brings

Though the new animated feature “Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires” bears the name of one the most emblematic American superheroes, its creation was entirely a Mexican affair.

The action-packed saga reimagines the caped crusader as a young Aztec man named Yohualli, whose father is killed when conquistador Hernan Cortes arrives on the coast of what we know today as the state of Veracruz. By the time Cortes and his troops reach the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, the brave Yohualli has become a fierce warrior protected by the bat deity known as Tzinacan (an actual Aztec god that fits perfectly within this fictional narrative).

Produced by Mexico City-based animated outfit Ánima Estudios, a company at the forefront of the medium in the country for over two decades, “Aztec Batman” emerged as an attempt to expand Ánima’s relationship with Warner Bros. Ánima previously produced two CG-animated films based on “Top Cat,” the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon owned by Warner.

Released Sept. 18 on HBO Max, “Aztec Batman” was initially conceived as a miniseries, and eventually took the more concise form of a film. And while it’s a work meant to entertain, the creators hope that it also ignites new curiosity in younger audiences, particularly those in Mexico and of Mexican descent elsewhere, to learn more about Indigenous peoples.

“The movie seeks to generate pride because part of our roots as Mexicans are Indigenous cultures,” Ánima co-founder José C. Garcia de Letona said in Spanish during a recent video interview. “For many of us, the other part comes from the Spanish. We’re not passing judgment because we are a consequence of what happened, but rather giving a slightly more respectful place to the Aztecs and all Indigenous cultures.”

Why focus on the Aztecs out of the numerous civilizations that existed in the territory that now constitutes Mexico? “Because they were the ones who confronted the Spanish. As the name suggests, it was a clash of empires,” Garcia de Letona adds.

“The victors usually decide who the good guys and the bad guys were when they write their version of the story, but they always omit or diminish the other side. And this is an opportunity to tell this chapter of history from a perspective that isn’t often told,” explains director Juan Meza-Leon, a native of Ensenada, in the Mexican state of Baja California Norte, who has worked in the U.S. animation industry since the mid-2000s. While Meza-Leon has a story credit, Ernie Altbacker, a veteran in the world of DC Comics, wrote the screenplay.

Key to the aesthetic and historical authenticity of “Aztec Batman” was the knowledge that Alejandro Díaz Barriga, one of the most prominent historians of Aztec culture, shared with the production.

“Alejandro accompanied us from the script stage to the character design up to the final cut of the film,” explains Garcia de Letona. Díaz Barriga’s contributions included details on how clothing differed depending on the person’s social class, and letting the production know that the Aztecs didn’t have chairs, tables or doors in their daily lives.

The armor for this Batman took inspiration from Aztec eagle warriors and jaguar warriors, and integrated elements referencing the god Tzinacan. For example, the Batman insignia in the film is at once recognizable as an Aztec design, while also instantly identifiable as the superhero’s logo. “We wanted the designs to have that pre-Columbian quality, but at the same time to look appropriate for what they are: comic book characters,” says Meza-Leon.

The animation team behind “Aztec Batman” consisted mostly of Mexican talent with a few other artists in Brazil and Peru. “Many of us in Latin America, myself included, never imagined being part of a Batman project, and that excited us all infinitely,” says Garcia de Letona.

From the onset, Warner insisted “Aztec Batman” should be produced in Spanish first, and then dubbed into English. The Spanish cast includes actors Horacio Garcia Rojas and Omar Chaparro, while the English version features Mexican American actors Jay Hernandez and Raymond Cruz. U.S.-based Mexican filmmaker Jorge Gutierrez (“The Book of Life”) voices Yohualli’s father, Toltecatzin, in both versions.

Whether you watch with the original Spanish track or the English dub, the dialogue is laced with phrases and words in the Nahuatl language, the native tongue of the Aztecs. “Once the story was finalized, we collaborated with a Mexican writer named Alfredo Mendoza, who helped us incorporate the Nahuatl language to differentiate between the different empires since they both speak Spanish in the film,” said Meza-Leon.

Batman’s classic villains are also transformed into characters that exist organically within the Aztec context. The Joker, for example, becomes Yoka, a shaman and right-hand man to emperor Moctezuma who can communicate with the gods. Catwoman appears here as a jaguar warrior, since there were no domestic cats at that point in history in the Americas. Some creative liberties were taken — the Aztec wouldn’t allow women to become trained fighters. The dubious Cortes becomes Two-Face, while Poison Ivy appears as an enigmatic goddess.

“The idea wasn’t to make a copy of the characters, but to capture their essence, so you could say, ‘That’s the Joker,’ ‘That’s Two-Face,’ ‘That’s Catwoman,’ although we never called them by those names,” says Meza-Leon. “We also never call him Batman; it’s Tzinacan or Bat Warrior, but the spirit of the character is there.”

Since the project was originally developed as a series, Meza-Leon has already developed a larger world. If this first chapter succeeds with audiences, an “Aztec Batman” sequel is feasible. The film is currently playing in Mexican cinemas and streaming globally. “I hope it is successful enough for us to continue exploring this alternative version of the conquest of Mexico, because there are still many ideas left,” says Meza-Leon.

The Lakers’ first practice of the week gave them hope of what they can look like whole when Marcus Smart takes the court.

Smart has been dealing with Achilles tendinopathy most of training camp and has been limited in practice. But coach JJ Redick said after practice Tuesday that Smart “did most of practice, including some live play.”

Redick said LeBron James and Luka Doncic — along with Maxi Kleber (quad) and Gabe Vincent — did “modified, mostly individual work.”.

“Marcus participated in some live [practice] and then was out at the end,” Redick said. “Yeah he was awesome. He was awesome. He, I think given the workload of today, I was impressed that he was able to sustain his level of intensity for as long as he did.”

Redick said Doncic was out for “load management.” Then Redick laughed.

Smart has been one of the NBA’s better defenders over his career, winning defensive player of the year for the 2021-22 season while playing for the Boston Celtics and being named to the All-Defensive first team three times — 2019, 2020 and 2022.

That will be a big part of his role with the Lakers, and during practice they got a glimpse of his defensive tenacity.

“Yeah, he guarded me a little bit at the first of practice,” Austin Reaves said. “You still feel that pressure. You feel the intensity that he brings on the defensive end, and that’s going to be big for us. We need that. We need him to be the best version of himself. With that communication that he brings, especially defensively, he’s been in the league a while. He knows how to win at the highest level. So, very excited to have him.”

After the Washington Wizards bought out his contract, Smart received several calls from Doncic about joining the Lakers.

Smart eventually signed with the Lakers for two years and $11 million.

At practice Tuesday, Smart left an impression.

“He looked great. He was moving great,” Jarred Vanderbilt said. “But like I said, his main power is that he’s vocal. So being able to help the guys. Communicate, that’s a big part of defense also. Being physical is one of them, but also being vocal, being able to communicate. I think he does both at a very high level. So, he can definitely help us on that end of the floor.”

Vanderbilt is the Lakers’ other top defender, his versatility allowing him to guard multiple positions.

He was asked to envision what the Lakers’ defense will be like with himself and Smart together on the court.

“Aw, man, just causing havoc,” Vanderbilt said. “Not only physically but just vocally. He’s a vocal guy as well, so it’s being the anchor of the defense, flying around, setting that tone defensively. Like, I’m excited. I can’t wait to share the court together.”

LeBron James ad

At some point after practice, the Lakers were asked if any one texted them about James’ cryptic post about “#TheSecondDecision” on Monday.

It left many wondering if James was talking about retiring.

He was not. It was about an ad for Hennessy that was posted on social media Tuesday morning.

“You guys are idiots,” Redick said when asked, laughing as he spoke. “We all knew it was an ad, right? No, I think most people that text me are also aware that it’s probably an ad, so it wasn’t. … Nobody was freaking out.”

Still, James is entering his NBA-record 23rd season.

“I just got a couple calls, like, ‘what is this?’” Reaves said, laughing.

Rui Hachimura wanted to know what was going on.

So he contacted James just to be sure.

