Month: June 2025

EastEnders icon Diane Parish took to social media over the weekend to share a fun-fuelled video of highlights from the 2025 British Soap Awards – which did not give away any of the winners

Diane Parish was in a celebratory mood on Saturday night as she joined her EastEnders castmates and headed to Hackney for the British Soap Awards 2025. The 55-year-old soap icon, famous for playing Denise Fox on the BBC show since 2006, had been on the long list for one of the show categories.

The star had been initially nominated for the Best Leading Performer gong, but did not advance to the second round of nominations for the prestigious award. Instead, EastEnders co-stars Lacey Turner and Kellie Bright were nominated for the gong alongside Emmerdale stars Beth Cordingly and Eden Taylor-Draper.

Stars from Hollyoaks and Coronation Street were also at the glitzy awards show on Saturday night, which was hosted by singing sensation and cruise ship enthusiast Jane McDonald. The full list of winners was announced on Saturday night, but some fans are waiting to find out who took home which prize when highlights from the ceremony are broadcast on ITV on Thursday night.

With this in mind, Diane took to social media on Sunday to share her own highlights from the night, which did not give anything away. She shared a two-and-a-half-minute-long video from the celebrations, which included footage of her partying with fellow soap stars before, during and after the event.

Uploading the footage to her main grid, Diane wrote: “NO SPOILERS for those who don’t wanna know. But I am sooooo PROUD of everyone who works on @bbceastenders What a night!”

Clips showed her laughing and chatting with co-stars, encouraging members of the public in the live audience to cheer, spotlighting Anita Dobson in the crowd, and partying at the after party. Soap stars were thrown into a panic at the party, however, as the after-show venue was hit by a bomb hoax.

The event was held at London’s Hackney Town Hall after the main awards. But attendees were suddenly asked to leave the venue shortly before 1am after the event had reportedly received a bomb threat.

“We all got evacuated just before 1am. No reason was given at first and security came round and told us we had to leave immediately,” a source told The Mirror – recounting the nerves shredding experience.

“As we all waited in the street outside, security told us there had been a bomb threat. We weren’t allowed back in the building so people started making their way home.”

In a video shared with The Mirror, some of TV’s biggest soap stars can be seen waiting outside the venue as more evacuate – with the likes of EastEnders’ Tameka Empson and former Hollyoaks star Emmett J Scanlan among them.

A show source also told The Mirror: “Owing to a security alert after the recording of the awards, it was necessary to evacuate the after party venue. Everyone was cleared from the building safely.”

Meanwhile, fans of soaps took to social media to slam ITV for failing to broadcast the event live – with many annoyed that they would have to wait until Thursday before being able to see who would take to the stage.

Taking to X to slam the delay in broadcast, one fan raged: “It’s ridiculous that the British Soap Awards isn’t live… there’s more hype for the soap stars arriving outside for something not even airing on tv for another week than there is the Britain’s Got Talent final… sort it out for next year please @itv.”

The British Soap Awards 2025 will be broadcast via ITV1 and ITVX on Thursday 5 June 2025 at 8pm.

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A longtime columnist for Foreign Policy and professor of international relations at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Stephen Walt is a sharp critic of how the United States has pursued its version of liberal democracy globally, which he calls liberal hegemony. His books include Taming American Power, The Hell of Good Intentions, and the New York Times bestseller The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.

In this episode of Reframe, Ken Roth and Stephen Walt discuss how President Donald Trump is undermining democratic norms and institutions within the US and worldwide, questioning whether his leadership has brought about an unprecedented shift in its global power.

Foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE had planned the visit to discuss Palestinian statehood and end to war on Gaza.

Saudi Arabia has accused Israel of “extremism and rejection of peace” after it blocked a planned visit by Arab foreign ministers to the occupied West Bank.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud made the remarks during a joint news conference in Jordan’s capital, Amman, on Sunday with his counterparts from Jordan, Egypt, and Bahrain.

“Israel’s refusal of the committee’s visit to the West Bank embodies and confirms its extremism and refusal of any serious attempts for [a] peaceful pathway … It strengthens our will to double our diplomatic efforts within the international community to face this arrogance,” Prince Faisal said.

His comments followed Israel’s decision to block the Arab delegation from reaching Ramallah, where they were set to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had planned the visit as part of efforts to support Palestinian diplomacy amid Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

Israel controls the airspace and borders of the West Bank, and on Friday announced it would not grant permission for the visit.

“The Palestinian Authority – which to this day refuses to condemn the October 7 massacre – intended to host in Ramallah a provocative meeting of foreign ministers from Arab countries to discuss the promotion of the establishment of a Palestinian state,” an Israeli official had said, adding that Israel will “not cooperate” with the visit.

Prince Faisal’s trip to the West Bank would have marked the first such visit by a top Saudi official in recent memory.

Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said blocking the trip was another example of how Israel was “killing any chance of a just and comprehensive” Arab-Israeli settlement.

An international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, is due to be held in New York from June 17 to 20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said the conference would cover security arrangements after a ceasefire in Gaza and reconstruction plans to ensure Palestinians would remain on their land and foil any Israeli plans to evict them.

Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries, which favour a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.

Palestinian group Hamas claims a recent ceasefire proposal passed to them by United States special envoy Steve Witkoff is different from one they had agreed to a week earlier.

Basem Naim, a leading Hamas official, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the group “responded positively” to the latest proposal relayed by Witkoff, even though it offered “no guarantees to end the war”, according to Naim.

Israel has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians since October 2023, and its total aid blockade since March has caused starvation and a famine-like situation in Gaza, home to 2.3 million people, most of whom were displaced by 19 months of relentless bombardment.

Amid international pressure, Israel has allowed a trickle of aid into Gaza, which has been described as a “drop in an ocean” by humanitarian groups.

Here’s what you need to know about the ceasefire proposal.

Did Hamas reject the ceasefire proposal?

According to the group, no.

It says it responded positively but added a few key provisions.

What are the key points in Hamas’s proposal?

There are a few.

Hamas has responded to the latest US-proposed ceasefire with demands for a pathway to a permanent ceasefire, instead of a temporary one where the Israeli government could unilaterally restart hostilities as they did in March.

They have also called for a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip and the resumption of aid and assistance to the besieged area.

What are the key differences in this proposal and the one Witkoff relayed to Hamas?

Witkoff proposed a 60-day pause in hostilities. After that, the parties (Israel and Hamas) would work to agree to extend the pause.

The issue with this is that the last time it happened, Israel unilaterally decided to cut aid to Gaza and started bombing it. To avoid a similar scenario, Hamas has tried to negotiate on the timeline for releasing the captives, 10 of them alive and 18 bodies of those killed during the war. Witkoff’s proposal called for the release to take place within a week of the 60-day pause.

However, Hamas fears Israel will resume its bombing campaign upon the release of the captives, so it has called for staggering their release throughout the pause.

It has called for a set list of negotiation topics to avoid what has happened in past negotiations with Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu added provisions in what critics say was an attempt to derail talks and prolong the war.

According to the website Drop Site News, Hamas also reinserted a provision from the May 25 agreement that Israel had withdrawn.

That provision would be for Hamas to hand over the governing of Gaza to “an independent technocratic committee”.

What is the US reaction to Hamas’s additions?

Witkoff called Hamas’s response “totally unacceptable” and said it “only takes us backward”.

“Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families and in which we can have at the proximity talks substantive negotiations in good-faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire.”

I received the Hamas response to the United States’ proposal. It is totally unacceptable and only takes us backward.

Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week.

That is the only…

— Office of the Special Envoy to the Middle East (@SE_MiddleEast) May 31, 2025

US President Donald Trump previously said the two sides were nearing a deal.

What is Israel saying?

The US and Israel seem to be in agreement on the terms.

Israel claims its officials agreed with the US proposal for a 60-day ceasefire.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Israel “backed and supported” the new proposal.

Netanyahu criticised the Hamas response, parroting Witkoff and laying the blame on the Palestinian group for failing to accept the proposal.

“As Witkoff said, Hamas’s response is unacceptable and sets the situation back. Israel will continue its action for the return of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas,” Netanyahu said.

If the US and Israel agree, why is Hamas holding out?

Hamas is wary of past instances where Israel chose to unilaterally break the ceasefire. That happened in March, when Netanyahu decided to block all aid from entering Gaza and restart the war.

Tamer Qarmout, an associate professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, described the negotiations between Hamas and Israel as taking place with “no good faith whatsoever”.

“They [Israel] are fixated on one key goal, which is Hamas’s capitulation and surrender, and disappearing from the scene,” Qarmout told Al Jazeera.

