In late October, two non-Equity touring musicals opened on the same night at two of L.A.’s largest theaters: “Tommy” at the Hollywood Pantages and “The Music Man” at Center Theatre Group’s Ahmanson. The shows — which operate outside of the Actors’ Equity Assn., the union that represents more than 51,000 professional stage actors and managers nationwide — reignited a contentious debate about whether a major regional nonprofit like CTG should host nonunion shows.

Critics questioned whether these productions threaten CTG’s artistic mission and if Angelenos should pay top dollar for nonunion shows. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, what should matter more, a theater’s bottom line or its core values? The underlying implication in much of the criticism was that non-Equity shows are subpar and that hosting them implies a tacit acceptance of the mistreatment of actors.

Savannah Stevenson, who plays Mrs. Paroo in the national tour of “The Music Man,” would like to banish those concerns.

“We should completely dispel the notion that because we’re a non-Equity tour, we’re somehow put through the wringer,” Stevenson said during a phone interview from the Airbnb she was sharing with three cast members. It was a few hours before curtain during the final days of the show’s nearly two-week run in downtown L.A., before it departed for the Capitol Theatre in Yakima, Wash.

Touring small towns like Yakima is a big part of why non-Equity shows exist. The tours began popping up in the 1990s after the rise of the Broadway megamusical, to bring shows to places that would otherwise go without. Before its arrival in L.A., “The Music Man” was in Senatobia, Miss., with a population of about 8,500. A major union show like “The Lion King” will never stop in Senatobia, but the people there can enjoy a bit of River City thanks to Stevenson and the rest of “The Music Man” cast.

“The biggest difference in my mind is, frankly, the schedule. As a non-Equity tour, we do significantly more one-nighters or short engagements,” Stevenson said. “But we also all knew that when we signed up for it. And that is what allows us to share this particular piece of musical theater and musical theater history with such a wide swath of the country.”

Many professional actors choose to remain non-Equity for a variety of reasons, Stevenson said. Jobs are more plentiful for non-Equity actors, she noted, especially if you make a living working at regional houses outside of major cities, which often book only a handful of Equity actors per show. Stevenson recently shared a dressing room and top billing with an Equity actor in a Connecticut show — and other than the fact that the Equity actor was paid more, their treatment was the same, she said.

“We worked side by side every single day, had equally large parts, and I don’t think that anyone coming to that show would have said, ‘Oh, well, gosh, the Equity girl was the real standout in that show,’” Stevenson said gamely.

Elizabeth D’Aiuto, left, Addie Jaymes and Savannah Stevenson in the touring production of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man.”

(Marshall Meadows)

Stevenson spoke in the wake of a review by Times theater critic Charles McNulty, which called “The Music Man” a “community-theater-level production,” and slammed CTG for “damaging its stature as a nonprofit theater leader by offering such an important showcase to this second-tier touring production.”

The public reception for “The Music Man” was quite warmer. The show ranked above “Amélie, A New Musical,” “Latin History for Morons” and “Paranormal Activity” in audience surveys, according to CTG, and late last week it was on track to outsell “Parade,” “Life of Pi” and “Paranormal Activity.” CTG’s Artistic Director Snehal Desai said each year fans ask for a classic musical and this season only two such shows were on tour: “The Sound of Music” and “The Music Man.” The former (an Equity tour) went to the Pantages, which is run by the for-profit Nederlander organization. That left the latter available to CTG.

The uproar resulting from the non-Equity “The Music Man’s” arrival at the Ahmanson ties directly into the ongoing — and at times overheated — conversation about the future of the American nonprofit theater movement that erupted in late July when the Public Theater’s Artistic Director Oskar Eustis announced his intention to step down after 23 years, declaring the movement “over” and “not coming back.” Since then, theater leaders, including Desai, have been casting around for a brand new way of building a sustainable future. In Desai’s case, that meant attempting to stay in the black — a course of action that is not always looked upon kindly.

Equity vs. non-Equity

The decision to book non-Equity shows was less about saving money than it was about the Tetris-like planning required to keep the Ahmanson gainfully booked, Desai said. The cost of hosting an Equity versus a non-Equity show is about the same for CTG. Non-Equity shows get paid a flat-rate guarantee that is less than what Equity shows seek, but that’s just one piece of the pie, Desai said. CTG also must factor in overhead and local labor costs, production and marketing expenses, and more. This year there are 25 touring Equity shows and 24 non-Equity shows (a number that has stayed fairly steady for the last eight years, with the exception of the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when Equity tours shut down completely). More than 20 available Equity shows went to the Pantages — along with at least five non-Equity shows. This left only a few Equity shows for CTG to choose from, and Desai had to make sure those fit into the schedule.

Aliya Grace in the North American tour of “Boop!,” which is coming next year to the Ahmanson Theatre.

(Matthew Murphy)

This season will see three non-Equity shows: “Clue,” “The Music Man” and Boop!,” which is the rare show to go straight from Broadway to a non-Equity tour.

“The three [non-Equity shows] that we programmed were what was available to us,” Desai said, adding that the shows came from producers CTG had worked with before so he was confident that “they’re maintaining a certain quality. That they’re taking care of the companies. That they’re adhering to standards.”

Daniel Sher, the president of Big League Productions, which is producing “The Music Man” tour, said the organization does its best to follow union rules that are “reasonable.” Big League has produced mostly non-Equity touring shows for about 35 years, and Sher noted that the show’s crew is union, so the production adheres to many union rules by proxy. The Ahmanson is a union house, with its own union crew — so those rules also apply. Sher wishes he could provide health insurance for his actors, but that is cost-prohibitive, so he gives a small health stipend instead.

“I think there’s just a lot of non-Equity work now,” Sher said. “So it’s kind of like it’s a natural market force. As long as there remains this kind of vast amount of work, there are actors who will choose to remain non-Equity.”

Broadway hits will almost always start as Equity tours, he said, but once they stop being money-making juggernauts, they often go nonunion by necessity. That’s the case with “The Music Man,” he said, noting that a show of its size and scope would be financially impossible to stage as an Equity tour in the current marketplace. He would love for the union to consider allowing a mix of union and nonunion actors on national tours — like it does for regional theaters: “There’s a world where the producers and Equity could try to find a way, but the economics just have to work.”

Stevenson’s goal is to keep performing. She was an Equity member at the beginning of her career, then took 18 years off to practice law before returning to acting — this time without an Equity card.

“Whether you are a presenter or a producer or an actor or a member of the crew, or an audience member, we are all aligned around the notion of ensuring that the theater industry does not continue to contract in the way that it has, particularly since the pandemic,” she said. “So if we can ensure that we’re keeping a variety of shows alive and reaching more corners of the country, then we have to make room for both Equity and non-Equity tours.”

The 2025 North American tour of “Clue,” which played at the Ahmanson Theatre during a non-Equity tour.

(Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade)

Even Actors’ Equity has changed its approach to non-Equity shows. In 2001 the union picketed a previous non-Equity tour of “The Music Man” and in 2014 it ran an ad campaign urging theatergoers to “Ask if it’s Equity,” before buying tickets. That campaign, along with more demanding rules around how an actor could join the union, were scrapped in 2023 out of concern for “small ‘e’ equity and justice, and who should have the decision to join the union,” said Actors’ Equity Assn. sopkesperson David Levy.

Prior rules relied on the employer to decide whether an actor was worthy of joining the union, “and we wanted to put that power back in the hands of the actual members themselves,” Levy said. Actors’ Equity currently has an “open access” policy that allows anyone who has worked in any kind of professional theater in the U.S. to join.

“The quality of the talent in these tours is not any less than the quality of talent on any union stage,” Levy said. “What’s at issue is how that talent is treated, how they’re paid, what the workplace safety rules are, what accommodations they’re given as they travel, whether they get appropriate rest time.”

While the union would prefer that every theater show operate under an Equity contract, it’s aware that this may not be financially feasible in all situations, Levy said, noting that nonunion shows might be the only viable option for smaller towns across the country without rich and diverse theater ecosystems.

“We would never want to deprive those audiences of having that transformational opportunity of seeing singers and dancers and actors and musicians do their thing,” Levy said, adding that L.A., unlike less populous cities, doesn’t have a dearth of theater offerings. “Now, in a perfect world, that job would come with both standardized wages and work rules and benefits, as well as the safety guarantees of a union contract.” He paused, “We do not live in a perfect world.”

The future of nonprofit theater

CTG came perilously close to financially bottoming out in 2023 when it closed the Mark Taper Forum for almost a year and a half. This happened just before Desai took over from Michael Ritchie as the third artistic director in CTG’s history, arriving just in time to pick up the pieces following the COVID-19 pandemic. When CTG finally reopened its theater doors after an astonishing 56 weeks, its staff was decimated, tickets sales had plunged and the cost of putting on productions had skyrocketed. CTG’s staffing still remains more than 20% down from its pre-pandemic high, although its subscriptions are on the rise — up 226% over last year.