“I mean, [I got] a couple texts. But I texted him too,” Hachimura said. “But he was using a [weird] emoji. I don’t even know. I didn’t understand at all. But he loves to do that type of stuff. Surprises, right?”

Sept. 30 (UPI) — Forecasters early Wednesday were warning of dangerous surf and “life-threatening” rip currents at beaches of the northern Caribbean, Bahamas, Bermuda and much of the U.S. East Coast as Hurricane Humberto continued its way north across the Atlantic.

With maximum sustained winds of 80 mph, Humberto remained a Category 1 hurricane as of 5 a.m. AST Wednesday, the National Hurricane Center said in its morning update.

The storm was located about 280 miles north-northwest of Bermuda and was moving northeast at 14 mph, the NHC said.

No coastal watches or warnings were in effect, though forecasters continued to warn that its swells could persist for the next few days.

It is expected to move faster toward the east-northeast over Wednesday and remain “a powerful cyclone” until Humberto merges with a developing frontal boundary Wednesday night.

Humberto is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic season and became the season’s third hurricane on Friday morning.

For Abeer Hassan, looking after her autistic son, Abdallah, has been perilous amid Israeli bombardment, displacement.

Amid relentless forced Palestinian displacement in Gaza under intense Israeli bombardment, taking care of children with special needs becomes even more perilous.

Abeer Hassan, looking after her autistic son, Abdallah, in Deir el-Balah, says the constant Israeli explosions terrify him.

“As the people started fleeing the area, we were also urged to leave,” Hassan told Al Jazeera.

“Abdallah used to watch cars filled with displaced families fleeing. He would come back to the tent very tense and nervous, and using sign language,” she added.

Hassan explained that they first reached a displaced camp called Ameera, which was full and had no space for their tent.

“Later, they told us to seek a place near Salah al-Din Street, despite the danger. My daughters and I were crying and Abdallah was getting tense and started making weird sounds. The scorching heat is too much and we don’t know where to go,” she said.

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, the army has issued several forced evacuation orders for Palestinians living in the besieged enclave, often telling them to move to the southern al-Mawasi area, which has been designated a so-called “safe zone”.

However, al-Mawasi has also come under repeated attack by Israel, as has the exodus of Palestinians fleeing Gaza City to an unknown fate further south.

For Abdallah, the never-ending orders and sounds of bombardments mean he spends most of the time roaming the streets and has developed a new habit of pulling his hair. His family cut his hair short to stop him tearing at it.

“I began giving him prescribed sleeping pills again, to stop him from going outside during the heat. There is nothing else I can do to help him. I discovered that my mobile phone was broken two days before we were displaced; my phone was the only means to keep him calm with mobile games and videos,” Hassan explained.

“We were all under immense pressure … young and old. At one point, I asked God to take our lives together so Abdallah wouldn’t be alone. Not everything he needs is available here,” she pleaded.

In the nearly two years of intense attacks, Israeli raids have killed at least 66,005 people and wounded 168,162, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported on Sunday.

Jimmy Kimmel Live! will return to the airwaves after Disney lifted its indefinite suspension of the US late-night show, but two of the largest affiliate owners – Sinclair Broadcasting Group and Nexstar Media Group – will not air the long-running programme.

Disney owns the broadcaster ABC, home of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. On Monday evening, Disney announced that the show would return following discussions with Kimmel’s team and network representatives. However, two of the major affiliate operators have not reversed course.

Keeping the show off those affiliate TV stations significantly cuts into Kimmel’s reach. Nexstar and Sinclair together own and operate 70 of the 250 ABC stations across the United States, putting them at odds with the network.

Nexstar’s vested interest

ABC pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s show after the comedian made remarks about the killing of conservative figure Charlie Kirk. The suspension came just hours after Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Brendan Carr warned that stations carrying the show could face fines, or even lose their broadcast licences, urging them to “step up”.

Carr’s comments drew pushback across the political spectrum, including from US President Donald Trump’s allies. Texas Senator Ted Cruz called Carr’s remarks “dangerous as hell”, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Cruz “got it right”.

Nexstar owns 23 ABC affiliates and is currently pursuing a $6.2bn merger with competitor Tegna, a deal requiring FCC approval. If completed, the combined company would reach 80 percent of US households, far above the current 39 percent cap, and would require a policy change. Carr has long supported removing that cap.

“Nexstar’s capitulation in hopes of gaining approval for its merger with Tegna is actually Exhibit A in why it should not be allowed to merge with Tegna. Large conglomerates have enormous leverage to facilitate the Trump administration’s crackdown on free speech, both by censoring themselves and by bullying the networks,” Seth Stern, director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, told Al Jazeera.

Carr praised Nexstar last week for dropping Kimmel from its affiliates in markets such as Salt Lake City, Nashville and New Orleans.

Margot Susca, professor of journalism, accountability,and democracy at the American University in Washington, DC, said the FCC’s pressure on Kimmel sets a troubling precedent.

“I think what is concerning is that it’s Jimmy Kimmel now, but it could be Meet The Press [which airs on NBC] next year if another corporate media owner needs to make a deal and the Trump administration or Brendan Carr… say they don’t like a segment that comes on a news programme. These are dark days for the content that appears on broadcast television,” Susca said.

Other media experts argue the issue is rooted in the leverage affiliate owners hold.

In the US, affiliate operators license programming from networks and pay carriage fees to do so. Affiliation typically brings more viewers, and thus, more advertising revenue, which is shared between networks and affiliates. Affiliates can preempt network programming, often for local news during severe weather events or political debates, for instance.

“They [TV station operators] can simply not run those programmes because they don’t really need the networks as much as they did at one time,” Tom Letizia, media consultant and head of political communications firm the Letizia Agency, told Al Jazeera, referring to the global trend of viewers finding their content on social media or streaming platforms.

“This is more about making a profit, and that’s really what this business is about. Let’s not forget that. I mean, ratings are the lifeblood of a TV station. If you don’t have ratings, you can’t charge your advertisers a premium cost for that spot.”

A lot of the advertising spend in smaller markets comes from local political parties, and if the politics do not align, those advertising dollars could be cut.

Nexstar said it stands by its decision to preempt Kimmel indefinitely and will “monitor the show as it returns to ABC”. The company denied political involvement or pressure from the Trump administration.

“The decision to preempt Jimmy Kimmel Live! was made unilaterally by the senior executive team at Nexstar, and they had no communication with the FCC or any government agency prior to making that decision,” a Nexstar spokesman told Al Jazeera.

Sinclair’s stance

Sinclair Broadcasting said on Monday that it does not plan to resume airing Kimmel’s show on its 38 ABC affiliates, opting instead for news programming.

The company, the second-largest US station operator after Nexstar, pushed Kimmel to apologise and “make a meaningful personal donation to the Kirk Family and Turning Point USA”, Kirk’s conservative activist organisation.

Sinclair has long faced criticism for its conservative leanings. David Smith, the company’s executive chairman, donated $250,000 in 2024 to Kirk’s Turning Point USA through the David D Smith Family Foundation, whose listed address matches Sinclair’s headquarters.

In 2018, Sinclair required local anchors to read a script criticising “one-sided media coverage”, which Trump, then in his first term in office, praised. This came as the company pursued a $3.9bn merger with Tribune Media at the time, a deal that ultimately collapsed after Tribune pulled out.

“As the owners of the stations, they can make the choices over what their content is. Sinclair is a pretty right-wing organisation,” Susca said.

“When they buy a station in a local market, it tacks coverage to the right. They focus more on national politics.”

A 2019 study in the American Political Science Review found that Sinclair stations leaned more conservative than their competitors in the same markets.

“Discussions with ABC are ongoing as we evaluate the show’s potential return,” Sinclair said in a statement. The company did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for further comment.

Disney’s decision

Disney’s move to reinstate Kimmel comes amid widespread public pressure. Celebrities and elected officials called for boycotts of Disney-owned platforms, including Disney+, ESPN and Hulu, in the wake of his suspension.

Google Trends data showed that searches to cancel those platforms spiked to their highest-ever levels following the suspension.

ABC directly owns only eight stations, including in New York and Houston. WABC in New York faced political backlash when leading mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani pulled out of a debate it was set to host, citing ABC’s suspension of Kimmel.

