of cultural re-existence.

He sang with such transparent and loving clarity that his powerful message took root in the national collective imagination, ethically reframing the traditions, sufferings, joys, and experiences of campesinos in eastern Venezuela. Against the aesthetics of waste and the logic of neocolonial dispossession, he countered with the ethics of care and the sacredness of everyday life. His compositions served as a mechanism for preserving historical memory: he warned against the collective amnesia regarding the communal way of life driven by the discourse of developmental modernity; he championed food sovereignty in the face of dependence on the globalizing market; he dignified rural labor in the face of urban prejudice, revealing the profound ecological philosophy inherent in popular knowledge. But, moreover, his profound poetic work demonstrates that true national sovereignty is more than just the defense of natural resources or borders. It requires the preservation of the collective soul, the dignity of the living word, and the self-determination of the people’s power.

Luis Mariano Rivera’s life journey teaches us that decolonization is not achieved solely through theoretical confrontation or bellicose rhetoric, but above all through an organic connection to the land and the community. By recognizing himself through his own voice, he prevented imperialist corporations and the oil industry’s maelstrom from erasing the humanity of his surroundings. His music endures as an indestructible testament to cultural sovereignty: living proof that a people who remember their roots, cultivate their land, and tell their own stories become resilient in the face of modern oppressions and invincible against any attempt at external domination.

Fabiola José is a Venezuelan singer. She has performed in countries across South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Her singles and albums are available on all digital platforms. She hosted and produced “Cantante y Sonante” for Radio Nacional de Venezuela. In 2018–2019, she created a series of videos for social media, published on her YouTube channel #HechoEnCasa. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Music from IUDEM, Caracas (2005); specialized under Maestro Tom Krause in Spain (2007); and an M.A. in Arts and Cultures of the South from UNEARTE, Venezuela (2020).

Fidel Barbarito is a Venezuelan musician and researcher, with a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music and history, respectively. He teaches in the undergraduate and graduate programs at the National Experimental University of the Arts (UNEARTE). Together with Fabiola José, he promotes several musical projects aimed at disseminating traditional repertoires, integrating them with contemporary compositions inspired by these sounds. Joropo llanero. Parranda de reexistencia is one of his published essays.

The views expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Eight months have passed since Rob and Michele Reiner were killed and their youngest son was arrested and charged with murder, but the couple’s eldest son still feels he “will never understand why this happened.”

The children of film director Rob Reiner and photographer Michele Reiner mostly have kept mum despite extensive coverage of the brutal stabbings of Dec. 14, 2025.

In a television interview with KABC-TV’s Marc Cota-Robles, Jake Reiner, the eldest son, described the aftermath of the slayings and the arrest of his brother, Nick, as a “living nightmare.”

“Nobody really understands what it’s like to go through something like that until you’re living it,” said Jake, 34. “It’s been eight months. It feels like eight years at the same time. And it also feels like eight minutes because every moment that I wake up, I’m reminded of my reality.”

Jake said he learned the night of their deaths that the Los Angeles Police Department was looking at Nick as a prime suspect. A grand jury indicted Nick last month on murder charges with special allegations of committing multiple murders and lying in wait, making him eligible for life without parole or the death penalty if convicted.

“He’s in jail,” Jake said. “It’s like, I physically lost my parents, and then Nick was arrested. Now it’s just me and Romy, and we have to navigate this by ourselves essentially.”

Asked whether he was surprised that Nick was suspected in the crime, Jake declined to answer. He also declined to discuss his brother’s attempt to use family trust money to fund his legal defense. Instead he discussed the anger he is feeling.

“It manifests into rage, into how unfair this was, how I didn’t get a say in what happened. I didn’t get to stop it from happening. I had no choice in the matter,” Jake said. “I just have to accept the reality of it. And to me, that is just one of the most infuriating parts of all of this.”

He said he learned of his parents’ deaths while attending a celebration of life event for a high school friend at Union Station. His sister, Romy, tried to call him.