“Hamas is engaged in these negotiations just to try to reduce the horrors of the war, to allow some humanitarian aid to enter and to also look for a dignified exit. No one in Hamas wants to see themselves surrendering this way.”

What happens now?

In the interim, Israel is continuing to attack Gaza.

On Sunday, Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians who had gathered at aid distribution sites run by a US-backed group, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, in southern and central Gaza. At least 31 people were killed in Rafah and another near the Netzarim Corridor.

Meanwhile, residential homes across Gaza are still being bombed relentlessly.

A BEAUTY enthusiast has revealed “the best hot girl holiday hack” that will ensure you never feel floated in a bikini again.

So if you’re lucky enough to be jetting aboard any time soon and want to feel confident in your swimwear this summer, you’ve come to the right place and will need to take notes.

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And don’t worry if your purse is feeling tighter than ever and you’ve already splashed the cash on a new beach bag and a posh pair of sandals, as this trick is incredibly purse-friendly.

In fact, it will work out at just 44p a time – yes, you heard that correctly. 

Posting on social media, Julia, who is on a mission to “glow up” her life, revealed the key to staying slender whilst abroad. 

The trainee nutritionist said: “Let me give you the best holiday bloating hot girl tip – I used to be that girl who’d go on holiday and be scared to eat all the food that I want, enjoy my time, because I’d constantly feel bloated.

“I just wouldn’t want to be in my bikini – the bloating would get so bad and uncomfortable because I was eating foods my body wasn’t used to.

“And I discovered the best hot girl holiday hack ever that means I can go away, feel comfortable in my bikini, not bloat, enjoy all the food and just have a great time.”

Julia explained that in order to put bloating at bay, she swears by the Pure Encapsulations Digestive Enzymes – supplements containing enzymes involved in the digestion of protein, carbohydrate, fat, fibre, and lactose.

Julia’s favourite Digestive Enzymes contain a high-strength, broad-spectrum mixture of vegetarian digestive enzymes that facilitate the normal breakdown of proteins and tripeptides. 

According to the product description, these supplements contain alpha-galactosidase that promotes the breakdown of certain complex carbohydrates, such as raffinose and stachyose, found in some legumes, vegetables, and grains.

In turn, this helps “to relieve occasional bloating or gas.”

A pack of 30 capsules will cost you £13.49, working out at just 44p per tablet. 

Clearly a huge fan of the supplements, the content creator continued: “I cannot tell you how much I love Digestive Enzymes – magic pill, take them 15 minutes before you eat any meal and these help you break down food your body’s not used to eating.

Omg been looking for a solution for this for years

TikTok user

“I can have a pizza and not bloat when I take Digestive Enzymes – trust me, this is worth your investment.” 

The TikTok clip, which was posted under the username @juliaglowguide, has clearly left many open-mouthed, as in just three days, it has quickly racked up 235,700 views. 

One person said: “I’ve never heard of these! Thank you.” 

Another added: “Omg been looking for a solution for this for years.” 

Meanwhile, one woman beamed: “They’re amazing, only thing that’s worked for me.” 

Unlock even more award-winning articles as The Sun launches brand new membership programme – Sun Club

WASHINGTON — The widening and increasingly bitter divide between Republicans and Democrats defines American politics, but in recent weeks, it’s the divisions inside each of the two parties that have dominated headlines.

Democratic progressives have fumed at moderate lawmakers who have insisted on cutting the size of President Biden’s social spending plans.

Republicans have denounced 13 of their House colleagues who sided with Democrats earlier this month to pass Biden’s $1.2-trillion infrastructure bill. After conservative Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted their phone numbers on social media, some of the 13 reported getting death threats.

What issues create the deep fissures within the two parties, and which Americans make up the conflicting factions?

For some 30 years, many of the best answers to those questions have come from a project of the nonpartisan Pew Research Center — a long-running effort to analyze the political groupings into which Americans cluster, which Pew refers to as a political typology.

Pew released its latest typology on Tuesday, the eighth in the series. The results are key to understanding why American politics works the way it does.

Parties driven by their extremes

For this latest effort, Pew surveyed 10,221 American adults, asking each of them a series of questions about their political attitudes, values and views of American society. Researchers took the results and put them through what’s called a cluster analysis to define groups that make up U.S. society.

The new typology divides Americans into nine such groups — four on the left, which make up the Democratic coalition, four on the right, making up the Republican coalition, and one in between whose members are largely defined by a lack of interest in politics and public affairs.

Nearly all the Democrats agree on wanting a larger government that provides more services; nearly all the Republicans want the opposite.

And nearly all Democrats believe that race and gender discrimination remain serious problems in American society that require further efforts to resolve. On the Republican side, the belief that little — if anything — remains to be done to achieve equality has become a defining principle.

On other issues, however, the parties have deep internal splits. In each, the most energized group — the people who most regularly turn out to vote, post on social media and contribute to campaigns — stands at the edges.

On the right, that would be an extremely conservative, religiously oriented, nationalistic group which Pew calls the Faith and Flag conservatives. At the other end of the scale stands a socialist-friendly, largely secular group it calls the Progressive Left.

On several major issues, those two groups have views that are “far from the rest of their coalitions,” yet they’re “the most politically engaged groups, and they’re driving the conversation,” said Carroll Doherty, Pew’s director of political research.

The Faith and Flag conservatives, who make up about 10% of American adults and almost 25% of Republicans, have shaped the party’s policies on some social issues such as abortion, but have even more strongly affected its overall approach to politics. A majority (53%) of the group, for example, says that “compromise in politics is really just selling out.”

That has strongly shaped the GOP’s approach to legislation and helps explain the bitter, angry response to the Republicans who voted for Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure compromise.

The group is overwhelmingly white (85%), relatively old (two-thirds are 50 or older) mostly Christian (4 in 10 are white, evangelical Protestants) and heavily rural.

Their mirror image, the Progressive Left, is a significantly smaller group, only about 6% of Americans and 12% of Democrats. Despite their smaller size, however, they have had a strong impact, moving their party to the left, especially on expanding government and combating climate change.

That group is in several ways the opposite of the Faith and Flag conservatives: urban, secular and significantly more college-educated than the rest of the country.

Like the Faith and Flag group, however, the Progressives are mostly white (68%) — the only Democratic faction with a white majority.

The groups have one other trait in common — each has a deep, visceral dislike of the other party.

While those two set the parameters of a lot of American political debate, it’s the other groups in each party’s coalition that explain why the Democratic and Republican approaches to government have diverged so widely.

On the Democratic side, the two biggest blocs, which make up just over half of Democratic voters, fit comfortably into the party establishment.

The Establishment Liberals (think Vice President Kamala Harris or Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg) are a racially diverse, highly educated (one-quarter have post-graduate degrees), fairly affluent group that is optimistic in its outlook, liberal in its politics and strong believers that “compromise is how things get done” in politics.

The Democratic Mainstays (think House Democratic Whip James E. Clyburn of South Carolina or President Biden) are more likely to define themselves as political moderates and are significantly more likely than other Democrats to say that religion plays a major role in their lives. Roughly 40% of Black Democrats fit into this group.

The Mainstays are more likely than other Democrats to favor increasing funds for police in their neighborhoods and somewhat less likely to favor increased immigration, but are extremely loyal to the Democratic Party.

Together, those two groups give Democrats a strong orientation toward cutting deals, making incremental progress and getting the work of government done.

Virtually the opposite is true of Republicans, whose two largest groups, the Faith and Flag conservatives and what Pew calls the Populist Right, dislike compromise and harbor deep suspicions of American institutions. Together, those groups, which make up nearly half the GOP’s voters, have produced a party that revels in opposition but has often found itself stymied when trying to govern.

The Populists group, the one most closely identified with former President Trump‘s style of politics, has a negative view of huge swaths of American society — big corporations, but also the entertainment industry, tech companies, labor unions, colleges and universities, and K-12 schools.

Nearly 9 in 10 of them believe the U.S. economic system unfairly favors the powerful, and a majority support raising taxes on big companies and the wealthy. Both of those views put them at odds with the rest of the GOP, helping explain why the party struggles to come up with economic proposals beyond opposition to Democratic plans.

The Populist Right also overwhelmingly says that immigrants coming to the U.S. make the country worse off. That puts them in conflict with the party’s smaller but still influential business-oriented establishment.

About half the Populist group say that white people declining as a share of the U.S. population is a bad thing, more than in any other group.

The Republican establishment faction (think Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky or Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah) is what Pew calls the Committed Conservatives, pro-business, generally favorable to immigration and more moderate on racial issues.

A lot of Republican elected officials fall into that group, but unlike the very large establishment blocs on the Democratic side, relatively fewer voters do — 7% of Americans and 15% of the GOP. That creates a pervasive tension between GOP elected officials and many of their constituents.