“Broadcast media is a business. Make no mistake that Kimmel being taken off the air was a business decision. Kimmel being put back on the air is a business decision,” Susca said.

Disney’s stock has fallen 2.78 percent over the past five days.

Laura Crompton, a media analyst and head of global communications agency Hopscotch’s Los Angeles office, said that Tuesday’s show could provide a ratings boost.

“For now, it seems they’ve chosen to put things right and show that they won’t cower to overreach or threats. But something tells me this isn’t over yet. If we want to find a silver lining, I suspect Kimmel’s comeback show tonight will smash audience numbers, even without the 25 percent of audiences disenfranchised by the ongoing standoff regionally. And realistically, I’m sure we’re all relieved we don’t have to take the moral high road and give up our Disney+ favorite shows now,” Crompton told Al Jazeera.

Disney did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.

MEXICO CITY — It was pouring buckets of rain at the Estadio GNP Seguros on Saturday night, when Oasis played one of two sold-out reunion shows in Mexico City.

Lined at the entrance were tents stuffed with bootleg tour merch and fans seeking respite from the water. You could hear the sloshing of wet socks and Adidas Sambas as they price-checked knockoff memorabilia emblazoned with the Gallagher brothers’ iconically muggy faces.

For 200 pesos, you could get a T-shirt with Noel and Liam Gallagher as fighting cats, or characters from “Peanuts” and “The Simpsons.”

While a downpour isn’t the ideal weather condition for an outdoor concert — my Bohemian FC x Oasis collab football jersey went unseen under a fashionable rain parka — it was certainly fitting for a band that routinely, perhaps obsessively, sings about rain. Yet for Mexican fans of Oasis who’ve anxiously waited years to finally see the brothers reunite, it was all sunsheeeeIIIIIINE.

Outside the entry gates, father and son Santiago and Omar Zepeda, both sporting bucket hats, had a palpable buzz radiating off them as they eagerly waited to enter the stadium. It was a multigenerationally significant day for them.

“I came for the first time with my dad in ’98 at the Palacio de Deportes to see Oasis, and now I get to bring my son,” said Santiago, who came from Guadalajara with his 14-year-old in tow. “There was a moment that I said we’ll just go without tickets and see what we do. We’ll get in because we’ll get in. I feel incredible to be able to have done what I did with my father 27 years later now with my son.”

In August of last year, the Manchester-bred Gallagher brothers — who had been openly feuding for decades — declared that war was over on the 30th anniversary of their 1994 juggernaut debut, “Definitely Maybe.”

“The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over,” they announced. As reunion tour dates opened, and two Mexico City stops were announced, Mexican fans expressed pure elation and flooded Ticketmaster once the sale went live. As you can imagine, it was online bedlam.

Waiting in the Ticketmaster queue filled Esteban Ricardo Sainz Coronado, 24, and Sara Pedraza, 25, with dread. The young couple came in from Monterrey, Nuevo León, but it was uncertain whether they’d make it to what Coronado called “a collective reunion that’s cultural and transcends more than music history.”

Pedraza waited three hours in Ticketmaster’s virtual line, almost missing school and her chance to secure seats as she kept getting bumped off the site. “I stubbornly kept trying and after I don’t know how many attempts, it worked,” Pedraza said. “It was such a huge relief.”

Like Coronado and Sainz, the reunion tour is millions of fans’ first opportunity to see Oasis play live, as they would have been far too young or not even born yet during their heyday. For longtime Oasis heads, it was a chance to once again be in community with their favorite band.

British bands have long had a foothold in Mexico’s alternative scenes, with fans of all ages still packing bars and venues to hear Primal Scream, Blur, Pulp and, of course, Morrissey and the Smiths. These groups have had an enduring, impassioned following that has been explored in books, articles and films, with Mexicans often feeling a spiritual and cultural connection to the U.K.’s music scene stemming back to the Beatles. Oasis could have sold out shows across Mexico 10 times over.

After acrimoniously (and unsurprisingly) breaking up in 2009, the hope to ever see the Gallaghers fill a stadium with the staple of acoustic jam sessions worldwide, “Wonderwall,” dimmed. The brothers’ endless swipes at each other in the media post-breakup didn’t give fans hope they’d get back to “living forever.” Mexican fans even prayed to La Virgen de Guadalupe that the infamously combative brothers wouldn’t break up again even hours before showtime.

“As long as they don’t fight!” said Hector Garduño, who came to the show with his partner, Sofia Carrera, from Querétaro. “That’s what we want, for them not to fight.”

Gracias a la virgencita, the tour has seemingly been all love. The skies eventually cleared up on Saturday, and the stadium indeed filled with Oasis’ soaring, anthemic bangers for 2 ½ hours. For days leading up to the Mexico City date, fans in my orbit and social feeds debated how the show would compare with the crowd at Pasadena’s Rose Bowl, where Oasis played the previous weekend.

“[Mexican audiences are] on another level,” said Garduño. “I think these dudes are going to be taken by surprise. I expect jumping, screaming, crying; the emotion of hearing those songs that really move you.”

Mauri Barranco, who came to the show with her best friend, said “I feel like we give a lot of ourselves. That’s why so many artists like coming to Mexico.”

Meanwhile, Alberto Folch, from Mexico City, saw his own audience participation as a challenge. “With all the vibes, with all the emotion, we’re ready to jump, to show them what Mexico is made of,” he said. “Tonight we’re rock ‘n’ roll stars.”

The 65,000 fans in attendance undoubtedly showed up sobbing and screeching with unbridled elation. Liam Gallagher played to the locals, donning a sombrero de charro during “Wonderwall” and the show closer “Champagne Supernova.” The band sounded as if no time had passed since its salad days, with the members’ vocals and musicianship arguably tighter than ever — perhaps a positive side effect of pulling back from the rock star lifestyle now that they’re in their 50s. The sound reverberated clean across the stadium as well (shoutout to L-Acoustics, who provided the sound for the reunion tour), and was praised nonstop by fans I spoke to throughout the weekend. I heard a lot of emphatic cries of “el sonido, güey!”

I pogo’d along with my fellow “madferits” as we turned away from the stage and linked arms to do the Poznań: a signature move at every show, borrowed from Manchester City F.C. fans. During “Cigarettes & Alcohol,” we shouted every lyric and were sprayed by flying beers thrown in raucous excitement.

I’ve never felt more giddy to get splashed with spit-riddled beer — and seemingly neither did anyone around me, who shouted joyful obscenities in Spanish. Three men behind me even sobbed into each other’s chests during “Don’t Look Back in Anger” and the stadium filled with cellphone lights as Noel Gallagher crooned “Talk Tonight.”

The rain didn’t fall again, but even if it had, it would have still felt like the sun.

Sept. 12 (UPI) — Tropical Storm Mario is small but strengthening off the west coast of Mexico Friday.

The latest update from the National Hurricane Center was at 4:23 a.m. Friday. It said Mario is a small tropical cyclone about 20 nautical miles off the coast of Guerrero, Mexico. The tropical depression was boosted to Tropical Storm Mario with maximum winds estimated at 40 mph.

Because of Mario’s closeness to the coast of Mexico, the Mexican government has issued a tropical storm watch for a small segment of the coast from Lazaro Cardenas to Punta San Telmo.

NHS said it’s having trouble predicting Mario’s trajectory because of its small size and closeness to land. Some models show the system moving inland and dissipating Friday, but others show Mario reaching hurricane strength. Mario is expected to reach colder waters by day five and become a post-tropical cyclone.

Mario has been moving faster toward the west-northwest at 14 mph, parallel to the coast of Mexico.

Heavy rainfall will affect southern Mexico through Sunday, which could result in flash flooding, particularly in areas of higher terrain.

Tropical storm conditions are possible along portions of the coast of Michoacan Friday. Gusty winds are possible elsewhere along the coasts of western Guerrero, Michoacan, and Colima through Friday night.

WASHINGTON — Federal authorities have used checkpoints around the nation’s capital to screen vehicles, sometimes asking people for their immigration status after stopping them, as President Trump’s crackdown reaches the two-week mark in Washington.