“I screened it because I thought, at the time, I’m in the middle of something, you know, I’ll call her back,” he recalled, “and then she called immediately again, and I knew at that point that something was wrong.

“Romy told me our dad was dead, and then she said, ‘I can’t find mom.’ I immediately went into shock.”

Investigators found the body of Rob Reiner in the master bedroom. Michele Reiner subsequently was found in the bedroom area as well.

Romy, 28, has not publicly commented.

Nick’s struggles with addiction and mental health were public knowledge. In 2015, he partnered with his father on the film “Being Charlie,” about a drug-addicted son, which Nick wrote and Rob directed. It was loosely based on Nick’s life.

Jake was no stranger to crime scenes — as a longtime television news reporter he said he witnessed plenty, but nothing could have prepared him for his parents’ home that night.

“As a reporter, I did it for 10 years; I came up on crime scenes all the time,” he said. “But when it’s your crime scene, a crime scene at your childhood home, it’s like the most surreal thing I’ve ever seen.”

Nick has pleaded not guilty. A pretrial hearing is slated for Sept. 15, a day after his 33rd birthday.

“I’ll never understand. I don’t care how it’s explained to me. I don’t care what facts come out, ” Jake said. “My parents had unconditional love for all three of us. I can tell you they never stopped wanting to help him. They never stopped helping him.”

Jake and Romy made their first public appearance together since the tragedy on Aug. 2 at Dodger Stadium, where they took part in the ceremonial first pitch. Dodger Stadium meant a great deal to their father.

“One of the great pleasures I have is walking into Dodger Stadium. It’s like I feel at peace,” Rob Reiner once said.

“He had season tickets for the Dodgers,” Jake said, “and we would go anywhere from three to four games a week, and it was just the greatest time with him.

“It was an emotional thing that we did. I don’t know if I really could take in the moment, because everything happened kind of fast, but I was really happy that we got to do that.”

The provided text serves as a comprehensive news digest focused on the Independence Day of Moldova while touching upon broader geopolitical and cultural topics. It chronicles Moldova’s historical evolution, tracing its journey from a 14th-century principality through periods of Ottoman, Russian, and Soviet rule before achieving modern sovereignty. Beyond history, the source highlights current events, such as Moldova’s European Union accession progress and the expansion of international travel routes to its capital. The digest also includes supplementary global updates regarding international exchange rates, environmental issues in Indonesia, and various technological developments … 

SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers said Thursday that they plan to make “modest” changes to a controversial law that gave victims of childhood sexual abuse a new window in which to sue, but will stop short of a damage cap.

The proposed legislation, offered in the final days of the legislative session, would require older victims to provide additional proof that they were abused as children, but does not limit the amount they could receive in payouts — a demand made by local governments and school districts that have shelled out billions of dollars in recent settlements.

The proposal follows years of heated debate over a 2019 state law that removed the statue of limitations for childhood sexual abuse claims. The law paved the way for thousands of victims to sue their abusers but has been criticized for draining the coffers of local governments.

Since the law was enacted, L.A. County has agreed to pay more than $5 billion to settle more than 12,000 claims stemming from alleged sexual abuse committed by government employees in foster homes and juvenile halls.

Santa Monica last year declared a financial crisis after officials revealed that the city faces more than $229 million in sexual abuse allegation claims from a former city employee. California school districts have paid nearly a half-billion dollars to settle older claims of sexual abuse.

The new bill, known as Senate Bill 577, tweaks a proposal put forward last year by Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz), who tried unsuccessfully to shepherd through a compromise between local government entities, survivors groups and plaintiffs attorneys.

Laird and Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in interviews Thursday that they tried to thread the needle in protecting both survivors and municipalities.

Laird said he’s heard reaction from various groups since the new bill proposal was posted online. The groups are “not totally happy,” Laird said.

“My goal here was to get a situation where [the reaction] was sullen but not mutinous,” said Umberg.