“We used to talk to donors about how CTG valued union-only productions, even though they are more expensive, because CTG valued more than just the bottom-line,” former CTG board chair Kiki Ramos Gindler wrote on Facebook in response to McNulty’s review. “Unlike the Nederlander Organization, a for-profit theatre business keenly focused on profits. … The mission is to support our community, not to find ways to keep from going out of business. If this is a path to staying in business, it’s a wrong path and maybe time to take a final bow rather than completely throw away core values.” (Nederlander declined a request for comment on the issue.)

In late September the DeVos Institute of Arts and Nonprofit Management, which was founded at the Kennedy Center in 2001 and supports arts groups nationwide, hosted a nearly two-hour Zoom forum called “Is the American Nonprofit Theater Movement Over?” About 17 major theater leaders spoke on the call that had 800 participants, including Eustis and Desai, all seeking to examine what elements of “a historical model for producing and presenting nonprofit theater in America” have ended, and which remain relevant.

Center Theatre Group’s Mark Taper Forum in 2019, four years before it was temporarily closed due to a financial crisis.

(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

“When I first became an artistic director, there were two words that I had never heard before that became my mantra for years: cash flow. These days, a lot of my conversations seem to be focused on three words: minding the gap,” Desai said. “There are so many gaps confronting our field right now. There is the gap between what a production costs and the revenue it can generate. The gap between the impact of the work we make and the value we assign it. The gap between the origin stories of our institutions and the communities we serve. And perhaps, most importantly, there is the gap between the models we inherited and the world we actually live in.”

For CTG, that means keeping the 2,000-seat Ahmanson Theatre booked with revenue-generating shows in order to afford to continue producing work the company does at the Taper and at Culver City’s Kirk Douglas Theatre. “Phantom of the Opera” ran for 4½ years straight at the Ahmanson from 1989 to 1993, a commercial success that enabled a golden age at CTG under founding Artistic Director Gordon Davidson that included the 1992 premiere of Tony Kushner’s groundbreaking two-part play “Angels in America.”

The Ahmanson needs to be that commercial vehicle again, if CTG is to continue pushing artistic boundaries, Desai said. CTG-produced shows are always Equity, while major touring shows arriving at the Ahmanson sometimes aren’t.

“When a show doesn’t meet its goal, it is a huge swing. It is millions of dollars. And so we have to be super careful about what we’re programming,” Desai said. “And I’m also trying to take care of the audience that I’m building in line with the artistic vision.”

A Northern California judge on Monday permanently barred Shasta County from implementing a voter-approved initiative that sought to dramatically reshape voting in the conservative stronghold.

Measure B, which was passed by 56% of voters in the June primary, sought to require hand-counted ballots, eliminate most mail-in voting and require residents to present government-issued photo identification to cast a ballot on election day.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber, the state’s top elections official, sued Shasta County days after the primary, arguing that Measure B violates state election laws. Shasta County Superior Court Judge Benjamin Hanna temporarily blocked the measure in August.

In his final ruling Monday, Hanna wrote that the provisions of Measure B “are wholly contrary to existing state law.”

“The regulation and administration of the electoral process is a matter of statewide concern, and Shasta County’s status as a charter county does not entitle it to enact invalid legislation simply because some in this community do not agree with the existing law,” the ruling continued.

Attorney Alexander Haberbush, who represented a group of Measure B supporters, did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment. But Haberbush told local television station KRCR that they are “reviewing every option, including an appeal.”

“Today’s ruling tells the voters of every charter county in California that they have no say over how their own elections are run. This ruling goes far further than any state law requires,” he told the station.

The battle over election integrity took hold in the mostly rural Shasta County in 2023. At the time, the Shasta County Board of Supervisors, fueled by President Trump’s unsubstantiated election fraud claims, stopped using Dominion voting machines and opted to hand-count ballots for the county’s more than 110,000 registered voters. The move quickly prompted a new state law that banned them from doing so.

The fight has continued amid Trump’s calls for the government to “nationalize” state-run elections and restrict voting by mail.

Weber in a statement Monday described Measure B as a “colossal waste of time and taxpayer funds” and an attempt to disenfranchise voters.

“Today’s decision affirms what was a forgone conclusion from the beginning,” she said. “As long as there are those willing to enact reckless, illegal, and poorly drafted laws, on behalf of Californians, we will see them in court.”

Sherman Oaks Notre Dame football coach Evan Yabu pulled off a rare feat — he changed what had been working during the regular season with a new strategy for the playoffs.

All season, Tahj Skinner, the team’s best athlete and starting safety, had been playing quarterback. Notre Dame qualified for the Southern Section Division 2 playoffs and faced Corona del Mar on Friday.

That’s when Yabu made a big change. He put in freshman West Dunton, a junior varsity player, to be the starting quarterback to free up Skinner to play receiver and also focus more on defense. Dunton kept his poise to deliver a 20-19 victory. Skinner caught 10 passes.

Yabu said Dunton had been preparing well on junior varsity and it gave the Knights the opportunity to use Skinner’s other skills.

Next up for the Knights is a Friday showdown against top-seeded Chaparral at home.

Call it bold what Yabu did but it worked, and Skinner can always return to quarterback if needed for his running skills.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

A deadly train collision in the outskirts of the Egyptian capital Cairo, which killed at least seven people and injured more than 125 others according to the country’s Ministry of Health and Population, has ignited a wave of parliamentary and political demands for accountability. The disaster raises urgent questions about the effect of the millions of dollars the Egyptian state has poured into upgrading the railway network and whether those investments are genuinely improving passenger safety.

A train travelling between Giza and Fayoum on Sunday ran into the back of another train on the Cairo-to-Aswan route, causing the latter to derail onto a countryside road in al-Ayyat district. Following the crash, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi directed authorities to conduct an urgent investigation to “hold accountable anyone found to have been negligent”.

The Egyptian parliament’s Transport and Communications Committee summoned Transport Minister Kamel el-Wazir to an emergency session on Tuesday to investigate. Meanwhile, opposition voices have escalated demands for political accountability, ranging from criticising the minister to demanding the dismissal of the entire government.

Abdel Moneim Imam, a member of Parliament and head of the Justice Party, told Al Jazeera that the situation requires decisive action, and highlighted several previous train disasters in al-Ayyat. A 2002 fire killed more than 370 people, while a train collision in 2009 killed 15 people, and three separate collisions in 2016 killed 14 people in total.

Al-Ayyat is a major corridor for trains travelling between Cairo and southern Egypt, with heavy railway traffic and railway switches in the area.

“The recurrence of train accidents in the al-Ayyat area, despite what the Transport Ministry has repeatedly announced regarding the development of the railway system, reflects the absence of genuine accountability for the officials responsible for those accidents,” Imam stated.

“Taking decisive measures and holding officials accountable for previous accidents would have prevented the recurrence of these scenes,” he added. “The minister of transport enjoys the protection of the parliamentary majority, which prevents the activation of parliamentary accountability … The continued turning of a blind eye to the shortcomings and the recurrence of accidents without genuine accountability leads to the continuation of the crisis.”

Imam, who has described himself as a reformist politician, called for ministers to be questioned in Parliament over the latest accident.

Legislative response

Egypt’s parliamentary transport committee met on Tuesday in the presence of Transport Minister Kamal el-Wazir to discuss the circumstances of Sunday’s train collision, and measures to prevent similar accidents.

However, Ahmed el-Derby, the secretary of the committee, told Al Jazeera before the meeting that its purpose was not to “interrogate [el-Wazir] or confront him with premeditated accusations”.

Asked whether the government bore political responsibility for railway accidents, el-Derby said that ultimate responsibility rested with those overseeing the railway system.

“Officials bear responsibility for mistakes that occur during their tenure, even if they did not personally make those mistakes,” el-Derby said, adding that the accident showed that something had gone wrong and that an investigation was needed to establish who was responsible and hold them accountable.

“We do not support the hasty demands to dismiss officials, and dismissals alone do not represent a solution to the crisis,” he said.

Policy failures

Atef el-Maghawry, head of the Tagammu Party’s parliamentary bloc, said the repeated railways accidents in al-Ayyat pointed to wider government failures, rather than problems confined to the Transport Ministry.

“Despite the ministrys announcements about upgrading the railway network and signalling systems, the recurrence of accidents in al-Ayyat points to a crisis that goes beyond the the Transport Ministry and reflects broader government policies,” he told Al Jazeera.

El-Maghrawy argued that replacing the transport minister would not be enough, and instead called for the dismissal of the entire government over its failures to address a wide range of social issues.

“What is required is a change in policies, not simply a change of personnel,” he said.

“There are achievements that have been realised in the railway sector, and other sectors, but questions remain regarding the cost of these achievements and the results entailed by them,” el-Maghawry explained.