The use of checkpoints, which can be legally controversial, is the latest indication that the White House’s mass deportation agenda is central to its assertion of federal power in Washington. Federal agents and hundreds of National Guard troops have surged into Washington this month, putting some residents on edge and creating tense confrontations in the streets.

The city’s immigrant population, in particular, is rattled. A daycare was partially closed on Thursday when staff became afraid to go to work because they heard about federal agents nearby. An administrator asked parents to keep their children at home if possible.

Other day cares have stopped taking kids on daily walks because of fears about encountering law enforcement.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser acknowledged Thursday that the proliferation of traffic checkpoints are an inevitable aspect of the federal law enforcement operations.

“The surge of federal officers is allowing for different types of deployments, more frequent types of deployments, like checkpoints,” Bowser said.

Since Aug. 7, when Trump began surging federal agents into the city, there have been 630 arrests, including 251 people who are in the country illegally, according to the White House. Trump has been ratcheting up the pressure since then, seizing control of the D.C. police department Aug. 11 and deploying more National Guard troops, mostly from Republican-led states.

Soldiers have been largely stationed in downtown areas, such as monuments on the National Mall and transit stations.

However, federal agents are operating more widely through the city — and some may soon get a visit from the president himself.

Trump is expected to join a patrol in D.C. on Thursday night. He told his plans to Todd Starnes, a conservative commentator.

Not a normal traffic stop

On Thursday morning, as Martin Romero rode through Washington’s Rock Creek Park on his way to a construction job in Virginia, he saw police on the road up ahead. He figured it was a normal traffic stop, but it wasn’t.

Romero, 41, said that U.S. Park Police were telling pickup trucks with company logos to pull over, reminding them that commercial vehicles weren’t allowed on park roads. They checked for licenses and insurance information, and then U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents came over.

Romero said there were two agents on one side of his truck and three on the other. He started to get nervous as the agents asked where they were from and whether they were in the country illegally.

“We just came here to work,” Romero said afterward. “We aren’t doing anything bad.”

Two people in his truck were detained and the agents didn’t give a reason, he said. He also saw three other people taken from other vehicles.

“I feel really worried because they took two of our guys,” he said. “They wouldn’t say where they’re taking them or if they’ll be able to come back.”

Romero said he called his boss, who told him to just head home. They wouldn’t be working today.

Enrique Martinez, a supervisor at the construction company, came to the scene afterward. He pondered whether to call families of the detained men.

“This has never happened to our company before,” Martinez said. “I’m not really sure what to do.”

Checkpoints are legal, to a point

The Supreme Court has upheld the use of law enforcement and government checkpoints for specific purposes, such as for policing the border and for identifying suspected drunk drivers.

But there are restrictions on that authority, especially when it comes to general crime control. Jeffrey Bellin, a former prosecutor in Washington and professor at Vanderbilt Law School who specializes in criminal law and procedures, said the Constitution doesn’t allow “the government to be constantly checking us and stopping to see if we’re up to any criminal activity.”

He said checkpoints for a legally justifiable purpose — like checking for driver’s licenses and registrations — cannot be used as “subterfuge” or a pretext for stops that would otherwise not be allowed. And though the court has affirmed the use of checkpoints at the border, and even some distance away from it, to ask drivers about immigration status, Bellin said it was unlikely the authority would extend to Washington.

Anthony Michael Kreis, a professor at Georgia State College of Law, said the seemingly “arbitrary” and intrusive nature of the checkpoints in the capital could leave residents feeling aggrieved.

“Some of the things could be entirely constitutional and fine, but at the same time, the way that things are unfolding, people are suspicious — and I think for good reason,” he said.

From Los Angeles to D.C.

There are few places in the country that have been unaffected by Trump’s deportation drive, but his push into D.C. is shaping into something more sustained, similar to what has unfolded in the Los Angeles area since early June.

In Los Angeles, immigration officers — working with the Border Patrol and other federal agencies — have been a near-daily presence at Home Depots, car washes and other highly visible locations.

In a demonstration of how enforcement has affected routines, the bishop of San Bernardino formally excused parishioners of their weekly obligation to attend Mass after immigration agents detained people on two parish properties.

Immigration officials have been an unusually public presence, sending horse patrols to the city’s famed MacArthur Park and appearing outside California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s news conference last week on congressional redistricting. Authorities said an agent fired at a moving vehicle last week after the driver refused to roll down his window during an immigration stop.

The National Guard and Marines were previously in the city for weeks on an assignment to maintain order amid protests.

A federal judge blocked the administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration stops in Southern California but authorities have vowed to keep the pressure on.

Megerian and Martin write for the Associated Press. AP writers Eric Tucker and Ashraf Khalil in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.

Twelve years after a breakup that didn’t stick — and one year shy of the 20th anniversary of its biggest album — My Chemical Romance is on the road this summer playing 2006’s “The Black Parade” from beginning to end.

The tour, which stopped Saturday night at Dodger Stadium for the first of two concerts, doesn’t finally manifest the long-anticipated reunion of one of emo’s most influential bands; My Chem reconvened in 2019 and has been performing, pandemic-related delays aside, fairly consistently since then (including five nights at Inglewood’s Kia Forum in 2022 and two headlining appearances at Las Vegas’ When We Were Young festival).

Yet only now is the group visiting sold-out baseball parks — and without even the loss leader of new music to help drum up interest in its show.

“Thank you for being here tonight,” Gerard Way, My Chem’s 48-year-old frontman, told the crowd of tens of thousands at Saturday’s gig. “This is our first stadium tour, which is a wild thing to say.” To mark the occasion, he pointed out, his younger brother Mikey was playing a bass guitar inscribed with the Dodgers’ logo.

So how did this darkly witty, highly theatrical punk band reach a new peak so deep into its comeback? Certainly it’s benefiting from an overall resurgence of rock after years dominated by pop and hip-hop; My Chem’s Dodger Stadium run coincides this weekend with the return of the once-annual Warped Tour in Long Beach after a six-year dormancy.

Then again, Linkin Park — to name another rock group huge in the early 2000s — recently moved a planned Dodger Stadium date to Inglewood’s much smaller Intuit Dome, presumably as a result of lower-than-expected ticket sales.

The endurance of My Chemical Romance, which formed in New Jersey before eventually relocating to Los Angeles, feels rooted more specifically in its obsession with comic books and in Gerard Way’s frank lyrics about depression and his flexible portrayal of gender and sexuality. (“GERARD WAY TRANSED MY GENDER,” read a homemade-looking T-shirt worn Saturday by one fan.) Looking back now, it’s clear the band’s blend of drama and emotion — of world-building and bloodletting — set a crucial template for a generation or two of subsequent acts, from bands like Twenty One Pilots to rappers like the late Juice Wrld to a gloomy pop singer like Sombr, whose viral hit “Back to Friends” luxuriates in a kind of glamorous misery.

Gerard Way, from left, Mikey Way and Ray Toro perform as My Chemical Romance.

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

For much of its audience, My Chem’s proudly sentimental music contains the stuff of identity — one reason thousands showed up to Dodger Stadium wearing elaborate outfits inspired by the band’s detailed iconography.

In 2006, the quadruple-platinum “Black Parade” LP arrived as a concept album about a dying cancer patient; Way and his bandmates dressed in military garb that made them look like members of Satan’s marching band. Nearly two decades later, the wardrobe remained the same as the band muscled through the album’s 14 tracks, though the narrative had transformed into a semi-coherent Trump-era satire of political authoritarianism: My Chemical Romance, in this telling a band from the fictional nation of Draag, was performing for the delectation of the country’s vain and ruthless dictator, who sat stony-faced on a throne near the pitcher’s mound flanked by a pair of soldiers.

The theater of it all was fun — important (if a bit crude), you could even say, given how young much of the band’s audience is and how carefully so many modern pop stars avoid taking political stands that could threaten to alienate some number of their fans. After “Welcome to the Black Parade,” a bearded guy playing a government apparatchik handed out Dodger Dogs to the band and to the dictator; Way waited to find out whether the dictator approved of the hot dog before he decided he liked it too.