Unlike the two larger conservative blocs, in which majorities want to see Trump run again, most Republicans in this group would prefer him to take a back seat.

Each of the coalitions also has a group that is alienated from its party.

A significant number in the Ambivalent Right, a younger, socially liberal, largely anti-Trump group within the GOP, voted for Biden in 2020.

On the Democratic side, the mostly young people in the Outsider Left are very liberal, but frustrated with the Democrats and not always motivated to vote. When Democratic political figures talk about the need to boost voter turnout, those are the potential voters many of them picture.

By the way, there’s a long connection between the Los Angeles Times and the political typology project. The first version of the political typology dates back to 1987 and was developed by the long-ago Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press, a research organization founded by the company that owned The Times.

To allow readers to see how they compared to the political types in that era, The Times published the typology quiz as a full-page in print, inviting people to fill it out, mail it in and get a letter back telling them what group they belonged to. Today, you can do it all online.

The vice president abroad

On a trip this week to France, Harris is introducing herself to the world in personal terms, Noah Bierman wrote. The trip, he said, has given Harris a chance “to reveal herself on the world stage — highlighting her status as the first woman and the first woman of color to serve in such high office — after 10 months of focusing on responding to the COVD-19 pandemic and other crises,” which have taken a political toll.

Part of Harris’ goal in the trip is to further mend relations with France, which were strained when the administration struck a deal with Australia to help build nuclear submarines, which wiped out a major French contract to build boats for the Australian navy. In her speeches, however, Harris has also tried to make the case that the U.S. has moved past the Trump era and once again can be relied upon as an ally, Bierman wrote. That’s met with some skepticism from Europeans, who wonder what will happen in the next election.

Meantime, Mark Barabak looked at how Harris has adopted a much lower public profile of late. As past occupants of the office, including George H.W. Bush and Al Gore have found, the number-two job is an “inherently diminishing one,” he wrote.

The continued racial impact of freeway projects

The U.S. has largely stopped building new freeways, but projects to widen or extend existing roads continue to displace thousands of Americans, with a particularly harsh impact on communities of color, Liam Dillon and Ben Poston reported.

Their investigation, based on thousands of documents and Transportation Department data, shows that more than 200,000 people have lost their homes nationwide to federal road projects over the last three decades. In many cases, predominantly Black or Latino communities that were torn apart by freeway construction a generation or more ago have been dislocated once more by new projects.

The new data show that the U.S. has not entirely moved beyond the racist history of freeway development.

The latest from Washington

Inflation has seriously damaged several presidencies in the last half century; now, rising prices threaten Biden, Chris Megerian and Erin Logan wrote.

At the international climate conference in Glasgow, the U.S., Britain and 17 other countries agreed to reduce emissions from the shipping industry, which is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases, Anna Phillips reported. Large container ships use fuel that is dirtier by far than the diesel that powers cars. Ships can also be a major source of air pollution in port cities, including Los Angeles.

Phillips also wrote this look at what the international climate conference has achieved, including pledges to phase out gasoline-powered cars and stop building new coal-fired power plants — and what it hasn’t done.

As Democrats continue to haggle over the details of their big social spending proposal, Jennifer Haberkorn took a look at one of the plan’s largest elements — a major increase in money for early childhood education. The bill would devote about $390 billion over the next 10 years to providing preschool access to all 3- and 4-year-olds. That would mark the largest expansion of free education since high school was added about 100 years ago.

The latest from California

The state’s independent Citizens Redistricting Commission has come up with a draft map of new congressional and legislative districts, and it’s already causing heartburn for a number of incumbent lawmakers, Seema Mehta and John Myers reported.

The new maps may strengthen Latino political clout in California overall, but the most heavily Latino district in the state would be eliminated. The 40th District, represented by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, covers parts of East and South L.A. and would be parceled out among neighboring districts, Mehta reported. Roybal-Allard, 80, has raised very little money amid speculation that she has plans to retire next year. The state is losing one congressional district after last year’s census, and the loss was widely expected to come in the Los Angeles area, which has grown more slowly than other parts of the state.

The redrawn boundaries may force some incumbents to run against each other or run in districts that have suddenly become less politically secure. The Central Valley districts of GOP Rep. Devin Nunes of Tulare and Democratic Rep. Josh Harder of Turlock would both be significantly altered, according to redistricting analysts in both parties. Reps. Mike Garcia of Santa Clarita, Michelle Steel of Seal Beach and Darrell Issa of Bonsall would all find their districts becoming less secure.

But there’s a good chance the maps will change again after a two-week public comment period, which began with the commission’s approval of the maps on Wednesday night.

The Biden administration will extend a major homelessness initiative that has allowed Los Angeles and other cities to rent hotel rooms as temporary housing for thousands of people. As Ben Oreskes reported, the administration will extend the program through March. It was slated to expire at the end of the year.

In another development related to homelessness, a group looking to oust Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Bonin says it has submitted more than 39,000 signatures on recall petitions. If the signatures hold up to scrutiny, that would qualify the measure for the ballot. Bonin’s opponents have accused him of failing to take seriously the impact of crime that they say is connected to homeless encampments.

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In a region where baseball is king, the long-awaited rematch of last year’s World Series between the Dodgers and Yankees is unfolding. Ohtani. Judge. Two of the game’s best, facing off once more.

But just down the 5 Freeway in Anaheim, the home of Disney, the hottest ticket in baseball this weekend belongs to a stilted pitcher, juggling infielders and a yellow-suited, top hat-wearing carnival barker.

For back-to-back nights, more than 45,000 fans packed the Big A to see the Savannah Bananas — a team born from a small-time collegiate summer team that became a tour de force that has forever changed baseball. It was one stop during the Bananas’ most audacious barnstorming effort since their baseball traveling show hit the road just a few years ago.

The Savannah Bananas celebrate amid confetti after beating the Firefighters at Angel Stadium on Friday.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

These tickets were only available through a lottery — reserved months in advance. And when they went on sale, all were gone in an instant. The only way in was through the resale market, where just hours before first pitch on Friday, the lowest price (fees and taxes included) for a pair of tickets on StubHub was $209.52.

Meanwhile, two lowest price StuHub tickets for the Dodgers versus Yankees game were available for $171.72.

All for the sake of “Banana Ball.”

This baseball game is a ballyhoo. One rooted in the thrills, energy and pageantry of early 20th-century carnivals, but with a 21st-century twist — the atmosphere of a TikTok reel brought to life. It’s the showmanship of Ringling Brothers Circus combined with the athletic flair of the Harlem Globetrotters.

But above all, it’s a brand built on Walt Disney’s blueprint— not just to entertain, but to make the audience feel.

“When you look at all the touch points — the joy, the fun, the dancing, the celebrating — and think about all the different stages, just like Walt, we think about all the stages: from the parking lot to the plaza, to the upper deck, to the dugouts,” said Bananas owner Jesse Cole, the man in the top hat. “How do we make someone feel something?”

Instead of lounging in a cushy, air-conditioned owner’s suite, Cole is in the dugout hours before showtime — a Disney-like archetype, his energy as vibrant as his layered, all-yellow suit, braving the afternoon heat.

Savannah Bananas founder and owner Jesse Cole leads the crowd in a cheer as his team takes on the Firefighters at Angel Stadium on Friday.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

“Nonstop,” Cole said, describing Banana Ball in a nutshell. Refusing to sit, not wanting to lose an ounce of edge, he added, “It’s all about energy. We want to give people energy, delivering it every second, from the moment we open the gates at two o’clock until the last fan leaves at 11.”

While gates opened at 2 p.m., fans began arriving as early as 11 a.m. — clamoring for a shot at Banana-themed merchandise, many leaving the team tents with bags in both hands. In the parking lot, two young boys passed the time playing catch, gloves in hand.

As the afternoon wore on and the temperature climbed to 91 degrees, crowds trudged through the heat, some seeking refuge beneath the oversized Angels helmets at the stadium entrance, all for a chance to meet their favorite Banana Ballers. At the pregame plaza party, fans collected autographs, posed for photos and presented handmade gifts to players.

Savannah Bananas mascot Split marches through the crowd before the team’s game against the Firefighters at Angel Stadium Friday.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

When the gates opened, the LaCaze family pointed out their 9-year-old daughter’s favorite player, David “DR” Meadows. Decked out in her signed Meadows jersey, Carrigan LaCaze ran into his arms, with glove and oversized baseball clutched tightly and began speaking with him as if they were old friends.

“I ran to DR, and we started hugging and just started talking for a while because I missed him,” Carrigan LaCaze said. “Tomorrow is actually one year on the dot since I met him.”