Financial transparency

Parliamentarians are now demanding answers on railway funding. Irene Saeed, head of the Reform and Development Party’s parliamentary bloc, called for a detailed breakdown of how the Transport Ministry spent loans obtained in 2026.

Saeed wants to know what proportion of loans taken out by the ministry during el-Wazir’s tenure went towards safety, signalling and maintenance, and how many accidents in 2025 and 2026 were found to be the railway authority’s responsibility.

The Transport Ministry says approximately $37bn was allocated to transport investments between 2014 and 2024.

Hassan Mahdy, a highway engineering professor at Ain Shams University, warned against drawing conclusions before the investigation is complete. He pointed to upgrades across Egypt’s railway network, including a shift to electronic systems intended to manage train movements and reduce reliance on human intervention.

Mahdy said that investigators had to establish why one of the trains stopped on the main track – highlighting the possibility of a sudden technical failure or someone activating the emergency brake. In addition, investigators would need to verify whether the second train’s signalling system warned its driver of a stationary train on the line before the collision.

El-Derby said that the railway signals had issued a stop instruction, citing information from the signalling director, but it remained unclear whether the driver received the warning early enough to stop.

He also urged caution about directly comparing the collison with the previous deadly incidents in al-Ayyat, saying railway operations and signalling have since been upgraded.

“The results of the investigations will reveal all the circumstances of the accident, whether the cause is linked to the human element or a technical flaw in the system,” Mahdy said.

It has also been used as a staging area for aircraft and material bound for the Middle East.

Air refuelling tankers were “forward deployed” to the region during operations against Iran.

Asked about the US evacuating aircraft from RAF Mildenhall, Education Secretary Lucy Powell told BBC Breakfast she could not comment on ongoing operational matters.

She added that “we take the security and safety of our bases incredibly seriously” and “we will always act on security intelligence when we need to”.

A US Air Force spokesperson said its aircraft “rotate between installations and operating locations for a variety of reasons including training and real world requirements”.

“US military aircraft are hosted in accordance with access, basing, and overflight agreements with our allies and partners. Due to operations security, we will not provide further information on movement of assets,” the spokesperson added.

Former UK national security adviser Lord Ricketts told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are talking about an airbase which houses these large tanker aircraft. Of course, they are large targets, an airbase has a long perimeter, so they are inevitably vulnerable.”

He added: “Nobody knows at this stage what this information was. I suspect part of it is an abundance of caution.”

A new study shows that the pressure of organising everything on holiday leaves trip leaders needing another holiday just to recover.

Planning and booking a holiday is supposed to be the ultimate escape, but new research reveals that many of those who organise trips end up worn out by the burden of responsibility.

According to the findings, six in 10 people have arrived home from a break only to feel they need another one. A poll of 2,000 adults found that for 35%, the most draining aspect is having to plan the trip in the first place, while for 30%, it’s taking the lead on arrangements once they’ve actually arrived.

Despite their best efforts to switch off, 32% can’t stop checking whether everyone around them is having a good time. Meanwhile, 30% spend their precious downtime hunting out restaurants, and 25% find themselves putting together the day’s itinerary.

In a bid to escape the constant pressure of being in charge, 22% sneak off for a quiet coffee, 17% retreat to the sanctuary of their hotel room, and 11% resort to pretending to be asleep.

IHG Hotels & Resorts (IHG) commissioned the research and has teamed up with TV presenter Josie Gibson to launch its ‘When the Host Needs Hosting’ campaign.

“I’m that person who’s always making sure everyone’s glass is full and having the best time,” Josie admits. “So, when I’m away, I absolutely love being the one who gets looked after for a change.

“Whether it’s a big holiday, travelling for work or just a little night away, for me it’s about being able to switch off, relax and let someone else take care of things.”

The research revealed 54% of adults regularly take on caring responsibilities for others in day-to-day life, while 57% often find themselves arranging group activities. Meanwhile, 49% typically feel it falls to them to ensure everyone is enjoying themselves.

So much so that 64% of those surveyed by OnePoll.com have come back from a break feeling as though they required another holiday just to recuperate.

Yet despite finding organisational duties exhausting while away, 28% do actually enjoy the role. And 31% believe they are the most suitable person to take control within their friendship circle, family or amongst work colleagues.

Nevertheless, for a trip to genuinely feel like a proper escape, over a third (34%) said it’s being able to simply turn up and enjoy themselves. For 33%, not having to cook or clean helps them properly switch off while 32% value having a comfortable room ready for them when they arrive.

Neetu Mistry, managing director of UK & Ireland at IHG Hotels & Resorts, which is launching ‘When the Host Needs Hosting’ experiences through its One Rewards Access platform, said: “The people who bring everyone together are often the ones who find it hardest to switch off.

“And our research shows that even when they’re away, many are still thinking about everyone else.

“For us, great hospitality is about creating the space for people to step back, relax and feel genuinely looked after.

“We’re celebrating the people who do so much for others and reminding them that sometimes, it’s their turn to be the guest.”

TOP 10 HOLIDAY TASKS BRITS WOULD LOVE TAKEN OFF THEIR HANDS:

1. Cooking
2. Cleaning
3. Resolving problems
4. Managing timings and schedules
5. Coordinating transport
6. Planning the itinerary
7. Organising activities
8. Making reservations
9. Making sure everyone else is happy
10. Deciding where everyone eats

Last week, sports drama series “The Greatest” debuted on Prime Video, detailing the life of Muhammad Ali and how he grew from Cassius Clay, the Olympic champion, to one of the biggest sports and civil rights icons of all time.

The show has gotten high marks from critics and counts Michael B. Jordan and Ali’s widow, Lonnie, as executive producers. But what might not be known is the role another major sports heavyweight played in its inception.

Authentic Brands Group, which owns the likeness of Ali, was inspired by the post-NBA career and platform of Shaquille O’Neal in thinking about how to tell Ali’s story to a new generation. Authentic also owns the likeness of O’Neal, who is a significant owner of the New York-based brand management company, and saw how he leveraged his basketball fame into all manner of endorsements after his retirement, from pitching Epson printers and Carnival Cruise Line to DJing at music festivals. (O’Neal also spoke with Lonnie Ali regularly, and was instrumental in helping to make her feel comfortable with the project and production team.)

“He’s still incredibly popular, and his businesses are doing amazing. It’s really all because of his platform,” Corey Salter, chief executive of entertainment at Authentic Brands Group, told me. “So what we wanted to do with Muhammad Ali, and this was a long time in the making, is what is Muhammad’s platform? How do we make that come to life again?”

Authentic Brands Group has an extensive portfolio, ranging from clothing brands (Quiksilver, Champion and Forever 21, to name a few) and media (Sports Illustrated), to likenessess of celebrities such as O’Neal, Marilyn Monroe, David Beckham and Elvis Presley. (The company recently filed lawsuits with other Presley music rights holders against AI companies Anthropic and Suno, alleging copyright infringement. Salter said the lawsuit is ongoing and that the company will “vigorously defend” its intellectual property.)

In 2023, Authentic Brands Group launched its film, TV, audio and commercial production arm that’s focused on telling stories around the company’s intellectual property.

In many ways, the origin story of “The Greatest” exemplifies how Authentic Studios thinks about its projects and why they’ve embarked on the production business.

Though Ali died in 2016, “The Greatest” will allow him to remain in the cultural zeitgeist, Salter told me.

“We are giving platforms for our living legends and our icons,” Salter said. “It just really brings him back to people that unfortunately didn’t get to see him in his prime and what he accomplished in his lifetime.”

The genesis of the studios segment goes back to the 2022 release of Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.”

Years earlier, Authentic Brands had licensed the Elvis IP to Warner Bros. and built a good working relationship with the Australian film director Luhrmann. But as the team sat as guests in the mezzanine section during the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, the group realized there could be more opportunities in being directly involved in production, rather than just licensing their IP.

“If we make compelling, interesting and great content, the brand should get that lift,” said Colin Smeeton, president of Authentic Studios. “It’s just a way for us to expand the reach and scope of the brands.”

The Authentic Studios banner has four labels: O’Neal’s Jersey Legends Productions, Beckham’s Studio 99, Sports Illustrated Studios and Authentic Productions, which includes all of the other Authentic-owned brands. The studio is based in Beverly Hills and has about 35 employees. The entertainment segment of Authentic Brands Group makes up about 25% to 30% of the company’s overall business, and the studio is profitable, Smeeton said.

Among the projects that O’Neal’s production company has released are a three-part docuseries on the life and career of NBA legend Allen Iverson and a Netflix show called “Power Moves with Shaquille O’Neal,” about his and Iverson’s plans to revitalize the Reebok brand. The company also has produced commercials.

“When a project comes to me, I like to do what’s known in my office as ‘Shaq it up,’” O’Neal told me in an interview. “You’ve got to allow the writers and everybody else to have their creative process, and then I’ll make it Shaq.”