Fans react as My Chemical Romance performs.

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

Yet what really mattered was how great the songs still are: the deranged rockabilly stomp of “Teenagers,” the Eastern European oom-pah of “Mama,” the eruption of “Welcome to the Black Parade” from fist-pumping glam-rock processional to breakneck thrash-punk tantrum.

Indeed, the better part of Saturday’s show came after the complete “Black Parade” performance when My Chem — the Way brothers along with guitarists Frank Iero and Ray Toro, drummer Jarrod Alexander and keyboardist Jamie Muhoberac — reappeared sans costumes on a smaller secondary stage to “play some jams,” as Gerard Way put it, from elsewhere in the band’s catalog. (Its most recent studio album came out in 2010, though it’s since issued a smattering of archived material.)

Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance performs.

(Etienne Laurent / For The Times)

“I’m Not Okay (I Promise)” was blistering atomic pop, while “Summertime” thrummed with nervy energy; “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)” was as delightfully snotty as its title suggests. The band reached back for what Way called his favorite My Chem song — “Vampires Will Never Hurt You,” from the group’s 2002 debut — and performed, evidently for the first time, a chugging power ballad called “War Beneath the Rain,” which Way recalled cutting in a North Hollywood studio “before the band broke up” as My Chem tried to make a record that never came out.

The group closed, as it often does, with its old hit “Helena,” a bleak yet turbo-charged meditation on what the living owe the dead, and as he belted the chorus, Way dropped to his knees in an apparent mix of exhaustion, despair, gratitude — maybe a bit of befuddlement too. He was leaving no feeling unfelt.

The two-dimensional version of President Obama wearing a red and green Santa hat in California Rep. Grace Napolitano’s office draws a crowd.

Random visitors, and occasionally members of Congress, filtered past the door wrapped like a present, to snap a selfie with the commander-in-cardboard.

Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk) shows off Christmas decorations in her office. She said staff and visitors stop in to have their photo taken with the cutout of President Obama in a Santa hat.

(Sarah D. Wire)

Rep. Grace Napolitano shows off Christmas decorations in her office. (Sarah D. Wire/Los Angeles Times)

“They just decide they want to come in and stand next to him and get a picture taken,” Napolitano said, laughing.

At the White House Christmas party one year, the nine-term Democrat from Norwalk just had to let the president know how much action his doppelganger was getting in her office.

Napolitano said she showed Obama a photo of her staff posing with the cutout. The president pulled it out of her hands and showed it off to other attendees.

Her office on the sixth floor of the Longworth House Office Building is bustling around the holidays, a little cheer that helped as Congress bickered in the final days of the year on spending and world problems.

Decorations appear around the Capitol and House and Senate office buildings in December — Capitol police have a small tree, some office doors hold wreaths or feature entryway stockings — but Napolitano’s is one of the more elaborate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc7PtrltNeY

“It makes it nice to walk into an office and see the cheerfulness,” Napolitano said.

Each door to her office suite is covered in shiny red or green colored wrapping paper and in the hallway, lit candy cane lawn ornaments lead visitors to the office. Lights shaped like chili peppers frame a mirror in the entryway and tinsel or garland line nearly every available surface. Chinese lanterns hang from the ceiling while Santa, reindeer and angel figurines peek out from shelves.

Napolitano began decorating the space when she took office in 1999, but it gained steam in 2011 when she received some of the 3,000 ornaments made by California children that had adorned the 63-foot-tall Capitol Christmas tree from Stanislaus National Forest.

Many of those ornaments still hang from the branches of an artificial pine reaching 6-feet high, not far from framed citations and awards for her public service. Napolitano said that next year, she plans to ask schools in her district to send new ornaments for the tree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAimBoSGeIY

The wood-paneled office is traditionally more sedate, decorated with pictures from events in California or of her family and maps of the district. Brochures for tourist activities in Washington line a shelf.

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Staff have to wait all month to find out what’s inside the wrapped boxes at the foot of the tree next to the picture of a fireplace decorated with lights. Eventually she’ll buy a faux fireplace with fake crackling flames to replace the photo, said Napolitano, who pays for the decorations herself.

Feels like family

Staff members do the decorating the week of Thanksgiving, she said, as a way to make Washington seem more like home during the hectic final weeks Congress is in session.

“It’s part of the family feeling” in the office, Napolitano said.

She tries to maintain the sentiment year-round.

Staff cook in the office weekly, practicing Napolitano’s recipes for dishes like enchiladas or migas — a mixture of scrambled eggs, vegetables and strips of corn tortillas.

Male staffers sport holiday ties she buys them and joke about the amount of food they eat at work. A staff member opened a cabinet to show off the seven bags of avocados ripening in preparation for “thank you” guacamole that Napolitano will make for staff who worked on the federal highway funding bill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ust3nhq32PE

In recent years, Napolitano’s office has hosted a “hall party” for other members and staff.

Her Longworth neighbor, Rep. Juan Vargas (D-San Diego), said he loves having the decorations next door. He tries to spread his own holiday joy.

“I walk in there now every time I go by … and I sing a little Christmas song with them and they all laugh, but I love it,” Vargas said. Then he belted out the lyrics for “Holly, Jolly Christmas.”

The decorations inspired him.

“They put us in the Christmas spirit, so much so that I went out and got a tree myself, carried it down the street and put it in my office,” he said. “If you go into my office you’ll see a real tree with the real smells. It’s terrific.”

What’s it like to have Christmas cheer the next office over?

“Honestly, I don’t know if she is going to like this, but it’s like having my mom down the hall,” Vargas said. “If I really need anything I can go to her. She’s as helpful as anybody I’ve ever met, she’s as kind and nice and sweet as anyone I’ve ever met, and she always wants to help, but I’ve gained a few pounds because of her.”

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This weekend, Descanso Gardens will unveil a meticulously curated art exhibition titled “Roots of Cool: A Celebration of Trees and Shade in a Warming World.” Co-curated by Edith de Guzman, cooperative extension climate researcher at the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation, and artist Jolly de Guzman — a husband-and-wife duo — the exhibition highlights all-women artists who provoke visitors to contemplate the pressing issue of shade equity, the unequal access to cooling shade across urban neighborhoods, and what a tree and shade filled future can look like for L.A.

The goals of the exhibition are clear from the start, beginning with its title, “Roots of Cool,” which creatively integrates the Fahrenheit symbol in the word “of,” a tree in the letter “t” and the word “cool” as a shadow cast from the word “roots.”

The exhibit begins in the garden’s pathways, strewn with artworks, which lead visitors to the gallery rooms housed in the park’s Sturt Haaga Gallery and historic Boddy House.

A visitor’s proposal for a new type of bus stop that offers more shade, part of the new exhibition “Roots of Cool: A Celebration of Trees and Shade in a Warming World” at Descanso Gardens on July 9, 2025.

(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)

The first piece of art on the path, located at the gardens entrance, is Leslie K. Gray’s “Bus Stop of the Past,” an outdoor installation that shows the silhouette of a woman standing on an L.A. street, presumably waiting for a bus, with no shade structure nearby, meant to represent the climate-related challenges women bus riders faced while commuting in the past.

It’s the first of a three-part installation — the other two parts show up later in the exhibition — that invites visitors “to think temporally about where we’ve been and where we’re going,” Gray said. According to the artist, it is meant to highlight historical urban planning decisions that have left certain communities disproportionately vulnerable to heat, particularly women of color, who are prominent riders of L.A. public transportation, as indicated by statistics displayed on the bus signs accompanying the works.

Another standout of the outdoor part of the exhibition is Chantée Benefield’s “Cool Canopy,” which entails dozens of multicolored umbrellas suspended over visitors’ heads. The piece is particularly resonant given that it is actually a recreation that Benefield made after the original was lost, along with her family home, in the Eaton Fire.

Artist Chantée Benefield’s installation “Cool Canopy” at Descanso Gardens on July 9, 2025.

(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)

“What if the trees in neighborhoods were like graffiti, just ubiquitous everywhere?” Benefield asked. Her installation is both a colorful homage to lost greenery and a powerful statement on urban shade disparities, prompting visitors to contemplate what they would do without the shade being cast by these “trees” as they walk through the sunny patch where the work is located.