A Christmas road trip planned around the holidays, the family of four traveled across three states from their home in Alexandria, La., to Anaheim for two reasons: to visit Disneyland and see the Bananas. It was their second game — the family first saw the Bananas in the club’s hometown of Savannah, Ga., when Carrigan, who is battling cystic fibrosis, was granted a Make-A-Wish experience so meaningful it was a no-brainer to relive it.

“It’s great,” her father, Pierre LaCaze, said of the player interactions. “We’ve gotten to keep track with some of them during the course of the year. We come back, we see them again. You know they’re truly about the fans.”

Rainer Easton, 11, tries to catch a yellow “Banana Ball” from the stands before the Savannah Bananas take on the Firefighters at Angel Stadium on Friday.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

The Bananas don’t sell tickets. They sell connections, moments and memories.

For Cole, meetings are a constant brainstorming session on how to keep fans engaged and interacting. That’s how he measures success. He says when the focus shifts to transactions, the game begins to lose its meaning.

“Our success is not judged by revenue,” Cole said. “It’s not judged by sales. It’s judged by the moments we create.”

But the numbers don’t lie.

The last time the Bananas came to Southern California, they played in front of 5,000 fans at LoanMart Field in Rancho Cucamonga in 2023 — a far cry from now selling out 18 major league ballparks and three football stadiums with capacities over 70,000.

Fans fill the stands as the Savannah Bananas take on the Firefighters in front of a sold out crowd Friday at Angel Stadium.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

Attendance has soared year after year. Last season, the Bananas drew one million fans. This year, that number is expected to double, with more than three million people on the waitlist for their ticket lottery. Every game since February has sold out and every date in June and July is as well.

Michael and Melinda Schulteis, a husband and wife from Mission Viejo, were there the last time the Bananas came to town. When they heard the team was returning, they knew they couldn’t miss it.

“The intimate atmosphere at the last event was great,” Melinda Schulteis said. “But I’m curious, because they do such a good job putting on events, what touches are they going to add to still keep it close and intimate and give us another great experience?”

As the Bananas’ success and reach have grown, spilling out from cozy minor league parks into stadiums not built for intimacy, the games still feel like family gatherings. Whether serenading players with stadium anthems like Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” or the waving of phone lights to Coldplay’s “Yellow,” the crowd moves in sync, no matter the tune.

While they’re a privately owned team and don’t disclose revenue figures, they’ve confirmed generating millions. Much like their box office appeal, their social media reach extends into the millions as well.

The Savannah Bananas perform a kick line before taking on the Firefighters at Angel Stadium on Friday.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

Their antics — choreographed dances, lip-synced walk-ups, backflip outfield catches — have attracted nearly 10 million followers on TikTok, almost double the combined total of the Dodgers and Angels. That viral mastery, and the parasocial bonds it fosters, is part of what makes every game feel tight-knit.

With his glove by his side, hoping to catch a foul ball for an out — one of the many offbeat rules of Banana Ball — Michael Schulties was disappointed he missed his favorite player, RobertAnthony Cruz, whom he first discovered on social media through his baseball coaching channel, better known as “Coach RAC.”

Cruz, who drew the longest meet-and-greet line, is a former minor leaguer in the Nationals’ farm system and a local — born just an hour away in Fontana. The game was a homecoming for Cruz, who joined the Bananas in 2023.

With more than 70 family members and friends in attendance — and even more social media direct messages asking for tickets — playing in big league stadiums has become a dream come true, especially for a former minor leaguer whose baseball ambitions nearly died when he never got the call to the show.

Savannah Bananas pitcher Correlle Prime delivers at Angel Stadium on Friday.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

Behind all the gimmicks, wackiness and absurdity, the roster is still filled with ballplayers — many of them with unrealized MLB dreams — now finding a second life through Banana Ball. And for Cruz, it’s the happiest he’s ever been in the sport.

“I never would have imagined playing in this capacity,” Cruz said. “Banana Ball didn’t even exist when I was pursuing my dream of professional baseball. To be here, to see a sold-out crowd at a stadium that I went to growing up all the time, it’s very special.”

As the team travels the nation, sold-out crowds and newfound stardom have become the norm for Cruz.

“I’m not surprised by anything anymore,” Cruz said. “If you told me that we’re playing on the moon next year, I’d be like, ‘All right, cool. Let me know when and where, and I’ll be there’ … I wouldn’t be surprised if this thing continues to grow at an unprecedented rate.”

Despite their growing success, the Bananas’ brand of baseball remains polarizing — an easy target for detractors of zaniness, gatekeepers of fun and opponents of pizzazz who either don’t understand it or refuse to see its appeal.

“Anybody that criticizes this, we’re not for them,” Cole said. “There’s tradition in baseball, perfect. They’ve got Major League Baseball. … For people that want to come out and have fun, not take themselves too seriously and see something they’ve never seen before — and hopefully see the greatest show in sports — we built something for you.”

The formula works. And again, the numbers don’t lie.

The Savannah Bananas’ Jackson Olson celebrates a Troy Glaus base hit while the Bananas take on the Firefighters at Angel Stadium on Friday. Comedian Bert Kreischer celebrated behind the Bananas in the dugout.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

Yes, the Savannah Bananas’ brand of baseball is far too outlandish ever to be compared to the major leagues — from flaming baseballs, rump-shaking umps and dress rehearsals. That’s the point. It all feels like something conjured from the wildest dreams of the late Bill Veeck’s imagination found a home, in a good way.

With many of the Banana Ball’s 11 rules — like an automatic strike when hitters step out of the box or ejecting bunting hitters because bunting “sucks” — are grounded in some sports-based logic, the innovations remain sacrilegious to baseball purists.

But for a fleeting moment in December, Major League Baseball and Banana Ball were almost linked.

In Banana Ball, the Golden Batter rule allows teams, once per game, to send their best hitter to the plate regardless of where they fall in the batting order.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred caused a stir when he floated a potential seismic rule by floating, making an offhand comment about the golden batter rule. Manfred later clarified it was merely “a very preliminary conversation” among members of the league’s competition committee and had not been formally discussed by the full ownership group.

A far-fetched idea, but Manfred has ushered in sweeping changes, from the widely praised pitch clock to the more contentious extra-inning “ghost runner.”

“Anything that’s best for the fans, I’m all in,” Cole said of its potential. “I know Major League Baseball won’t do it because of traditions, but … we’ve had a lot of fun doing it.”

The Firefighters run on the field before taking on the Savannah Bananas at Angel Stadium on Friday.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

But MLB would be behind the Bananas, who already introduced their version of the rule last season with a typical flair and showmanship. Their spin on it is a batter summoned from the dugout wearing a James Brown-esque cape and a gleaming golden helmet — an honor that went to Joe Lytle, who came to bat in the top of the ninth for the Bananas’ Anaheim opponent, the Firefighters.

Ultimately, in a game where the score isn’t the end-all, be-all — but the fun is — the Bananas beat the Firefighters 5–2.

Like any other Bananas game, the festivities took center stage. It began with the “First Peel,” a signature ceremony in which a young fan bites into a banana to declare whether it’s good or bad — setting the tone for the night.

Heisman Trophy winner and USC legend Matt Leinart threw out the ceremonial first spiral (because, of course, he did). And in true fashion, Angels World Series MVP Troy Glaus made a surprise cameo as a pinch hitter.

But what was more important was the trip to Anaheim, a fitting one for Cole and Co.

The team that opened its season lip-syncing “Be Our Guest” from the Disney classic “Beauty and the Beast” — and its owner, cut from the same theatrical cloth as Disney — were celebrated a visit to the Happiest Place on Earth — Disneyland.

Savannah Bananas founder and owner Jesse Cole provides color commentary during the baby race between innings at Angel Stadium on Friday.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

Greeted by fans in yellow gear, Cole’s creation — the Bananas — marched in step down Main Street U.S.A., alongside Walt’s own — Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Donald Duck.

“When I walked underneath the castle and over the bridge and in front of thousands of people, they were all there for us,” Cole said. “Then I look and see Walt’s statue, holding the hand of Mickey, and I see that and I’m like, ‘This is special.’”

It was a full-circle moment for Cole, who became “immersed in the magic” after his first trip to Disney World as a kid — and who now says, “In a perfect world, I’d play catch with Walt on Main Street.” Serendipity.

“For me, that was an emotional moment — to know that we have worked so hard to create something that means something to people, that they come from all over the country just for a chance to see us,” Cole added.

Activist Greta Thunberg says silence is more dangerous than sailing to Gaza, as she boarded a vessel that will try to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The Gaza Freedom Flotilla had to abandon its last attempt on May 2 when it was bombed.