What exactly does Shaqing it up entail?

“A lot of humor has to be involved,” he said. “When you get home and you turn on the TV, I want to make you smile.”

As I’ve written, IP has become the name of the game in Hollywood. With reboots and sequels, the entertainment business is betting that people will flock to familiar stories and names. Just look at the acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery — a major draw for bidders Skydance and Netflix was the company’s extensive portfolio of IP, which includes “Harry Potter,” “The Lord of the Rings” and DC Studios.

Expanding that thinking to brands is a logical next step. After all, the success of 2023’s “Barbie” may be the best recent example of harnessing a brand name with a compelling storyline. And, for a while, that film boosted sales of Mattel’s Barbie dolls.

Authentic Studios wants to expand into digital, build on its YouTube footprint and explore vertical storytelling. The studio is developing projects based on the brand Quiksilver’s origin story and the story of retail brand Guess.

“It’s not about doing more; it’s about making sure that the projects that we do make and do develop actually matter and make them count,” Smeeton said. “If we’re going to spend the time and energy, we want to make sure that it is going to be entertaining for the viewer and the fan, but it ultimately is going to be a good outcome for the brand as well.”

Stuff we wrote

Film shoots

Number of the week

NBC News data analyst Steve Kornacki has become a mainstay of election coverage. And that paid dividends for the network last week, when its “Kornacki Cam” drew a record 29 million views across all platforms, my colleague Stephen Battaglio reported.

Kornacki’s coverage spanned 10½ continuous hours and was woven into NBC’s election night broadcast.

Final figures showed NBC averaged 6.7 million viewers in prime time, followed by ABC (5.2 million), Fox (4.31 million), CNN (4.1 million), MS NOW (3.7 million) and CBS (2.7 million).

What I’m watching

Other than watching UCLA continue its 9-0 season with a win over Minnesota this past weekend, I caught the first episode of “The Greatest,” as part of my reporting for the newsletter. The season starts with Cassius Clay’s gold medal-winning match at the 1960 Rome Olympics. I thought the acting was strong, and the theme of fighting racism and injustice at home was especially compelling.

Did California help Texas turn blue?

One of the biggest stories of this month’s Democratic sweep in the midterms is that a very red Texas elected a Democratic U.S. Senator and governor.

Pundits cite many theories for the surprising results: Anger over the Iran war, high gas prices, Trump fatigue and data centers.

But did California’s high home prices and the state’s historic exodus play a role?

Experts doubt it. In fact, some Californians who moved to Texas are actually concerned about the blue wave.

Many presume that those arriving from California must be much more liberal than the average Texan, said Joshua Blank, research director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

But “a significant share of the Californians transplanting to Texas tend to be moderate to conservative in their views,” he said.

For years, Californians fled to Texas in droves. About 100,000 people made the move in 2022 alone, and many were looking not just for a lower cost of living but also a state that reflected their conservative political outlook.

Nearly half of those Californians who moved to Arizona or Texas during the California exodus in recent years identified as conservative or very conservative, according to a Stanford University study.

The Public Policy Institute of California found that those who leave the state often go to states that share their political beliefs: “Californians leaving for Republican states are much more likely to be Republican than Democratic, compared to Californians as a whole, while those leaving for Democratic states are more likely to be Democratic than Republican,” the PPIC wrote.

In all, hundreds of thousands of conservative Californians have relocated to Texas since the 2020 pandemic emergency, studies suggest.

Marie Bailey, 44, moved from El Segundo to a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb in 2017. She and her husband built a home for $750,000, while a “tiny fixer upper” in El Segundo would’ve cost upward of $1 million.

The couple quickly figured out that they could capitalize on the niche in the real estate market for California migrants to Texas.

For years, Bailey has administered the Facebook group where 45,000 users swap recommendations on how to make the move. She runs a real estate firm that places Californians all over the state.

“Ninety-nine percent of our clientele are people moving from California,” Bailey told The Times in 2023. As for why people make the move, “No. 1 is cost of living and No. 2 is politics.”

Banners for politicians are shown Oct. 27, 2026, in Edinberg, Texas.

(Gabriel V. Cardenas / For The Times)

Texas’ red politics were a big reason she made the move.

Bailey’s husband, who was previously employed by the UCLA medical system, “wouldn’t even talk about his politics because he was afraid of losing his job,” she said.

“Nowhere is perfect,” Bailey said in 2023, “but we fit in a lot better here.”

Now, just three years later, Bailey is confronting a seismic shift in her state.

“I’m actually thinking of moving to Oklahoma because of this,” she said in an interview Thursday. “Or Florida.”

In the Facebook group ‘Move to Texas from California,’ most posts since Tuesday concerned the new state of affairs in the Lone Star State.

“If I have to tolerate blue I might as well have good weather so maybe back to CA? Or give FL a try?” one commenter wrote.

“I am literally closing on a house in Texas next week! I am so pissed,” wrote another.

Blank sees some upsides to the Texas blue wave for those who moved from California.

“They get the benefit of having left what they see as a too-liberal state, and they get a place that is conservative but is unlikely to get much more conservative any time soon,” he said.

Blank thinks many California transplants were primarily motivated by housing costs, with politics being secondary.

“They don’t have to move back,” he said of Californians who moved to the Lone Star state. “And if they do, I’m gonna tell them they’re silly. It’s not a good way to make decisions.”

Welcome back to the Lakers newsletter, where vibes are high.

The Lakers (10-2) are atop the Western Conference and on a six-game winning streak. Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are trolling road fans in equal measure. Doncic even had some time to dance to “YMCA” during a win in Atlanta.

The Lakers could have had plenty of excuses for a bad performance Monday. They were without Reaves and Quentin Grimes. They were groggy after flying in from Detroit that morning. Instead of falling back on those reasons to lose, they discovered ways to win, uncovering new layers to a team still in its early stages.

“Every game is going to present different challenges, and that’s why every game you learn something new,” Lakers coach JJ Redick said. “And you hopefully grow from whatever you learn. That’s the beauty of this. And after 82 games, hopefully you’re a pretty darn good team.”

But only 12 games in, what kind of team are the Lakers?

Dozen-game progress check

On offense, the Lakers are who we thought they were. They’re as efficient as expected for a team that got its wish-list center to pair with Doncic and Reaves. They’re first in NBA offensive rating (121.5), points per game (121.9) and field-goal percentage (50.5).

The defense is also as most expected. That is, it’s the team’s weak spot. The Lakers entered Monday 21st in defensive rating. The only other team with a winning record outside of the top 13 was Denver (5-4).

“I think we can be way better than 21st,” Doncic said. “I think we have the potential for that.”

Doncic said the Lakers, who inched up to 19th in defensive rating (113.9) after Monday, relax after building big leads, allowing opponents to claw back. They survived comeback attempts from Detroit and Atlanta, but Stephen Curry and the Warriors burned them.

The Lakers’ biggest defensive flaw is rebounding. Despite making a massive sign-and-trade to add center Walker Kessler, the Lakers are 29th in the NBA in rebounding (40.3 per game). Giving up 13.5 offensive rebounds a game, the Lakers allow 18.2 second-chance points a game, the third-worst in the league.

Redick said before the Lakers played the Clippers on Oct. 28 that the team needed Kessler to pick up his rebounding rate, especially defensively. The 7-foot-2 center has responded with six double-doubles in the last seven games.

“A lot of it is about timing, a lot of it is about hitting the guy first, not getting pushed under the rim,” Kessler said of finding his rebounding rhythm. “And I got to do a better job of those balls that I get my hands on, securing the ball.”

Walker Kessler, here tangling with Portland’s Donovan Clingan, has been a standout on defense for the Lakers.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Kessler, who still wears a wrap on his left pinky after missing part of the preseason with a jammed finger, had four turnovers against the Pistons. Even when he got both hands on the ball, it would get stripped.

The Lakers try to mask the rebounding woes by forcing turnovers. They’re second with 18.6 turnovers forced per game and third in steals with 10.8 per game. Matisse Thybulle leads the team with 2.1 steals per game. Doncic cares more about people knowing he’s averaging two steals per game than the fact he was the first player since Wilt Chamberlain to average more than 40 points per game through nine games.

Kessler’s rim presence has allowed the Lakers to dial up their defensive pressure.

“Sometimes he may not block them, but just the shots that he alters allows us to get out and run and get stops,” guard Collin Sexton said. “He’s a big part of our defense and he’s the anchor on the back line. You go down there, you got to deal with Walk.”

Kessler has won many of those battles. Entering Monday, opponents were shooting 45.1% within six feet of the rim against Kessler, the lowest mark in the NBA among players defending at least 50 attempts from that distance, according to the Lakers.

The fourth starter

Ziaire Williams reacts after sinking a three-pointer against Portland last month.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The starting power forward spot was one of the biggest question marks heading into the season. The Lakers have found two strong solutions.