The next stop on the pathway is the second piece in Gray’s three-part installation: “Bus Stop of the Present.” It’s a version of the first, but with the addition of a shade structure for the woman bus rider. However, it shows clearly that the added structure is still inadequate, reflecting many of the realities women bus commuters face today. The bus sign here contains scientific facts that make the case for the critical need for systemic urban planning changes. Gray emphasized that these facts were carefully selected from peer-reviewed research and “scientifically vetted.”

Entering the Sturt Haaga Gallery, things change. Each room is meant to elicit a specific experience around urban planning and vegetation, and so each has its own visual and auditory scheme.

Kim Abeles’ piece “Looking for Paradise (Downtown Los Angeles).”

(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)

It begins with a dreary, urban past: shown against gray walls, works by Kim Abeles and Diana Kohne address historical inequities. Abeles’ installation “Looking for Paradise” visualizes the uneven distribution of trees in Downtown Los Angeles, while Kohne’s painted urban landscapes vividly depict the shade inadequacies she witnessed firsthand through her bus commutes as an L.A. resident, emphasizing how Los Angeles and other cities were built for “efficiency” rather than human comfort. The works are paired with compelling research, including the history of redlining and crucial heat-shade statistics, which visitors can interact with and see how their own communities are affected by these factors.

The next room is the present, with bright yellow walls representing the increasing urban heat of a changing climate. The artworks attempt to do the same. For example, Lisa Tomczeszyn’s installation, “Every Bench Deserves a Tree,” consists of two benches beside each other, one with no shade and only a street sign reading “Asphalt Blvd” while the other is shaded by a large tree — with leaves that are actually cutout photos of trees throughout the Deaconso gardens.

Finally, the third gallery room attempts to project a cooler, more verdant future with walls colored a serene green hue. It features works that imagine a future where technology and city planning better respond to environmental stressors, including Pascaline Doucin-Dahlke’s “Suspended Garden.” Like Tomczeszyn’s work in the previous room, this piece is also comprised primarily of benches set underneath umbrellas. In this case however, those umbrella canopies are made of repurposed plant materials.

Artist Pascaline Doucin-Dahlke’s piece “Suspended Garden” at Descanso Gardens.

(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)

One key goal of the exhibit is to help visitors connect to the importance of heat, shade and urban trees. For example, at the very end of the exhibit in the Boddy House, visitors can contribute to a real-world data collection study about how shade shapes their neighborhoods and what shade-heat related fact they find most striking, and are also invited to draw their imagined shade structures for women waiting at bus stops.

“[We] just don’t want to do science and just don’t want to do art. [We] want to create a good intersection that actually engages people,” said Jolly de Guzman.

Yarn Bombing Los Angeles’ installation inside of Boddy House at Descanso Gardens on July 9, 2025.

(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)

“We want to get them through the heartstrings, visually, aesthetically and actively,” added Edith de Guzman. Reflecting on the broader potential for change, she said, “There’s a lot of reasons to despair right now, but if we change our radio frequency a little bit, we can connect to a whole different feeling. We can actually create the city we want, in the neighborhoods that we deserve.”

The exhibition will run from July 12 to Oct. 12, 2025, with a free opening reception on Friday, July 11, from 5 to 7 p.m.

A mum has been praised as a ‘genius’ after sharing the main activity she packed to keep her baby occupied during their three-hour flight from Germany to Spain – and it’s not what you might expect

If you’re going on a family holiday anytime soon, you’ll probably know parents or guardians often face the added challenge that come with travelling with babies. This will become extra nerve-wracking if it’s their first flight so you don’t know how they’ll react.

While parents are often armed with a selection of toys and activities to entertain their kids in the cabin, it’s a whole different experience when it comes to keeping babies entertained. While popular tips usually include packing their favourite things to play with or timing flights to coincide with nap time for keeping infants happy mid-flight, sometimes it pays to have an extra trick up your sleeve.

One creative mum known as Lala, took to TikTok, where she has over 6.1 million followers, to share her unique life hack for keeping her seven-month-old daughter amused on their recent three-hour flight from Germany to Spain.

“If you don’t pack a head of lettuce for your next flight with your baby, what are you even doing?” Lala said in her video while packing a head of sweet gem lettuce into a zip lock bag.

The video then cut to Lala and her partner getting onto the plane with their sleeping baby snuggled up in her arms. She went on to explain the little one slept through take-off, only to wake later on as they soared high above the ground, which is when they introduced the lettuce.

“Whenever we want to eat in peace at home, we always give her a piece of lettuce, and it always keeps her occupied for so long. And I thought, if it works at home, why would it not work on a plane?” Lala said as she showed their baby the lettuce before letting her tear off a leaf.

Lala added: “She loves tearing things, like anything really. Like, bread, paper, tissue, anything. But bread is way too messy, like there are crumbs everywhere. And with paper or tissue, we always have to keep an eye on her that she doesn’t eat it. But lettuce, lettuce is genius.”

Continuing, she expressed how the lettuce provided a fun and unique texture for the infant to explore, as well as being a healthy, hydrating snack if wanted to taste it.

“This kept her occupied almost the entire flight,” Lala revealed. “She had so much fun, and the best part when it’s time to clean up, you can just eat it. This way, I’m not only entertaining my baby but I’m also getting my greens in.”

Lala then shared: “We were so nervous about her first flight at first, but this was such an amazing experience for us. She did so well, she was just having fun the entire flight and we’re so proud of her.”

The comment section of the video soon filled with comments from viewers sharing their take on the clever hack for in-flight entertainment.

One person joked: “I have a 14 hour flight with my baby next month. I’ll just bring a whole field,” while another added: “Plus points cause it helps her develop her fine motor skills.”

A fellow mum wrote: “You Lala have just unlocked a whole new toy for all of us mums out there thank you.”

“That’s effing genius! I’m trying this on the next flight!” another viewer wrote.

Rhiannon Giddens is down at the river, carrying a flame of heritage, and she’s inviting anyone who wants to join her to come down and light their own wicks.

Rivers are traditionally sites of salvation, as well as play. Last summer, Giddens was making her new album of traditional banjo and fiddle tunes with Justin Robinson, “What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow,” and they were recording a few songs at Mill Prong House in Red Springs, N.C. Stepping inside the house, built on a plantation in 1795, Giddens recoiled at the intensity she felt.

“I knew who was working these fields,” she says. “I knew who was serving in this house — and it was people who looked like me. And then seeing up on the wall, like, a reunion photo of these old white dudes who went to Chapel Hill, at the end of the Civil War, and one of them had my Black family’s last name from Mebane [N.C.] … I was just like: I can’t right now. I had to run out to the river.”

In a moment captured by a photographer, she was crouching by the water just before it started to rain, “and I’m thinking: how many people have come down to this river for respite? How many people in the history of this plantation — turned manor house, turned private property — have come to exactly this spot, distressed over whatever reason?”

Giddens carries the weight of this on her shoulders — of the distress, but also of the joyful culture and music-making of her ancestors — and she extends an open invitation to audiences to share and learn their stories and their culture. She did so at her inaugural Biscuits & Banjos Festival in her native North Carolina, and she’s doing it in her current Old-Time Revue tour — which will make a special blockbuster stop at the Hollywood Bowl [on June 18].

The program will feature Giddens playing with Hollywood banjoists Steve Martin and Ed Helms, along with a reunion of the all-female banjo supergroup Our Native Daughters. “So many banjos,” she says. “This evening is going to be amazing. I wanted to call it a ‘Banjo Jamboree,’ but they wouldn’t let me,” she laughs, speaking to The Times via Zoom.

Balancing laughter and sorrow seems to come easily to Giddens, 48, who has been on a serious mission to rekindle the legacy of the banjo and string band traditions as authentically Black creations ever since she met fiddle player Joe Thompson in 2004 and became a disciple. She’s referred to as an “elder” in the “Blackbird” liner notes, which doesn’t bother her: “To an 18-year-old, I am an elder,” she says. “I’m almost 50, and we are the half generation. We’re the point five, because our parents didn’t pick this up.”