Manchester United have agreed a deal with Wolves for the signing of Brazil striker Matheus Cunha.

The 26-year-old is set to become United’s first signing of the summer after the club activated a £62.5m release clause in Cunha’s Wolves contract.

The former Atletico Madrid forward will sign a five-year deal at Old Trafford, with the option of a further 12 months.

Cunha was in Manchester over the weekend to complete a medical with the club.

The deal, which is subject to visa approval and registration procedures, is expected to be completed once Cunha returns from international duty with Brazil later this month.

The forward has scored 31 goals in 76 appearances since completing a permanent move to Wolves in 2023.

Tom Llamas first stepped into NBC’s Rockefeller Center headquarters in 2000 as a fresh-faced intern.

On Monday, he becomes part of television news history as the fifth anchor of “NBC Nightly News” and the first Latino journalist to helm a daily English-language network evening newscast (one of his mentors, Jose Diaz-Balart, handles the Saturday edition of “Nightly”).

Llamas, 45, takes over for Lester Holt, who will move full time to NBC’s “Dateline” after a 10-year run in the anchor chair. Llamas will remain the anchor of “Top Story,” a live, hourlong newscast on the network’s free streaming platform NBC News Now.

The son of Cuban immigrants, Llamas grew up in Miami, where he continues to have strong ties (pop superstar Gloria Estefan and “Sabado Gigante” host Don Francisco attended a party in Florida to celebrate his promotion). He lives in Westchester County, N.Y., with his wife, Jennifer, three children aged 12, nine and seven, and a dedicated room for his vinyl record collection built from a decade of crate-digging while traveling around the world on assignment.

He recently spoke with The Times about his new role.

You’ve known Lester Holt since you were a 21-year-old production assistant at NBC News. What advice did he give you for your new role?

He’s been married to this job. And so I asked him about that, because my kids have always known me as a network correspondent and a network anchor. But he told me, “Your life is going to change.” And he explained to me that everyone’s going to want a piece of you and there’s going to be a lot of demands, even more than you’ve ever experienced.

And he’s been right about that. He said, “You have to make the right decisions when it comes to your career and your family.” My wife and my kids have known that sometimes I’ll be at a little league game or I’ll be at a school play, and I have to run and jump on a plane because there’s breaking news. And they understand that their dad does that. But we always have conversations about it. And it’s tough.

Do your children watch “NBC Nightly News” and “Top Story”?

Oh yeah.

I had my 7-year-old explaining the election to his classmates. He was walking them through when President Biden stepped down and Kamala Harris took over the nomination. Sometimes it’s tough. They were watching that night during Hurricane Milton last summer when a transformer exploded over my head, and that is a little scary. There were some text messages and calls to me quickly.

Sometimes they watch a little too much and we have to turn it off. But they are very plugged-in; they know the world around them. It’s just the same way I was raised. We watched news in English and Spanish as far back as I can remember. Because my parents were always searching for news out of Cuba.

Tom Llamas reporting from Kyiv in March 2022.

(NBC News)

What are your early news viewing memories?

I can really remember any time Fidel Castro was going to be interviewed. It was always a major moment, right? I remember my parents watching the interview and then deciding if it was a fair interview or not and having an open conversation about that. So I’m hearing about conversations of fairness my entire life. And I see what it means and how viewers react to that.

Did that inspire you to go into the profession?

I don’t know if it was an inspiration as much as it was a testament of how important the news is. It’s just that my family relied on the news. They wanted to know what was happening in their home country. They wanted to know what was happening in America. And they listened, and they trust these people.

What made the powers that be decide that you should keep doing “Top Story” while doing “Nightly”?

It was actually my idea.

Right now, in this country, you’ve got to be everywhere. And I didn’t want to lose what we’ve established for three and a half years. We just got nominated for an Emmy up against amazing legacy shows like “Nightly News,” “ABC World News Tonight” and the “CBS Evening News.” To be in that circle with a streaming show that is three years old, that’s been one of the greatest achievements of my career. Because this was a startup. And a lot of people said we couldn’t do this, and we have.

President Trump basically declared war on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. [The Federal Communications Commission has called for an investigation into NBC’s parent firm Comcast for what it describes as “DEI discrimination.”] Has that muted the achievement of being the first Latino to anchor an English-speaking nightly newscast?

I don’t think I got this job because I’m Hispanic; I think I got this job because I’m the best person for the job. And I know that’s what NBC believes, too.

My life story is something I’m very proud of. [My parents] essentially came to this country with nothing. They had no money, they barely spoke the language, and this incredible country gave them a second chance. It gave them a new home. And they taught me hard work, but they also taught me to love this country. And I do, I think this is the greatest place in the world, hands down. To become the anchor of “Nightly News” tells me that the American dream is still very alive.

NBC’s Tom Llamas in Rome, covering the death of Pope Francis in April 2025.

(NBC News)

You’re from the streaming music generation, but you have a vinyl record collection. How did that happen?

Ten or 12 years ago, I went to my friend’s house in Los Angeles and he has a record player. I think he played “Sticky Fingers” from the Rolling Stones. We just chilled and we listened to the album. And I thought, “What a great experience.”

Then I realized the other fun part about records is just finding them and collecting them, and trying to get original pressings. I have Wilson Pickett records that were made in Spain. I have Beatles records where the liner notes and the album covers are in different languages. I have a room where I have them — it feels like you’re walking into a jukebox. It’s where I read the paper sometimes. It’s where I prepare for big election nights. I’ll be in there for hours. It’s how I relax.

What’s on your turntable at the moment?

I’m in a bit of a hard-bop phase, so I’m listening to a lot of Art Blakey, a lot of Cannonball Adderley. I’ve been trying to find great live albums. I picked up this great five-record set from Bruce Springsteen, the run he had in the late ’70s through the ’80s. And a great album, which I got turned on to, is Elvis Presley’s “From Elvis in Memphis.” He recorded that in 1969, when Jimi Hendrix was taking off and Woodstock was happening. And it’s just a very country Americana album with beautiful songs. It’s got the Memphis Boys backing him.

You have good taste in music.

I appreciate it.

In solitary, it was almost always freezing. Prisoners would wrap themselves in sheets and extra clothes and walk back and forth just to stay warm. Some days, I could see my own breath.

I suffered in silence, but some inmates would rip up their blankets, stuff them into their toilets and start flushing, flooding the unit.

One night, prisoners on the top portion of the unit started to “flood” together. Filthy water poured down from the upper floor to the lower level, flooding the cells there. My cell filled with water up to my knees. Later, as the pipes were clogged, the toilets started to flood, including mine, adding to the mess. Horrified, I jumped onto my bed, but the dirty water started to rise until it lapped at the edge of my mattress.

I yelled for the officers to help, but no one came. After some time, the water stopped rising and began to recede, but the damage was done – my cell was filthy. An hour or two later, an officer came by, and I pleaded with him to open the door.

He smiled. “It’s third shift” – meaning the unit had to stay locked up – “I’m not opening any doors.”

“It’s nasty in here, bro. Please let me at least get the water out,” I begged.

“You’ll be alright,” he said, then walked away.

There was faeces all over the floor. I felt like an animal in a cage.

‘Please no, not again’

My trial began in December 2004 and lasted until my conviction in April 2005. I was kept in isolation until August 2005 when I was sent to NJSP. It had been two years of solitary confinement.

At NJSP, I was immediately placed in a general population unit. I could now go to the mess hall to have three meals a day, access religious services and be put on work detail in the kitchen, laundry or other areas in the prison. I could go to the yard and gym and have regular visitors.

I learned that the only way you ended up in isolation was by getting in trouble. So I made it my business to stay clear of any.

But 17 years later, I ended up in lockup for having an unauthorised USB wire. I was sent to a “temporary” holding cell for prison-related infractions. The tiers above held prisoners doing AdSeg time. Unlike the county jail lockup, this place was loud – ear-shatteringly loud.

Some prisoners were cursing at each other. Others were cursing the cops who, in turn, were cursing and yelling at the inmates. And then there were the door bangers kicking the metal doors of their cells like donkeys. It was a zoo.

The previous occupant had evidently been disturbed. The mattress was in tatters. There was decomposing food. A dried pile of faeces sat in the stainless-steel toilet.

Still, I wasn’t a fresh-faced newcomer anymore. I was now a middle-aged man with nearly 20 years of experience in one of the country’s most notorious prisons.

I mustered my strength and joined the chorus of prisoners, calling on the unit officer for some cleaning supplies and a “night bag” – soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, clothing, toilet paper, a spoon, cup, bedsheets and a blanket.

“What you want?” a young officer, overworked and disheveled, asked me.