Lineups with Doncic, Reaves, Kessler, Thybulle and Ziaire Williams have a 132.5 offensive rating, the best in the league for any five-man group that’s played more than 50 minutes. The second-best offensive group is the starting lineup with Jake LaRavia in Williams’ place.

But adding LaRavia into the starting group has profound defensive impact: Doncic, Reaves, Kessler, Thybulle and LaRavia have a defensive rating of 93.6 points allowed per 100 possessions, the third-best five-man lineup that has played more than 50 minutes. As a result, the LaRavia group has the best net rating in the league (30.9 compared to 16.8 with Williams).

“He’s a winning player,” Redick said of LaRavia’s sometimes unnoticed contributions. “I mean, it’s simple as that. Puts the team first always, whether he’s starting, coming off the bench — 12 minutes, 20 minutes — you know you’re going to get A-plus effort. Now, having been with us for two years, you know he’s at the point where you’re typically going to get A-plus execution of our schemes and our communication and our rules.”

For a weak rebounding team, LaRavia adds a much-needed jolt on the boards. Averaging 3.5 rebounds and 1.7 offensive boards per game, the Lakers have a 53.2% rebounding rate when he’s with Doncic, Reaves, Kessler and Thybulle compared to 42.1% when Williams is in the group.

Williams, who missed three games with a foot injury and hasn’t returned to the starting lineup since, is trusted to guard on the ball and gives the second unit a scoring punch with his hot-shooting start. The Lancaster native is shooting 45.2% from three while taking the fourth-most three-point attempts on the team.

He was four for eight from three-point range Sunday, but frustrated Pistons fans swore he didn’t miss a shot. He knocked down two early threes to contribute to the Lakers’ 26-point lead in the second quarter then staved off the comeback with another clutch three-pointer after the Pistons cut the lead to one during the fourth quarter. He added an emphatic exclamation mark with a cutting dunk off a Kessler assist with 93 seconds left.

Williams just knows how to pick his spots.

On tap

Wednesday at Bucks (1-9), 5 p.m. PST

Former Miami Heat mainstays Tyler Herro (22.3 points per game) and Jaime Jaquez Jr. (16.4) lead the rebuilding Bucks after the Giannis Antetokounmpo era. While a mismatch on paper, this could still be a difficult game at the end of a tiring three-games-in-four-days trip.

Sunday at Suns (3-6), 1 p.m. PST

The Lakers will enter the game on multiple days of rest for the first time since their season opener. They played their first three weeks without a two-day break. The Suns are without center Mark Williams (shoulder), which could open the floodgates for a big game from Kessler.

Favorite thing I ate this week

The pink room pizza from Unc’s in Detroit.

(Thuc Nhi Nguyen / Los Angeles Times)

In the great pizza debate of thick or thin crust, I go Detroit almost every time. The airy, chewy crust is like biting into a pizza pillow. Since last year’s trip to Detroit, a new pizza place opened downtown, so there was some great pizza right around the corner. Unc’s Pink Room pizza has pepperoni, whipped ricotta, hot honey and banana peppers. Returning readers know I love a sweet and spicy pizza combo.

Asking for a friend: Do you eat Detroit pizza with a fork and knife or with your hands? The gooey cheese pulls create kind of a mess with your hands, but cutting with a fork and knife feels too formal for pizza. (OK, the friend is me.)

In case you missed it

No Austin Reaves, no problem. First-place Lakers beat Hawks for sixth consecutive win

Austin Reaves steps up in Luka Doncic’s absence to lead Lakers over Pistons

Luka Doncic’s historic run jump-starts early MVP conversation

Swanson: Luka Doncic can lead Lakers to a title, but only if his teammates pull their weight

Luka Doncic scores 53 as Lakers avenge loss to Trail Blazers

Lakers assign Bronny James, Cameron Carr to G League team

Lakers win uneven game over Kings behind 40 points from Luka Doncic

Fun, flowing, not yet flawless: Lakers’ league-best offense still has room to improve

Until next time…

As always, pass along your thoughts to me at thucnhi.nguyen@latimes.com, and please consider subscribing if you like our work!

Decision by the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority reportedly related to ⁠US sanctions imposed on Iranian airlines.

Iraq barred a plane carrying Iran’s national football ⁠team from ⁠landing at Basra airport on Tuesday, a decision by the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority linked to ⁠sanctions by the United States imposed on Iranian airlines, two Basra airport officials told the Reuters news agency.

The plane returned to Iran and landed ⁠at Abadan airport, and the team will now travel by road to Basra, an Iranian consulate official in Basra said.

The Iranian team was travelling to Iraq to participate in a ‌four-nation tournament in Basra also involving Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine.

An Iraqi civil aviation official said Iraq made the decision because it could not risk violating US sanctions on Iranian airlines.

The incident highlights the increasing impact of US sanctions on Iranian aviation operations in Iraq. ⁠

Washington announced sanctions on any global companies doing business with Iranian airlines after September 23, aiming to ground Iran’s entire civil fleet worldwide.

In September, Iraq ordered the suspension of Iranian flights to Baghdad airport after the US threatened secondary sanctions against airports and service providers that handle Iranian carriers.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that airports servicing Iranian airlines could face sanctions, including exclusion from the US ‌dollar system.

This warning was part of a broader effort to tighten restrictions on Iran’s transport sector and on ‌foreign ‌entities providing services to sanctioned Iranian airlines.

Intensified sanctions are part of a US bid to squeeze Iran economically as President Donald Trump struggles to end the war that the US and Israel launched on the country in February.

The family drama is a distinct American genre— one at which playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins excels. His 2013 show, “Appropriate,” about a prominent Arkansas clan that discovers old photos tying their deceased paterfamilias to a Jim Crow era lynch mob, won a Tony Award for best revival two years ago. Jacobs-Jenkins soon topped that by winning the 2025 Pulitzer Prize along with a Tony for best drama for his next play, “Purpose,” which unfolds during a snow day in the Chicago home of a prominent civil rights leader named Solomon Jasper.

That production is making its Los Angeles premiere at Geffen Playhouse, beginning Wednesday and running through Dec. 20. The Broadway and Steppenwolf Theatre Company production features the same Tony-nominated and Tony-winning team as it had in New York, including director Phylicia Rashad and actor Kara Young, who won a Tony for best featured actress for her portrayal of Aziza, a social worker who ends up in the middle of the family conflict at the heart of the play.

“I feel like we’re always using family as a metaphor. It’s always a stand-in for some American crisis,” Jacobs-Jenkins said in a recent Zoom interview from New York. “This is something I discovered when I was working on ‘Appropriate,’ every major family drama you can think of is animated in some way by anxieties of race and class. Ultimately, this is your tribe and you gotta figure out where your tribe’s value lives and what challenges that tribe’s value.”

The “Purpose” tribe was inspired by an array of prominent political families, but the one most commonly referenced by audiences is that of civil rights icon Jesse Jackson. Like Jackson, Solomon (Harry Lennix), is a former clergyman and old-school activist, while his son, Solomon Jr. (Glenn Davis), is a disgraced politician fresh from serving prison time for mishandling campaign funds. Junior’s estranged wife, the bitter and often hilariously caustic Morgan (Alana Arenas), wants nothing to do with any of them, while her mother-in-law Claudine (LaTanya Richardson Jackson), pilots the family through trying times. Observing with a jaundiced eye is Naz (Jon Michael Hill), a nature photographer and narrator of the chaotic weekend as it unfolds. Along for the ride is his friend Aziza, expectant mother of his child conceived through artificial insemination.

The original Broadway cast of “Purpose” is returning for its debut at Geffen Playhouse.

(Marc J. Franklin)

For Jacobs-Jenkins, inspiration came from the work of Arthur Miller, which prompted him to ask why there were no family dramas in the American canon centering Black people of status. It inspired a deep dive into political histories, which led to the realization that no Black political dynasty has endured beyond two or three generations.

Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre commissioned the play after the success of “Appropriate,” stipulating that Jacobs-Jenkins use two actors from its ensemble. This led to the casting of Hill, Davis and Arenas. Jacobs-Jenkins noted that he was also required to write the play in the company’s house style: muscular realism.

“As we worked together over the ensuing years and various workshop settings, the story and the family began to emerge,” he said. “When I was in rehearsals for the revival of ‘Appropriate’ on Broadway, a lot of the writing was happening then.”

The central action of the play takes place during a dinner foreshadowed by Naz telling the audience to “Buckle up!” It’s a lengthy scene that introduces long-standing points of friction between characters — Junior’s plan to revive his career by publishing his mother’s letters, the platonic parental arrangement between Naz and Aziza, Solomon’s discontent with Junior, and Morgan’s discontent with all of them.