L.A. County, which faces more than 5,000 new claims of sexual abuse, lobbied hard to change the law, arguing it opened the door for fraud as records to vet the cases were long gone. Chief Executive Officer Joseph M. Nicchitta praised the bill Thursday as a “thoughtful and balanced package of reforms.”

“This is a responsible step forward and moves us toward a more stable and sustainable framework, and we urge all public entities seeking reform to accept this solution now,” Nicchitta said in a statement.

The Consumer Attorneys of California, a trial lawyer trade group, backed the fact that the bill wouldn’t limit how much victims could receive from these cases.

“Damage caps would place an arbitrary limit on the harm a survivor has suffered and leave survivors bearing more of the lifelong costs of abuse—including trauma, disability, and treatment,” said Doug Saeltzer, president of the association. “Those costs should not be shifted onto the very people the system failed to protect.”

According to the most recent version of the bill, victims older than 40 must now provide “clear and convincing evidence” that the public entity “knew of misconduct” that resulted in the assault and failed to take reasonable steps to avoid it.

The bill also states attorneys who file fraudulent sex abuse lawsuits can be fined $25,000 per violation, a penalty that could be enforced by the state attorney general or attorneys for local governments. The Times reported last year on nine plaintiffs who said they were paid to sue the county over sex abuse, some of whom said they were told to fabricate their claims.

The bill also requires the attorney general to open a two-part investigation into alleged abuse within L.A. County’s juvenile detention centers, probing both the cause of fraudulent lawsuits as well as legitimate claims of abuse.

And it would also require local governments and school districts to adopt a “sexual assault prevention plan” that details to the attorney general “how grooming and sexual abuse concerns and risks will be reported.”

John Manly, an attorney who represents victims in the $4-billion sex abuse settlement, said he believed the bill would make it impossible to represent victims over 40 years old. The burden of proof, he said, was too high and the language in the bill too vague.

“It’s sad, because it tells me that all the stuff about, ‘We care about children, and we care about survivors, and we believe survivors,’ it’s all political window dressing for many of the members of the Legislature,” he said.

The compromise bill follows multiple attempts to change the law in recent years. Sen. Benjamin Allen (D-Santa Monica) tried last year to increase the burden of proof for sex abuse cases, but pulled the bill after outrage from victims rights groups.

The new version seems unlikely to have the same problem, with some groups immediately praising the lack of fee caps.

“It’s a step in the right direction,” said Chantel Johnson, directing advocate at Youth Law Center, which advocates for youth in foster homes and juvenile detention centers. “The bill was more balanced than we thought it would be.”

Senate Bill 577 is expected to come up for a vote in both the Assembly and the Senate by early next week and, if it passes, will be sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his consideration. Leaders in both houses praised the proposal Thursday.

“Today, we are grateful to have been able to come to an agreement on a legislative path to protect justice, prioritize prevention for the millions in our care, and acknowledge the impacts to our communities,” said Senate President Pro Tem Monique Limón.

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) said the state would be “safeguarding schools and public services, while investing in prevention and protecting against future abuse.”

Palos Verdes and Sierra Canyon came away with football victories against teams from Florida on Thursday.

Standout junior safety Jalen Flowers came up with two interceptions, including a one-handed highlight play, to help Palos Verdes hold on for a 21-18 win over Orlando (Fla.) Bishop Moore in an afternoon game at Palos Verdes.

Linebacker Weston Reis also came through for 2-0 Palos Verdes, which travels to Carson next Thursday in another challenging nonleague game.

Sierra Canyon traveled to Florida, lost four fumbles in the first half but came back to defeat Hollywood (Fla.) Chaminade-Madonna 24-7.

Myles Baker had one touchdown pass and one touchdown run as the Trailblazers (2-0) broke open a game that was tied 7-7 at halftime. Jaxsen Stokes’ running, and strong defense from sophomore linebacker Eli Zamorano also helped the Trailblazers. Carter Sobel had a 31-yard field goal in the third quarter to give Sierra Canyon the lead for good.