I pointed to the faeces on the toilet. He simply shrugged and told me to use the water from the sink to clean it.

“What am I supposed to clean that with?” I asked, agitated.

“Use your hands,” he said and walked away.

It took two decades of patience and self-control for me to hold onto my rising anger.

The next two days, I paced.

It was the third night when I heard the kid next door starting to flush. I knew what was coming, but I had no blankets or sheets to block the door. Dirty water started to pour into my cell. As the water level kept rising, I hopped on my metal bed and prayed that the toilet wouldn’t start overflowing. “Please, no, not again,” I begged.

Reporting from Washington — For President Trump, chants and signs saying “Build the wall” are so 2016 — “Finish the wall” is his new rallying cry. Yet two years into his term, not one new mile of a barrier has been erected along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.

At a rally in El Paso on Monday night, Trump went so far as to declare that nearby, just that day, “the big beautiful wall right on the Rio Grande” had gotten underway. In fact, some brush was cleared in anticipation of construction, according to a check with the Homeland Security Department.

If and when a 25-mile physical barrier ultimately is built there, it will represent the first new miles of border barriers since Trump took office. That is the reality that the president — a businessman and self-proclaimed construction expert elected in part on his promise to build a massive border wall — is increasingly attempting to obscure as he looks to reelection.

Even as the president has failed to get the funding he wants for a wall, despite two years with a Republican-controlled Congress, he has shifted to declaring victory and claiming credit for the 654 miles of fencing constructed under his predecessors — the same former presidents he often criticizes for their border policies, as he did Tuesday by derisively referring to “our past geniuses.”

Trump himself directed campaign officials that “Finish the wall” was to be the theme of the El Paso rally, according to a person familiar with the planning. With the slogan on red and blue banners hanging from the rafters, and on signs distributed to the crowd, when supporters chanted the usual “Build the wall,” Trump corrected them: “You mean finish the wall.”

The president’s attempted sleight of hand on his signature issue comes amid both deepening resignation in his circle that Democrats in Congress are not going to support significant increases in wall funding and concern about disappointing his core supporters.

“The point is this wall will not be built without Donald Trump in office in 2021 and beyond,” said Raj Shah, a former White House deputy press secretary.

Even after a record five-week partial government shutdown provoked by Trump’s funding demand, and current efforts by lawmakers to avoid another impasse, Congress will not be approving anywhere close to the $5.7 billion he’s been demanding to finance 230 miles of new wall. Instead, tentative plans in Congress call for less than a quarter of that — $1.375 billion for 55 miles of barrier.

“Am I happy? The answer is no, I’m not. I’m not happy,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. Claiming that he is “adding to” the emerging compromise, Trump did not say if he would sign off on the deal. He did say he does not expect another shutdown, which would occur if he doesn’t sign a spending bill for about a quarter of the government by midnight Friday.

Administration officials have been looking to redirect existing funds to his wall project. In his remarks to reporters during a Cabinet meeting, the president sought to reassure supporters that he’ll fulfill his promise regardless of what Congress does.

“It’s very simple: We’re building a wall and now I say we’re finishing a wall,” he said, repeating the false claim.

A campaign official, who asked to remain unidentified for speaking on the sensitive topic, argued that there is nothing contradictory in the president simultaneously claiming the wall is being finished and complaining that Congress won’t fund it.

“You can be at Mile 2 of a [26.2-mile] marathon and still say, ‘We’re going to finish,’” the person said. “And we are at Mile 2, not Mile 24. But we’ve erected some barricades, so it’s not nothing.”

The president, according to the official, “is just reassuring his voters because he knows he’s likely going to end up accepting a deal” that’s less than he sought.

Much of the work that Trump is touting consists of strengthening or restoring the existing 654 miles of pedestrian and vehicle barriers largely built or funded under the George W. Bush and Obama administrations, according to the Government Accountability Office.

From 2007 to 2015, the Customs and Border Protection agency spent about $2.3 billion to increase barriers on the border from 119 miles to the current 654 miles, with almost all of the work done on land, much of it federally owned, in California, Arizona and New Mexico. East of El Paso, much of the land along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas — the least-fenced area — is privately owned.

So far under Trump, Congress has approved nearly $1 billion to replace more than 50 miles of fencing in California, New Mexico and Texas, the GAO reported.

Several of these renovation projects, in what are known as the El Paso and El Centro sectors, were completed in October. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen boasted that the latter was the completion of the “first section” of Trump’s border wall. More replacement construction is underway, due to wrap up this spring.

More than $640 million of the funds Congress provided last year is for 25 miles of fencing along levees in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley as well as areas in the sector “to be determined.” That is the only new construction approved under Trump so far.

Carlos A. Diaz, a CBP spokesman, said the fiscal 2018 budget, which covered spending through September last year, included roughly three dozen new miles of a levee and border wall system in the Rio Grande Valley. Construction on the first 14 miles of the levee system is to begin this month.

The Homeland Security Department planned to spend billions to meet Trump’s executive orders for his border wall despite lacking key information on cost, acquisition and technology issues — risking that a wall would “cost more than projected, take longer than planned or not fully perform as expected,” the GAO concluded in August. Cost estimates have ranged from $20 billion to more than $70 billion.

For fiscal year 2019, through Oct. 1, the White House initially requested $1.6 billion for a wall system along 65 miles in the Rio Grande Valley. Now, after a shutdown estimated to have cost the U.S. economy $11 billion, the spending agreement reached Monday night would give Trump about $200 million and 10 miles less than what he stood to get before he upped his demand to nearly $6 billion late last year.

In his struggle to win Congress’ buy-in, Trump has significantly redefined what, exactly, his wall would be. He campaigned for a “big, beautiful wall” that he’s since variably said would be precast or plank concrete, steel slats, see-through, human, “matte black,” too tall to climb over, too deep to tunnel under, to be paid for by Mexico or paid for inexplicably by the benefits of a revised trade agreement with Canada and Mexico.

Trump’s former chief of staff and Homeland Security secretary, John F. Kelly, told The Times late last year: “To be honest, it’s not a wall.”

“Now he’s tended toward steel slats,” Kelly said. “But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we asked people what they needed and where they needed it.”

The Trump administration awarded more than $3 million for the construction and design of eight border wall prototypes — four of reinforced concrete and two that could be seen through.

Congress’ tentative spending agreement would restrict CBP to using currently deployed designs for the new border barrier, including steel slats or bollard fencing. But it remains unclear whether the House and Senate will approve the compromise, or whether Trump will sign it if they do.

Key Trump supporters, led by Fox News host Sean Hannity, bashed the agreement as soon as it was announced for backing off the president’s $5.7-billion demand. Some liberal Democrats are likely to oppose any new funding for a border fence and complain that negotiators dropped a proposed cap on how many immigrants Trump can detain.

Still, Trump insisted Tuesday: “We’re getting a beautiful-looking structure that’s also less expensive to build and works much better.”

“I never kid about construction,” he added. “I love construction.”

The latest from Washington »

Paolini had a breakthrough year in 2024, reaching the French Open and Wimbledon finals and was regarded a title contender in Paris.

The 29-year-old came into the tournament in good form after winning the Italian Open last month, and started well, taking the opening three games.

After the pair traded breaks, Paolini pummelled a forehand winner past Svitolina for the decisive one to take the first set 6-4.

As both struggled to hold in the second set, Paolini served at 5-3, but Svitolina saved two match points and forced a tie-break.

The 30-year-old held off another match point in the tie-break before winning the set and taking control in the deciding third set.

Svitolina dominated with her forehand, hitting 10 winners to Paolini’s four, before a backhand down the line secured her place in the last-eight.

Relentless monsoon rains across the northeastern states leave a trail of deaths and destruction.

At least 30 people have died in India’s northeast after relentless monsoon rains caused floods and landslides over the weekend, Indian officials and media reports say.

Authorities on Sunday said at least eight people were killed in Assam state and nine more in neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh, many of them buried under earth and debris dislodged by the torrential downpour.

Three members of one family were killed in a mudslide in Assam’s Guwahati, officials said, as heavy rains led to flooding in many areas of the city, leading to long power outages and prompting authorities to shut schools and colleges on Saturday.

Authorities disconnected electricity in several areas to reduce the risk of electrocution, Assam’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

In Mizoram state, five people lost their lives in a landslide, while six others died in Meghalaya state. Officials in Nagaland and Tripura states also confirmed two deaths.

Meghalaya’s Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma ordered emergency teams to stay vigilant, “especially in landslide-prone and low-lying areas”, he warned in a public statement.

The Indian Army launched a large-scale rescue effort in Manipur state, evacuating hundreds. “People have been shifted to safer places,” the army said. “Food, water and essential medicines were provided.”