LaTanya Richardson Jackson, left, Kara Young, Glenn Davis and Jon Michael Hill in the Broadway / Steppenwolf Theatre Company production of “Purpose,” which makes its L.A. premiere at Geffen Playhouse.

(Marc J. Franklin)

“A really important site of a family cohering is that dinner table. So I always find it’s incredibly satisfying on stage,” said Jacobs-Jenkins, acknowledging a nod to the dinner scene in another well-known family drama, “August: Osage County.”

“Everyone’s days are stacked, and that’s where the story gets wrestled out of how the family is moving forward,” he said.

Rashad’s turn as pill-popping family matriarch, Violet Weston, in “August: Osage County” suitably prepared her for directing the dinner drama in “Purpose.”

“There’s certain things that will happen within the scene, whether an actor turns to the left or the right, who you’re speaking to, whether someone is seated in a way that lifts them up higher,” Rashad said of the physically static yet dramatically compelling sequence. “I study the play very carefully, but I’m always hearing something new, no matter how many times I’ve read it. I’m looking to see what comes naturally to the actors. And that kind of informs the direction that I’ll give.”

Phylicia Rashad is directing Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Tony Award-winning play, “Purpose” at the Geffen Playhouse.

(Evan Mulling / For The Times)

When Jacobs-Jenkins finished writing “Purpose,” he felt he had composed, “a high tragedian drama.” But once it hit the boards, the theater filled with laughter.

“I don’t think of myself as a comic writer in that I don’t think in terms of joke structures and comic structures,” he said, shaking his head, noting the many situations that elicit laughter. “I really just try to make illusions of people that feel real. I try to make room for all those kinds of audience responses in the work just because it’s ultimately about connecting to the viewer.”

Much of the humor isn’t on the page but in the performances, like when Aziza chides Naz for concealing the historic relevance of his family and then, realizing their prominence, cries, “Oh, my God!” With hands on her stomach — and her future baby who will carry the same genes — she widens her eyes and repeats the line.

“You don’t always have to tell actors exactly what to do, especially when you’re working with people who are creative and inquisitive, and who like to take risks and try things. Some gestures seem very natural for an actor. But if you change actors, you might get something different,” said Rashad, who has won two Tonys for her acting and made her Broadway directorial debut with “Purpose.”

Best known for playing Clair Huxtable on the 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show,” Rashad has received six Emmy nominations and is currently in HBO’s “The Gilded Age.” She won an NAACP Theatre Award for directing Center Theatre Group’s 2014 production of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” at the Mark Taper Forum, and she’ll be returning to CTG next spring to direct August Wilson’s critically acclaimed “Fences”.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins poses in the press room with the award for best revival of a play for “Appropriate” during the 2024 Tony Awards.

(Evan Agostini / invision/ AP)

Riding high on accolades for “Purpose,” Jacobs-Jenkins recently announced his next play, “Grass,” starring Daniel Kaluuya in his New York stage debut at the Park Avenue Armory in February. A news release describes it as “equal parts fantasia, memory play, and morality play…a surreal meditation on the limits of personal, ancestral, and national identity amidst social upheaval.”

Despite being at the height of his career, Jacobs-Jenkins expressed some trepidation about staging a show in the cavernous, 55,000-square-foot Armory. “A mother and son take a road trip through the South and kooky stuff happens. So, it’s a road play,” he paused, a nervous grin spreading across his face. “We’ll see if I pull it off.”

BTIG initiated coverage of MongoDB (MDB) with a Buy rating, as the financial services firm believes the database company is well positioned to maintain 20%-plus revenue growth over the next few years.

“MDB’s recently updated three-year revenue target calls for

Nov. 10, 2026 5:33 AM PT

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dug in for a fight Tuesday against his potential impeachment in Congress, telling reporters that a rogue lawmaker is targeting him over “policy disagreements” and not the high crimes or offenses the nation’s founders intended.

The embattled Pentagon chief spoke at his first press briefing from the five-sided building in six months, launching a counteroffensive against outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie’s effort to impeach him over his handling of the unpopular war against Iran and other actions.

“In the 250 years of our American republic, no Secretary of War or Secretary of Defense has ever been impeached for carrying out lawful military operations,” Hegseth told reporters.

The briefing was Hegseth’s first since May even as the U.S. military has kept up intermittent operations against Iran as well as fatal strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in Latin America.

Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who lost his primary to a Trump-backed opponent, filed the impeachment resolution in the House on Monday. It sets the stage for a dramatic vote on whether to remove a prominent Trump administration figure following sweeping losses for Republicans in last week’s midterm elections that many at least partly blamed on the Iran conflict and its economic impact.

The resolution largely focuses on the war in Iran but also includes references to Hegseth’s role in military actions in Yemen against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels and Venezuela. Massie said Hegseth’s actions amount to “high crimes and misdemeanors” and his leadership at the Pentagon “warrants impeachment.”

A vote in the House could come by midweek, putting pressure on Republicans — many of whom blamed their election wipeout on the Iran war — but next steps are highly uncertain.

Trump has backed Hegseth, pointing to the raid to capture then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January as well as military operations against Iran that he asserts have “obliterated” its navy and air force.

Iran, however, has been able to keep striking U.S. military bases in the Middle East and has disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz during the course of the more than 8-month-old conflict, driving up global oil prices. Trump told reporters Monday that the Iran war “militarily is effectively over” and repeated his often-made claim that Iran “would love to make a deal.”

Hegseth also has been defending his stewardship of the U.S. military.

“There’s a lot of politically motivated people who may have substantial policy disagreements, but their disagreements are with success,” he told reporters Monday after a speech at the Naval War College in Rhode Island. He added that “if we want to litigate” the military actions that the Trump administration has taken, “I’m happy to do it all day long.”

He also released a video on social media last week that argued impeachment would be “all about the politics of personal destruction” and that “won’t work with me. You can rest assured of that.”

Afterward, scores of Pentagon political appointees posted images of Hegseth emblazoned with the words, “Stand. Fight. Defend the Republic.”

Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s top spokesman, released a statement saying that “despite threats of sham witch hunts from Democrats,” Hegseth is “100% committed to leading the Department until the end of President Trump’s term in office.”

Toropin and Finley write for the Associated Press.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) says it has lifted its self-imposed 2,000km (1,250-mile) limit on the range of its ballistic missiles, raising questions over whether Tehran now considers hitting targets beyond the Middle East.

“This limitation has been lifted for us,” IRGC spokesman Brigadier-General Hossein Mohebbi announced at a news conference in Tehran on Saturday.

Mohebbi did not say whether Iran already had missiles that exceed the cap, but added that Iran would show its capabilities through action rather than statements, as Tehran has hardened its position and shifted towards an “offensive” military doctrine.

The announcement came days after Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei warned that “any kind and level of threat” from the United States or Israel would be met with a response unlimited by geography. Mojtaba has said Iran needs to end the “no war, no peace” situation amid the volatile status of the Strait of Hormuz and the US naval blockade on the Iranian ports.

It also comes as the diplomatic push to end the US-Israel war on Iran has intensified, with Trump on Monday saying there is “positive momentum” towards ending the military hostilities after talks with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Washington, DC.

So what does lifting the limit actually change, and why is Iran doing it now?

Where could Iran’s missiles reach?

Iran already has operational capabilities to launch missiles beyond 2,000km, but it has kept a cap on them amid focus on regional deterrence. Iranian missiles can reach the entire Arabian Peninsula, the Levant and most of Egypt, as well as parts of Southeastern Europe, including Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia.

For Gulf states, the announcement changes little. They already sit well within Iran’s 2,000km range and have come under repeated Iranian missile fire since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28.

The change can help Iran to position some of its rocket launchers in the country’s east, from where it would require a bigger range to reach Israel. The US and its European allies fear Iran can target US bases in the Indian Ocean and Europe.

In March, the United Kingdom accused Iran of firing missiles towards the joint US-UK base at Diego Garcia, some 4,000km (about 2,500 miles) from Iran. Tehran denied targeting the base located in the Indian Ocean, saying it was “an Israeli false flag” operation.

In 2019, the UK, France and Germany said their modelling put a lighter-warhead version of Iran’s Khorramshahr missile at a range of approximately 3,000km (about 1,900 miles). US officials have also said technology from Iran’s space programme could be repurposed to build intercontinental ballistic missiles, The Associated Press news agency reported. Iran currently does not have intercontinental ballistic missiles in its arsenal.

Muhanad Seloom, assistant professor of international politics and security at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera that the Diego Garcia launch had already made Iran’s point. “Iran denied doing that, but they wanted to signal that they have the capacity. So yes, they do have the capacity,” he said.

Seloom, who is also an honorary research fellow at the University of Exeter, pointed to Iran’s space launches over the past decade, saying the same rockets could in theory reach anywhere in the world. “How effective, that’s a totally different story,” he said, adding that Iran could probably field missiles with a range of about 5,000km (3,100 miles).