From the Carolina Chocolate Drops to her solo music, from composing the Pulitzer-winning opera “Omar” to helming the Silkroad Ensemble, Giddens is at the fore of a movement of Black artists — including Beyoncé, whose country album “Cowboy Carter” features Giddens on banjo — reclaiming their cultural heritage and making it sing again.

Rhiannon Giddens

(Rick Loomis / for the Los Angeles Times)

A river (of sorts) played a role in another piece of Black Southern iconography this year — in the climax of “Sinners.” Giddens was a musical consultant on Ryan Coogler’s blockbuster film and contributed her banjo to the song “Old Corn Liquor” on its soundtrack. She was also meant to appear onscreen in the central juke joint — her Chocolate Drops bandmate, Justin Robinson, does — but she couldn’t make it work with her busy schedule. She admittedly hasn’t seen the film (“I don’t like horror movies, so I actually don’t want to see it”) but she’s still a fan.

“I think what they’ve opened up with the whole conceit behind it is super important,” Giddens says.

In a way, “Sinners” is a vampiric, IMAX-sized version of her own project, in that it’s about how so much of our popular musical culture was invented by Black folks in the South and co-opted by white performers (whether Elvis, the Rolling Stones or the country and folk music industries) — but also about how music can be a time machine, a way to seance with people up the river of history.

“Beyoncé, ‘Sinners,’ and then, in its own small way, Biscuits & Banjos is like this little triangle of a cultural movement,” Giddens says, “which I didn’t see coming, and I’m just super grateful. Because it’s been a desert. … We’re all toiling in our corners, on our own, and it kind of feels like we’re carrying all of this on our own.”

Her Durham festival, which took place in April, drew musical legends — Taj Mahal, Christian McBride, the Legendary Ingramettes — and basically “most of my favorite people making music right now,” says Giddens. She also judged a biscuit competition and participated in contra dances, which is what got her into this music in the first place.

“People were just really ready,” she says, “ready to come and feel good, and to celebrate our humanity together.”

For Giddens, the stakes couldn’t be higher. She and Robinson learned their tunes and their art directly from Thompson, who died in 2012; they were playing his music together in Ojai recently “when it just hit me how important it was what we were doing,” she says, “like how complete the sound was together. I said: ‘If one of us gets hit by a bus, this tradition is dead.’ ”

That’s why she wanted to record the tunes they inherited from Thompson, as well as from Etta Baker and other North Carolina string band players — hence the “Blackbird” album. But she also insists that the only way to truly pass the flame is through playing together in person.

Rhiannon Giddens crouching by river near Mill Prong House in Red Springs, N.C.contemplating the historic struggle of her slave ancestors. “I’m thinking: how many people have come down to this river for respite?” she said. “How many people in the history of this plantation — turned manor house, turned private property — have come to exactly this spot, distressed over whatever reason?”

(Karen Cox)

“I know that learning from Joe forms the center of my character as a musician,” she says. “I learned stuff off of recordings, fine, but I have something to go back to that was a living transmission. And I just think you should have something of that, especially in this day and age.”

Giddens has passed her tradition down to many students in the past 20 years, including her nephew Justin “Demeanor” Harrington — who plays banjo and the bones, and also raps, and who is traveling with her Old-Time Revue.

This will be Giddens’ first time at the Bowl; likewise for Amythyst Kiah, a banjo player from Johnson City, Tenn., and one of Our Native Daughters. That project began in 2019 as a one-off album recorded in a small Louisiana studio, of songs inspired by the transatlantic slave trade and the suffering and often unheard voices of Black women.

“Music has a way of disarming,” says Kiah, “so it allows for people to be able to engage with the subject matter in an easier way than just talking about it.”

The fierce foursome — which also includes Allison Russell and Leyla McCalla — toured with their songs before the pandemic, and later brought their banjos to Carnegie Hall in 2022. “Now we’re playing in a stadium,” says Kiah, “which is insane.”

The star-studded Bowl show is “not what I usually do,” says Giddens. “It’s stepping out a little bit for me, not to mention the size of the place, which is kind of freaking me out.”

But really it’s just another river — or rather, the same river Giddens has been inviting folks to join her at for the last 20 years.

Fire changes whatever it encounters. Burns it, melts it, sometimes makes it stronger. Once fire tears through a place, nothing is left the same. Kelly Ramsey wasn’t thinking of this when she joined the U.S. Forest Service firefighting crew known as the Rowdy River Hotshots — she just thought fighting fires would be a great job.

But fire changed her too.

In her memoir, “Wildfire Days: A Woman, a Hotshot Crew, and the Burning American West,” Ramsey takes us through two years of fighting wilderness fires in the mountains of Northern California. She wrote the book before January’s deadly Altadena and Pacific Palisades fires, and what she encountered in the summers of 2020 and 2021 was mostly forests burning, not city neighborhoods. But at the time, the fires she and her fellow crewmen fought (and they were all men that first year) were the hottest, fastest, biggest fires California had ever experienced.

“My first real year in fire had been a doozy, not just for me but my beloved California: 4.2 million acres burned,” she writes, in the “worst season the state had endured in over a hundred years.” That included the state’s first gigafire — more than 1 million acres burned in Northern California.

The job proved to be the hardest thing she’d ever done, but something about fire compelled her. “At the sight of a smoke column, most people feel a healthy hitch in their breath and want to run the other way,” she writes. “But all I wanted to do was run toward the fire.”

Ramsey’s memoir covers a lot of ground, skillfully. She learns that being in good shape isn’t enough — she has to be in incredible shape. She learns how to work with a group of men who are younger, stronger and more experienced than she is, and she figures out how to find that line between never complaining and standing up for herself in the face of inappropriate behavior.

She also writes about the changes in her own life during that time: coming to terms with her alcoholic, homeless father; pondering her lousy record for romantic relationships; searching for an independence and peace she had never known.

“It wasn’t fire that was hard; it was ordinary life,” she concludes.

Sometimes her struggles with ordinary life threaten to take over the narrative, but while they humanize her, they are not the most interesting part of this book. What resonates instead is fire and all that it entails — the burning forest and the hard, mind-numbing work of the Hotshots. They work 14 days on, two days off, all summer and fall, sometimes 24-hour shifts when things are bad. They sleep rough, dig ditches, build firebreaks, set controlled burns, take down dead trees and, in between, experience moments of terrifying danger.

Readers of John Vaillant’s harrowing 2023 book “Fire Weather” — an account of the destruction of the Canadian forest town of Fort McMurray — might consider Ramsey’s book a companion to the earlier book. “Wildfire Days” is not as sweeping or scientific; it’s more personal and entertaining. It’s the other side of the story, the story of the people who fight the blaze.

Ramsey’s gender is an important part of this book; as a woman, she faces obstacles men do not. It’s harder to find a discreet place to relieve herself; she must deal with monthly periods; and, at first, she is the weakest and slowest of the Hotshots. “Thought you trained this winter,” one of the guys tells her after an arduous training hike leaves her gasping for breath. “I did,” she said.

“Thinking you shoulda trained a little harder, huh,” he said.

But over time she grows stronger, more capable, and more accepted. In the second year, when another woman joins the crew, Ramsey is torn between finally being “one of the guys” and supporting, in solidarity, a woman — but a woman whose work is substandard and whose attitude is whiny.

“Was I only interested in ‘diversity’ on the crew if it looked like me?” she asks herself. “Had I clawed out a place for myself, only to pull up the ladder behind me?”

But competence is crucial in this dangerous job, and substandard work can mean deadly accidents.

For centuries, natural wildfires burned dead trees and undergrowth in California, keeping huge fires in check. White settlers threw things out of whack.

“The Indigenous people of California were (and still are) expert fire keepers,” Ramsey writes. “Native burning mimicked and augmented natural fire, keeping the land park like and open.”

But in the 20th century, humans suppressed fires and forests became overgrown. “Cut to today,” she writes. “Dense forests are primed to burn hotter and faster than ever before.”

Ramsey’s descriptions of the work and the fires are the strongest parts of the book.