The downpour has continued for three straight days, and India’s weather agency has forecast more heavy rains in the region in the coming days as it issued a red alert for several northeastern districts.

Rivers across the region, including the Brahmaputra, which originates in the Himalayas and flows through India into Bangladesh, have breached their banks, submerging vast areas and cutting off access to many communities.

Floods and landslides are common during India’s June-to-September monsoon season, which is vital for agriculture but often deadly. Dozens of people die each year as rainfall overwhelms fragile infrastructure across the world’s most populous country.

Last month, Mumbai was deluged by rain nearly two weeks before its usual beginning, the earliest monsoon arrival in the capital city of the western state of Maharashtra in over two decades, according to meteorological officials.

Scientists say climate change is altering weather patterns across South Asia, but the precise effects on the monsoon system remain unclear.

At least 30 Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians waiting for aid near a distribution hub in Rafah, run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The attack comes amid disputes over the text of a US-backed ceasefire proposal.

Doctor Who star Billie Piper has had an eventful and dramatic life off screen – including teen pop success followed by death threats and two controversial marriages

It’s fair to say Billie Piper has had a very rocky road to achieving stardom as a critically acclaimed actress, and her love life hasn’t been easy either. But she’s also amassed an impressive net worth and has welcomed three children.

The 42-year-old, who hails from Swindon, first became famous almost thirty years ago – as a mid-teens pop sensation. She then reinvented herself as an actor, playing companion Rose Tyler to Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor in the 2005 reboot of Doctor Who. Surprising critics and viewers with her screen talent, she continues to do so today.

And now, 20 years later, she has shocked us again. In this series finale, Ncuti Gatwa’s current Dr Who was regenerated to reveal Billie, thought to be the new doc. It’s a stunning return to the series that first made her acting name.

But off screen, Billie has endured some tough times. Here, the Mirror looks back at her life so far, from her difficult teenage years, popstar fame, turbulent romances and impressive net worth…

READ MORE: David Tennant’s wife breaks silence on Billie Piper’s bombshell Doctor Who news

School friends with Amy Wineh

Billie’s gifts were evident at a young age, and at 12 years old she made the move from Swindon to London to attend the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School. Aimed at nurturing future talent, the institution has produced many household names, but not all pupils had an easy time of it – including Billie’s childhood friend Amy Winehouse.

During a recent episode of Jessie Ware’s Table Manners podcast, Billie offered some insight into what Amy was really like as a young girl. Remembering her as ‘super clever, super bright’, Billie revealed: “She was always cheeky. She was always like that, you know. She would do abstract stuff, and I really loved it.”

Sadly, Amy’s differences didn’t always go down well with her fellow pupils, and Billie remembers the iconic singer being badly bullied. She continued: “She got bullied quite a lot at school because she was doing her own thing, and she liked to push buttons, and do weird stuff. And I had a lot of space for that, but not many of the girls did. It wasn’t the easiest ride.”

Teenage fame struggles

Billie skyrocketed to pop stardom at the age of just 15 with her infectiously catchy 1998 anthem ‘Because We Want To’. She became the youngest artist to debut at number one in the UK Chart with the hit, and singles ‘Honey to The Bee’ and ‘Girlfriend’ followed.

Although many ’90s teens would have been green with envy, topping the singles chart at such a young age came with its challenges.

During a 2021 episode of Desert Island Discs, she recalled how strange it felt moving to her own flat before her 16th birthday, all while dealing with the surrealness of overnight fame. Speaking of her regrets, Billie told Lauren Laverne: “At the time, it felt really exciting and liberating and satisfied me with this quest to be a grown-up. It also felt extremely desperate and lonely sometimes.

“I was seeing and experiencing a lot of life at a very young age. Now, when I look back at it now that I have my own children, it seems unbelievably unsafe and plays in unhealthily to my parenting.”

Death threats

Billie also endured a horrific campaign of harassment in her younger years as a star. In 2001, a woman penned abuse-laden messages which she then read down the phone to Billie’s record company, Blackfriars Crown Court was told in 2001.

She called the teenage chart-topper a “whore” and warned of decapitation, dismemberment, burning, flogging and shooting. The abuse reportedly began because the woman thought the performer had given her a “dirty look” during a recording of a TV show, which she attended as an audience member.

Boyband heartache

Billie met Five singer Ritchie Neville when they were teenagers, having just been thrust into the spotlight with their respective pop careers. They were love’s young dream until Ritchie broke Billie’s heart when he cheated.

Ritchie said he was full of “regret” over his betrayal with a Russian beauty while on tour in the country – who subsequently sold her story to a British newspaper in 2000.

Speaking on the BBC documentary Boybands Forever he said: “It massively hurt somebody that I loved. I regret any pain I caused but equally I was 19 you know? I made a mistake. It ended a relationship.”

Wild age gap marriage

Billie married her first husband, Chris Evans, in 2001 when she was just 18 years old, a mere five months after their first date. Given that Chris was 16 years her senior, the age gap romance raised eyebrows at the time, but Billie looks back on their time together as a period of fun and healing.

Opening up with her former Doctor Who co-star on David Tennant Does A Podcast With…, Billie reflected: “I went and got completely hammered for three years with Chris Evans. So much fun – just living very hard. But with a lot of love and a big dose of curiosity and just, yeah – amazing time.

“It’s funny because everyone framed that period in my life as these sort of horribly debauched, irresponsible, me falling apart looking like s***, putting on weight. That was really important to me, that period of my life. I needed that. Me not looking perfect every day in a tabloid was the best way for me to heal.

“Every time there would be a picture of me looking completely groomed and manicured within an inch of my life, I can tell you I was completely unhappy and starving and dark on the inside. And I haven’t brushed my hair since!”

She added: “We really had a really amazing time together. I imagine it’s what your uni years feel like – sort of reckless, but you’re learning a lot. It was an incredible time and, not to undermine our relationship because we also had a very loving relationship. It wasn’t just ‘oh, we’re going out and getting f*****’ – we had a very caring and loving relationship.”

Their whirlwind marriage came to an end in 2004, amid rumours of ‘screaming rows’, but Billie and Chris are said to remain close friends to this day.

Kids and splits

In 2006, Billie entered into a relationship with Lewis actor turned right-wing activist Laurence Fox, with the couple tying the knot one year later. They went on to welcome two sons, Winston and Eugene before calling time on their marriage in 2016.

In a recent interview with British Vogue the mother-of-two said of her controversial ex: “I’ve had to make some choices and a divorce speaks for itself. Or at least it should.” Laurence is often in the spotlight for his much-criticised views.

In the interview, she added: “I close everything down and keep a very strict routine with the kids so that there’s consistency.

“I keep them close. That’s all I can do. I try to keep people from telling me stuff but it’s really, really hard. I don’t read it but everyone wants to talk about it. Sometimes I have to say to people, ‘Please don’t bring this to me, now or ever’.”

She went on to have a relationship with former Tribes frontman Johnny Lloyd, and they welcomed their daughter, Tallulah, who they welcomed in 2019. After eight years together, they split in 2023, citing that their ‘relationship ran its course’.

In a candid chat aired on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast in 2021, Billie spoke about the difficulties of juggling motherhood with a hectic career. Billie shared: “Striking a balance is unachievable and as soon as you let go and just accept that, there are useful changes… I cry at the end of every day and spend an hour in bed saying, ‘I’ll be better tomorrow, I swear. I’m going to read my parenting manual tonight and everything will be better tomorrow.'”

In an open letter to Tallulah, published in Stylist, Billie reflected that she’d been so fearful of having a daughter, anguished by all she didn’t want her to experience, that she didn’t realise just how overjoyed she’d be by her arrival.

She wrote: “You have restored – without knowing it – all my faith in strong female energy. I want to learn from you and revel in your beauty. You are not just female, you are other. And from listing all of my anxieties above (there are many and I promise to always work on myself), I’m at my most calm and able around you. You are powerful.”

Huge net worth

After her time on Doctor Who in 2005, Billie picked up leading roles in Secret Diary of a Call Girl and I Hate Suzie, which she co-created alongside playwright Lucy Prebble, as well as starring in the Netflix drama, Scoop.

Not to mention her glittering stage career – winning Best Theatre Actress for Great Britain in 2014 and being honoured with a Laurence Olivier Award among countless other accolades for her lead performance in Yerma in 2017.

Following her impressive career, she has amassed an impressive net worth. The actress is estimated to have a net worth of $12 million (around £9 million), according to Celebrity Net Worth.

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Flash floods triggered by heavy rains have devastated a central Nigerian state, killing at least 150 people and displacing thousands since Thursday, and rescue workers say the toll could rise.