Iranian security analyst Mohamed Taheri made a similar case on Iran’s state-run Channel 3, saying range had stopped being a technical obstacle for Iran by the mid-2010s. “Even now we have no technical limitation in reaching ranges above 2,000km,” he said.

“If we were to increase that range to 4,000km, we would certainly have most of Europe within our missile range, and roughly most of North Africa as well,” Taheri said.

How has Europe responded to Iran’s missile threat?

The IRGC announcement about ending its self-imposed limit seems to be a shift from Tehran’s assurances to Europe on missile range. Europe’s relations with Iran have deteriorated over its nuclear programme and regional geopolitical ambitions. The European Union’s designation of the IRGC as a “terrorist” group and its allowing the US to use bases on the continent have attracted Iran’s ire.

Iran warned Bulgaria repeatedly this year over US aircraft on its soil. In April, Tehran sent a diplomatic note cautioning Bulgaria against letting US military aircraft use its airports for operations against Iran.

When Bulgaria’s parliament approved hosting up to eight US KC-135 refuelling tankers at Bezmer airbase in July, Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Bulgarian decision-makers “must bear responsibility” for the move. It was Tehran’s third warning to Sofia.

In August, two Iranian insiders told the Financial Times that the US bases in countries such as Bulgaria had been assessed as possible targets, describing the threat to Europe as real but confined to the continent’s south and southeast. Two US tankers left Bezmer on August 21.

Last month, the UK spy chief said Iran is stepping up targeting of military bases in Europe. It came after UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said the IRGC was “almost certainly” behind a suspected plot against Royal Air Force (RAF) Fairford, an airbase used by US bombers to carry out strikes on Iran. The incident prompted the US to withdraw its military jets from the facility over security concerns earlier this month. Tehran has denied involvement, saying it was a “false flag” operation.

On Monday, the US military evacuated aircraft from a second British base, RAF Mildenhall, “in the wake of a threat from Iran”, according to The Wall Street Journal. The refuelling tankers were moved to Germany and elsewhere, and US officials were still discussing the precise nature of the threat.

The UK Ministry of Defence did not confirm the reason. “Aircraft and other assets move regularly according to operational requirements,” a spokesperson said.

Bases in the UK, Germany and Romania are among other European locations the US has used during the conflict.

“It’s possible that in this war we may set aside the geographic restraint we’ve observed stemming from our diplomatic relations with certain countries and even be able to strike the bases that exist in Europe,” Iran’s Taheri said.

For European governments, the announcement is “worrying … but not alarming”, Doha Institute’s Seloom said. Missiles would have to travel far to reach mainland Europe or the UK, he explained, giving NATO members with assets in the region early warning and time to intercept them.

He said threatening Europe would not serve Iran’s interests, since European governments did not back Trump’s war and have pushed for a diplomatic solution despite paying a heavy price in energy costs. That could change if Iran comes to be framed as a threat to international security, he warned, pointing to Iraq, where successive UN Security Council resolutions preceded European support for the 2003 invasion.

“No one could defend Iranian policies when it comes to threatening Europe or the UK,” Seloom said. Lifting the limit, he added, suggests Tehran “is reading this conflict as existential now”.

That, he argued, is what should concern the whole region. “When you give them the idea that you have only one option, is to die … they can do anything. There would be no red lines,” he said.

Why is Iran doing this now?

Because the cap was self-imposed, Iran could have dropped it at any time. For years, the IRGC said the limit was meant to reassure European countries that they would not be targeted.

Mohebbi, the IRGC spokesman, went further, saying that if Iran decided to change its nuclear doctrine and build a bomb, the necessary preparations would be made.

One reading is deterrence: a warning to Washington, and to European governments hosting US aircraft, that renewed strikes could bring a wider response. Iran’s earlier threats to Bulgaria were seen in similar terms, as an attempt to discourage European governments from supporting US operations.

Tehran is also eyeing diplomatic leverage amid efforts to end the conflict. It can offer the cap as a concession, suggesting that any restraint on range now has a price at the negotiating table.

“It’s both,” Seloom said. He argued that Tehran sees a narrow window before the new US Congress convenes in January, in which Trump will want a deal he can present as a success.

The decision to lift the limit, he said, “is basically to push the Trump administration to go for a deal, not to launch another campaign of military action”. With Trump threatening to hit bridges and the power grid, Iran is “signalling that they can go even crazier”.

What has the West historically said about Iran’s missiles?

Western concern over Iran’s missiles has run alongside the nuclear file for more than a decade.

The 2015 nuclear deal signed under US President Barack Obama put a limit on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), put a curb on Iran’s ballistic missile programme.

Those curbs expired in October 2023, following which Western countries expressed concerns about Tehran’s missile activities. In September 2025, France, Germany and the UK reimposed sanctions on Iran over its nuclear enrichment. But Tehran defended the enrichment boost after blaming Trump for withdrawing from the 2015 deal.

Trump put the destruction of Iran’s missile and nuclear programme as the main goals of the war launched in February. “We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground,” he had said.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said days later the goal was to destroy Iranian offensive missiles and missile production. Experts and US intelligence assessments, however, indicated Iran’s missile programme was years away from threatening the US homeland.

Before the war, Iran held the largest ballistic missile stockpile in the Middle East, estimated at between 2,500 and 6,000 missiles.

Anthropic, the AI company behind the Claude chatbot, is planning to raise up to $64bn (£48bn) when it lists its shares for sale on New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange.

The loss-making company said it will offer its shares for between $70 and $78 each in its initial public offering (IPO), which is expected to go ahead this month.

This would value Anthropic at between $1.1 trillion and $1.3 trillion which, although large, is below the $2 trillion some analysts had predicted weeks ago.

It is floating at a volatile time for AI firms. After last week’s US midterm elections, the Nasdaq fell sharply on concerns a Democrat-led Congress could slow development of AI and the buildout of data centres.

There are also wider fears over the billions of dollars being spent on AI and whether it will pay off.

In its most recent results for the six months to the end of June, Anthropic’s revenues jumped to $16.2bn from $1.1bn in the same period last year.

However, its pre-tax loss jumped to $80.7bn from $12.9bn.

Fiona Cincotta, a senior market analyst at City Index, said $64bn Anthropic wants to raise is “fairly bullish” within “the volatility [and] concerns towards AI that we’ve seen in sort of particularly last week”.

She told Reuters: “It’s showing that they are still sort of upbeat about the outlook as far as AI is concerned and that obviously that they think that the demand is going to be there.”

LONDON — A satirical dystopian novel whose themes of “catastrophe and apocalypse” chime with our uneasy times won the Booker Prize on Monday, the first work of science fiction to take the prestigious literary award.

British writer M. John Harrison was awarded the 50,000-pound ($67,000) prize at a ceremony in London for “The End of Everything,” a book the judges said combines “huge ambition” and “extraordinary, expert writing.”

Harrison beat five other finalists including previous winners Douglas Stuart and Marlon James, who had been the oddsmakers’ favorites, and Pulitzer Prize laureate Elizabeth Strout.

“The End of Everything” is set on England’s Channel coast in the near future, after an unspecified calamity has shattered society and brought an influx of enigmatic alien entities to Britain. It centers on a beachcomber who lives with his gun-toting aunt and discovers a puzzling, shape-shifting artifact on the shore.

Asked what he wanted to convey to readers, Harrison said: “It’s a grim world, and it’ll keep on being grim. And it’s weird. But at the end of things there may be some kind of — I wouldn’t say hope, or closure, but there might be some kind of relief.”

Critics have praised the book’s dark humor, though some have been confused by its elusive narrative.

Historian Mary Beard, who chaired the judging panel, said the book is “the politics of now seen through the lens of the future,” and about a society “undergoing a catastrophe that they don’t really understand.”

“What he does is to say, when the catastrophe comes, you won’t know what’s happening,” Beard said. “And there are bits where you, the reader, are with the characters in not fully understanding. Now, I think that’s fantastically exciting.”

Harrison’s work includes large dollops of fantasy and speculative fiction, and he won the Arthur C. Clarke science fiction award for a previous novel, “Nova Swing.” Although borders between publishing genres are increasingly blurred, it’s still rare for a work of sci-fi to win a major literary prize.

Harrison said before he won that he had been “working for 40 to 50 years to shift the balance, both as a novelist and as a critic. Why shouldn’t a well-written (work of science fiction) be considered to be literary fiction?”

Booker Prize Foundation Chief Executive Gaby Wood noted that the prize has removed references to “literary fiction” from its materials, because “all fiction is literary.”

Beard said Harrison’s win was “recognition of what some people would see as the blindingly obvious, that you find great books in every genre.”

Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize is open to English-language novels from any country published in the U.K. and Ireland and has a reputation for transforming writers’ careers.

Its winners have included Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Arundhati Roy. Last year’s winner was “Flesh” by Hungarian-British writer David Szalay.