Search and rescue operations are ongoing as roads have been damaged and homes destroyed while bodies are believed to have been swept down the Niger River.

Here is what to know about the floods and how prone Nigeria is to such events.

What areas in Nigeria are flooding?

Flash floods hit Mokwa, a market town located in Nigeria’s north-central Niger State. It followed intense rainfall that began about 3am (02:00 GMT) on Thursday, according to the Nigerian Red Cross Society.

Mokwa is a key meeting and transit point for traders from the south and food growers in the north. It is about 350km (217 miles) by road east of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. Mokwa has an estimated population of 400,000 while Niger is the country’s fourth largest state by size, covering more area than Belgium or Switzerland.

How many people have died?

More than 150 people have been confirmed killed while rescue teams continue to recover bodies and search for missing people.

The actual death toll is likely higher as many victims are believed to have been swept down the Niger River, Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris said, reporting from Mokwa.

“The usual thing is when an official tells you 151 are dead or missing, you are likely to multiply that by two, three or four,” he said.

At least 3,018 people have been displaced, 265 houses destroyed and two bridges washed away in the floods, according to Ibrahim Audu Husseini, a spokesman for the Niger State Emergency Management Agency.

Of those injured, 121 were in hospital, and more than 100 people were missing, Gideon Adamu, head of the Red Cross in Niger State, told the AFP news agency on Saturday.

“We can’t give up the search as long as there are families crying out,” Adamu said.

Farida Auwalu, the lone survivor from a family of 16, lost seven children in the deluge. The bodies of four of Farida’s children have been found and buried.

“My hope is to see the remaining bodies and give them a decent burial and have closure,” she told Al Jazeera.

What caused the flooding in Nigeria?

Experts said the frequency and severity of floods in Nigeria have increased due to climate change, unregulated construction and poor drainage infrastructure.

Mokwa residents also believe the flooding was caused by “a bigger problem upstream, maybe a dam burst, but up to now, officials are not confirming that”, Idris said. Niger State has three major dams – Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro – while a fourth is under construction.

Despite flood risks being identified, there has been a lack of political will to implement the solutions for them, according to Ugonna Nkwunonwo, a flood risk analyst at the University of Nigeria. “The amount of rain you expect in a year could probably come in one or two months, and people are not prepared for that kind of rainfall,” he told Al Jazeera.

Many areas in the country lack proper drainage systems, and existing ones are often clogged with waste, causing water to accumulate on the streets during heavy rains. Additionally, rapid urban development without proper planning has led to the construction of buildings in flood-prone areas, reducing the land’s natural ability to absorb water. Deforestation for agriculture and development further reduces the land’s capacity to soak up rainfall, increasing the flow of water over the land.

Local leaders and residents are calling for state and federal authorities to intervene with long-term support and infrastructure to rebuild their communities and protect them from flooding.

“Warnings have been put out by authorities for people exposed or communities living along river banks to move to higher ground, especially when the rains start to peak, but every year, we continue to see more and more lives and property damaged because of rainfall,” Idris said.

How are authorities responding?

Emergency services – including the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, the Nigerian Red Cross and local volunteers – are engaged in search and rescue operations.

President Bola Tinubu has also ordered an emergency response, including the provision of aid and temporary shelter.

“Search-and-rescue operations are ongoing, and all relevant federal agencies have been mobilised to support the state government’s efforts,” Tinubu wrote in a social media post on Saturday.

However, damaged roads and bridges have complicated rescue and recovery efforts.

Some flood survivors are struggling to get basic aid. “No one brought any money or food to help the victims. As you can see, many don’t have a place to sleep,” Hassan Umar told Al Jazeera in Mokwa.

A key bridge that connects the northern and southwestern parts of the country collapsed, leaving motorists stranded and disrupting movement of vehicles across the region.

What was the most recent natural disaster in Nigeria?

In September, severe flooding in the northwestern city of Maiduguri in Borno State submerged two-thirds of the city, killed at least 30 people and displaced nearly half a million.

More than 200 inmates also escaped from a flood-damaged prison. The disaster was triggered by weeks of intense rainfall and the collapse of the Alau dam in northeastern Nigeria.

Across the country in 2024, flooding killed more than 1,200 people and displaced 1.2 million in at least 31 of 36 states, according to NEMA.

Which states in Nigeria are prone to flooding?

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency has warned of possible flash floods in 15 of Nigeria’s 36 states, including Niger, from Wednesday to Friday.

In the south, low-lying states like Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta in the Niger Delta region experience frequent flooding due to their coastal locations. In the north, Kogi, Benue and Borno states are also prone to floods because they are on major rivers.

The country’s rainy season typically begins in April to mid-May and lasts through October while August is the wettest month. Heavy rainfall during this period causes problems every year because it destroys infrastructure and is exacerbated by inadequate drainage.

Although flooding is common during Nigeria’s rainy season, now is not the peak of the rains, Idris said. “In some states, the rains have only been there for a month, and yet we’re seeing this.”

Not that you asked, but yes, I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the bad news out of Washington:

Pardons for tax cheats who line President Trump’s pockets. Talk of pardons for the violent criminals who conspired to kidnap and kill Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Dinners for crypto moguls who shower him with money. His monomaniacal quest to extinguish the light of the country’s most prestigious university. His budget that will deprive millions of their healthcare coverage, while slashing taxes for the rich and swelling the $36 trillion national debt by an estimated $3.8 trillion.

And don’t get me started on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s inane move that could make it harder for pregnant women to get COVID-19 shots, thus depriving their infants of protection against the virus when they are vulnerable and not yet eligible for vaccination.

Good heavens, I needed a distraction. Happily, it arrived in the form of an unexpected video.

You may have seen it: Last Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron’s wife, Brigitte, got tongues wagging when she did something that seemed entirely out of character for the painfully elegant first lady. She was caught on camera squishing her hands right into his handsome face. It looked like an act of hostility. I was intrigued.

I know, I know. It’s hardly world-shattering news. But who doesn’t perk up a bit when the scrim of perfection that shields the private lives of high-profile, perfectly turned-out couples is torn, even for one brief moment?

Who can forget the sight of First Lady Melania Trump swatting away her husband’s hand during a 2017 visit to Tel Aviv? Or the way her smile faded during his first inauguration the moment he looked away from her, inspiring the #FreeMelania hashtag?

For all the drama and rumor that swirled around the Clintons’ marriage, I can’t think of any public moment when they did not appear civil with one another, even after his disastrous relationship with a White House intern.

And the Obamas? Is there any other intensely scrutinized political couple who seem so downright normal? Not that anyone ever really knows what’s going on in anyone else’s marriage.

Which brings us back to the Macrons.

His plane was on the tarmac in Hanoi, where he was kicking off a tour to strengthen ties with countries in Southeast Asia. As the plane door opened, the couple were caught unawares. A startled-looking Macron backed up as disembodied hands smushed his face. He instantly collected himself, and his wife appeared at his side. As they began to descend the staircase, he offered her his arm, which she did not take.

The bizarre clip went viral, and sent the French government, known as the Élysée Palace, into what one headline described as “chaos.”

Part of the chaos stemmed from the government first claiming that the clip was not real but was possibly a deep fake created by AI and exploited by Russia to make Macron seem weak. After the Associated Press authenticated the video, the French government changed its tune, describing the moment as merely a playful interaction between the couple.

Unsurprisingly, given their back story, the Macrons have been the subject of intense fascination for years.

They met in 1993 at a Catholic high school in northern France when he was 15. She, nearly 40 at the time, and a married mother of three, was his drama teacher. His parents were so concerned about the impropriety of their relationship that they sent him away to Paris for his senior year.

In 2006, she divorced her husband, and married Macron the following year. He was 29. She was 54.

“Of course, we have breakfast together, me and my wrinkles, him with his youth, but it’s like that,” Macron told Elle France in 2017. “If I did not make that choice, I would have missed out on my life.”

Unfortunately, Le Slapgate threatened to overshadow the Macrons’ trip.

“We are squabbling and, rather, joking with my wife,” he told reporters, complaining that the incident was being overblown into “a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe.”

A few days later, though, he was making light of the incident. Or at least trying to.

On Tuesday in Jakarta, Indonesia, as his plane door opened, another disembodied hand appeared, this time waving before Macron stepped into the camera frame smiling before he walked down the stairs arm in arm with his wife. Ha ha.

For a brief moment, the squabbling of one of the world’s most interesting couples gave us a much needed break from the actual geo-planetary catastrophe unfolding around us. For that, the Macrons have my gratitude. Merci, you crazy lovebirds.

‪@rabcarian.bsky.social‬ @rabcarian