Harrison, 81, is the oldest writer to win the Booker, two years older than Margaret Atwood when she won in 2019. “The End of Everything” is his 13th novel. But Beard said the prize was definitely “not a lifetime achievement award.”

“We thought this was a book that had earned it,” Beard said.

She said the judges, who included poet Raymond Antrobus and singer Jarvis Cocker from the band Pulp, met for four or five hours to pick a winner, and the choice was ultimately unanimous.

“There was a lot of discussion and disagreement and debate, but nobody stomped off,” she said.

Lawless writes for the Associated Press.

CENTER Parcs has revealed plans for TWO new attractions at one of its parks.

Center Parcs Longleat Forest resort has revealed plans for a new aerial adventure and a rollercoaster-style treetop attraction.

The park currently has an Aerial Adventure Course but this will be replaced with a new high-level aerial adventure with 15 bridges and three zip wires.

The course will be in the woodland and set across different heights with some platforms as high as 12.56 metres.

The attraction will be east of the main lake.

And last week, the park also gained permission to build a Treetop Glider attraction.

Read more on travel inspo

GO ON

All the little-known websites for cheap or FREE tickets to gigs, theatre & festivals

ALL IN

I found the best value all inclusive London hotel… just £55pp with free food & booze

The attraction will be a rollercoaster-style zipline, 13 metres above the ground.

It will be the third resort to get the attraction, following from Elveden Forest in Suffolk and Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire.

Last year, the park opened Adventure Nets at the resort, where families can “bounce, balance, leap and climb through the stunning redwood canopy”.

There are a number of treehouses across the course as well, seven metres in the air.

And there are a number of tunnels, rope bridges and a trampoline area.

The Adventure Nets sessions are 70-minutes long – which includes a 10-minute safety briefing, followed by 60-minutes of play.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery attracted approximately $4.1 billion in investor orders for its initial public offering, nearly three times its original fundraising target, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the transaction.

The Nigerian refinery, owned by billionaire Aliko Dangote, sought to raise

When Angelenos chose Nithya Raman as their next mayor, Karen Bass wasn’t the only establishment pillar that was resoundingly rebuked.

Here in the country’s Latino capital, the metropolis that delivered California its first Latino U.S. senator and pioneered the type of winning political machine that Latinos across the country replicated for decades, almost all the city’s Latino power brokers — politicians, nonprofit leaders, union activists, celebrities — bet big on longtime ally Bass, only to now find themselves on the outside looking in.

All that might and hype delivered worse than nada for Bass, who finished first in the June primary thanks in part to Latino support, winning 35 Latino-majority neighborhoods compared with just seven for Raman. The reverse happened in last week’s general election, with Raman winning many of the city’s key Latino neighborhoods — South L.A. to the Eastside, Pico-Union to Wilmington — according to a Times analysis of precinct data.

It was a fitting dénouement to Mayor Bass’ one term in office, and the capstone of a terrible four-year run for L.A.’s Latino political establishment, beginning with the leak of a profane, racist conversation that disgraced four top politicos.

Bass should have run as far away as possible from our caudillos y caudillas. But she just couldn’t quit them. Take an Oct. 24 lunchtime rally at Plaza Del Valle in Panorama City, the nexus for the fabled San Fernando Valley Latino political machine.

Volunteers handed out “Latinos Con Bass” signs to customers and store owners. An all-star roster of elected officials — City Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez and Imelda Padilla, Assemblymember Celeste Rodriguez (no relation to Monica) and Rep. Luz Rivas — gathered in a community room to make the case that Bass was the best choice.

“You have tías and cousins and primos that call you, ‘Who should I vote for? What do I do? How do I fill out the ballot?’” Rivas told a crowd of about 60, most of whom were not Latino. “You need to remind them Mayor Karen Bass is the right leader.”

“This is where we win elections,” Rodriguez asserted, describing the mayor — whom she bitterly opposed until fellow Councilmember Raman entered the race — as a “Valley girl” and the election as “our moment.”

The enthusiasm level struggled to exceed that of a line at the DMV. Half an hour later and a few miles east in Sylmar, a very different scene was unfolding.

DJ Danny Guerrero blasted quinceañera classics like “Vivir mi Vida” and “Come On Let’s Go” by Pacoima native Ritchie Valens as Raman’s team hosted a canvasada — free tacos for everyone to fuel an afternoon of canvassing. L.A. Unified school board member Kelly Gonez was the only elected official at the Carpenters Local 818 training center. The others were union members, Latino hipsters or kids too young to vote.

“Her passion to protect our community — that compassion resonated with me,” said Guerrero, a 21-year-old Cal State Northridge political science major who helps undocumented college students at his school’s Dream Center. “I advocate for that in my life, and I see Nithya doing that. She meets us where we’re at.”

Guerrero cheered as Raman kicked off her remarks with an “¡Hola, Sylmar!,” pronouncing the “y” like an “i” the way a Spanish speaker would. The candidate shouted out Latino Valley icons like Lenchita’s, Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural and even Plaza Del Valle. But she received the biggest cheers when she said, “La communidad latina merece más.”

Latinos deserve more.

In the end, Raman captured most of the precincts in Padilla’s and Rodriguez’s districts even after the two council members whacked away at her through the election like brats hogging the piñata stick at a birthday party.

Without institutional support, Raman focused on a new generation of Latino leaders who are not part of the traditional political machines.

“Maybe they [Latino establishment leaders] felt obligated to back her,” Rocío Rivas said of Bass. The L.A. Unified school board member and democratic socialist endorsed Raman and attended her election night party at the Greek Theatre, where a crowd of hundreds chanted, “Sí se puede.”

“Or maybe they’re not as connected to the community as they once were,” Rivas added.

The trouble for the establishment started in 2022 when three City Council members and a powerful union leader became pariahs after starring in the audio leak scandal. That same year, democratic socialist upstarts Hugo Soto-Martínez and Eunisses Hernandez won City Council seats, despite a lack of support from Chicanosauruses who mocked their chances.

In January 2024, former City Councilmember Jose Huizar — once a rising star with aspirations for higher office — was sentenced to 13 years in prison after pleading guilty to corruption charges. In the fall of that year, Eastside Assembly and City Council seats held by Latinos for decades went to Filipina Americans Jessica Caloza and Ysabel Jurado. Meanwhile, former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s campaign for governor sputtered out with just 1% of the vote.

In the race to succeed Nury Martinez, who resigned from the City Council after the audio leak, Padilla won with backing from the Valley Latino political machine.

Marco Santana lost to Padilla in the primary. despite an endorsement from Raman, and supported Raman’s mayoral campaign.

“The mayor ran on a very institutional playbook of getting a bunch of Latino politicians together so they could tell Latinos how to vote,” said Santana, 36. “That doesn’t work anymore. Latinos want deeds.”

Instead, outdated ideas were all Bass had.

It started with her choice of chief campaign strategist: Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who was campaign manager for President Biden’s disastrous 2024 reelection bid and then Kamala Harris’ failed attempt to pick up the pieces. I quickly tuned out the one time Chavez Rodriguez described her vision for Latino outreach, which would have been revolutionary in L.A. two generations ago.

While Bass’ campaign mounted a vigorous media outreach effort in English and Spanish, her own attempts to court Latino voters kept backfiring. The crowd at the annual City Hall Mexican Independence Day celebration booed when Padilla, in a green outfit that matched Bass’, hailed the mayor as “good.”

At Homegirl Cafe in Chinatown the morning before the election, customers largely ignored Bass while swarming gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra. She stood next to Becerra at the restaurant, only to have him later clarify to reporters that he wasn’t endorsing anyone in the mayor’s race.

Michael Trujillo is a longtime political consultant who served as an unpaid advisor to a pro-Bass independent expenditure committee and has participated in the rise and struggles of the Eastside and San Fernando Valley machines.

“It’s going to take a long time” for L.A.’s Latino political establishment “to be reconstructed, and that’s ironic when you have Latinos in charge in Sacramento now,” he said. But he predicted that Raman would bear her former opponents no ill will, because “they’re going to give her a fair shot” — because what else can they do?

The Raman era will undoubtedly boost a new generation of Latino leaders. But establishments don’t fade away so easily — and insurgents don’t automatically shun them.

On Saturday, Raman attended a news conference to condemn the arrests of two people by federal immigration agents during an anti-ICE protest outside Adventist Health White Memorial Center. The mayor-elect shook the hands of state Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, SEIU California President David Huerta and Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, all of whom endorsed Bass and recorded social media videos in support of the incumbent.

When it was Raman’s turn to speak, she led the crowd in chants of “ICE out of Boyle Heights” and praised Huerta, Durazo and Salas. Raman concluded by promising Angelenos in Spanish that she would “defend” immigrants.

And then L.A.’s Latino political establishment did the only thing they could: They applauded.