“We could hear the howl — like the roar of a thousand lions, like a fleet of jet engines passing overhead — the sound of fire devouring everything,“ Ramsey writes.

Later, she drives through a part of the forest that burned the year before to see “mile upon mile of carbonized trees and denuded earth, a now-familiar scene of extinguished life.”

But she also notes that the burned areas are already beginning to green up. “New life tended to spring from bitterest ash,” she writes.

“The forest wouldn’t grow back the same, but it wouldn’t stop growing,” she observes earlier.

There is a metaphor here. Ramsey’s memoir is a moving, sometimes funny story about destruction, change and rebirth, told by a woman tempered by fire.

Hertzel’s second memoir, “Ghosts of Fourth Street,” will be published in 2026. She teaches in the MFA in Narrative Nonfiction program at the University of Georgia and lives in Minnesota.

Saturday afternoon out west and evening back east, as citizens faced off against ICE agents in the streets of Los Angeles, “Good Night, and Good Luck,” George Clooney’s 2005 dramatic film tribute to CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, became a Major Television Event, broadcast live from Manhattan’s Winter Garden Theater, by CNN and Max. That it was made available free to anyone with an internet connection, via the CNN website, was a nice gesture to theater fans, Clooney stans and anyone interested to see how a movie about television translates into a play about television.

The broadcast is being ballyhooed as historic, the first time a play has been aired live from Broadway. And while there is no arguing with that fact, performances of plays have been recorded onstage before, and are being so now. It’s a great practice; I wish it were done more often. At the moment, PBS.org is streaming recent productions of Cole Porter’s “Kiss Me, Kate!,” the Bob Dylan-scored “Girl From the North Country,” David Henry Hwang‘s “Yellow Face” and the Pulitzer Prize-winning mental health rock musical “Next to Normal.” Britain’s National Theater at Home subscription service offers a wealth of classical and modern plays, including Andrew Scott’s one-man “Vanya,” as hot a ticket in New York this spring as Clooney’s play. And the archives run deep; that a trip to YouTube can deliver you Richard Burton’s “Hamlet” or “Sunday in the Park With George” with Mandy Patinkin and Bernadette Peters is a gift not to be overlooked.

Clooney, with co-star Anthony Edwards, had earlier been behind a live broadcast of “Ambush,” the fourth season opener of “ER” as a throwback to the particular seat-of-your-pants, walking-on-a-wire energy of 1950s television. (It was performed twice, once for the East and once for the West Coast.) That it earned an audience of 42.71 million, breaking a couple of records in the bargain, suggests that, from a commercial perspective, it was not at all a bad idea. (Reviews were mixed, but critics don’t know everything.)

Like that episode, the “live” element of Saturday’s broadcast was essentially a stunt, though one that ensured, at least, that no post-production editing has been applied, and that if anyone blew a line, or the house was invaded by heckling MAGA hats, or simply disrupted by audience members who regarded the enormous price they paid for a ticket as a license to chatter through the show, it would presumably have been part of the broadcast. None of that happened — but, it could have! (Clooney did stumble over “simple,” but that’s all I caught.) And, it offered the groundlings at home the chance to see a much-discussed, well-reviewed production only a relatively few were able to see in person — which I applaud on principal and enjoyed in practice — and which will very probably not come again, not counting the next day’s final performance.

Glenn Fleshler, left, plays Fred Friendly in the stage production, a role that George Clooney performed in the film version of “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

(Emilio Madrid)

The film, directed by Clooney and co-written with Grant Heslov (who co-wrote the stage version as well), featured the actor as producer and ally Fred W. Friendly to David Strathairn’s memorable Murrow. Here, a more aggressive Clooney takes the Murrow role, while Glenn Fleshler plays Friendly. Released during the second term of the Bush administration, the movie was a meditation on the state of things through the prism of 1954 (and a famous framing speech from 1958 about the possibilities and potential failures of television), the fear-fueled demagoguery of Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and Murrow’s determination to take him on. (The 1954 “See It Now” episode, “A Report on Sen. Joseph McCarthy,” helped bring about his end.) As in the film, McCarthy is represented entirely through projected film clips, echoing the way that Murrow impeached the senator with his own words.

It’s a combination of political and backstage drama — with a soupcon of office romance, represented by the secretly married Wershbas (Ilana Glazer and Carter Hudson) — even more hermetically set within the confines of CBS News than was the film. It felt relevant in 2005, before the influence of network news was dissolved in the acid of the internet and an administration began assaulting the legitimate press with threats and lawsuits; but the play’s discussions of habeas corpus, due process, self-censoring media and the both-sides-ism that seems increasingly to afflict modern media feel queasily contemporary. “I simply cannot accept that there are, on every story two equal and logical sides to an argument,” says Clooney’s Murrow to his boss, William F. Paley (an excellent Paul Gross, from the great “Slings & Arrows”). As was shown here, Murrow offered McCarthy equal time on “See It Now” — which he hosted alongside the celebrity-focused “Person to Person,” represented by an interview with Liberace — but it proved largely a rope for the senator to hang himself.

Though modern stage productions, with their computer-controlled modular parts, can replicate the rhythms and scene changes of a film, there are obvious differences between a movie, where camera angles and editing drive the story. It’s an illusion of life, stitched together from bits and pieces. A stage play proceeds in real time and offers a single view (differing, of course, depending on where one sits), within which you direct your attention as you will. What illusions it offers are, as it were, stage magic. It’s choreographed, like a dance, which actors must repeat night after night, putting feeling into lines they may speak to one another, but send out to the farthest corners of the theater.

Clooney, whose furrowed brow is a good match for Murrow’s, did not attempt to imitate him, or perhaps did within the limits of theatrical delivery; he was serious and effective in the role if not achieving the quiet perfection of Strathairn’s performance. Scott Pask‘s set was an ingenious moving modular arrangement of office spaces, backed by a control room, highlighted or darkened as needs be; a raised platform stage left supported the jazz group and vocalist, which, as in the movie, performed songs whose lyrics at times commented slyly on the action. Though television squashed the production into two dimensions, the broadcast nevertheless felt real and exciting; director David Comer let the camera play on the players, rather than trying for a cinematic effect through an excess of close-ups and cutaways.

While the play generally followed the lines of the film, there was some rearrangement of scenes, reassignment of dialogue — it was a streamlined cast — and interpolations to make a point, or more directly pitch to 2025. New York news anchor Don Hollenbeck (Clark Gregg, very moving in the only role with an emotional arc) described feeling “hijacked … as if all the reasonable people went to Europe and left us behind,” getting a big reaction. One character wondered about opening “the door to news with a dash of commentary — what happens when it isn’t Edward R. Murrow minding the store?” A rapid montage of clips tracking the decay of TV news and politics — including Obama’s tan suit kerfuffle and the barring of AP for not bowing to Trump’s Gulf of America edit and ending with Elon Musk’s notorious straight-arm gesture, looking like nothing so much as a Nazi salute — was flown into Clooney’s final speech.

Last but not least, there is the audience, your stand-ins at the Winter Garden Theatre, which laughed at the jokes and applauded the big speeches, transcribed from Murrow’s own. And then, the curtain call, to remind you that whatever came before, the actors are fine, drinking in your appreciation and sending you out happy and exhilarated and perhaps full of hope.

A CNN roundtable followed to bring you back to Earth.

WETHERSPOONS is bringing back a legendary item at all 809 locations next month – but you will have to be quick.

The bargain boozer has revealed that The Brunch Burger is going to be back on menus.

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The American-style burger is making a return on Father’s Day weekend, which takes place from Friday June 13 to Sunday June 15.

The burger returned two years ago after a ten-year hiatus and it was a fan favourite at the time with punters calling it “legendary”.

This is the third year in a row that Spoons is bringing the much loved meal back.

It’s made up of a three ounce beef patty, American-style cheese, maple-cured bacon,  free-range fried egg and is topped with a hash brown.

The meal is £9.99, including a soft drink and chips or £11.52 if you want to add an alcoholic beverage.

Last year, the meal cost £7.73 with a soft drink and £9.26, if you added booze.

It is likely that prices will vary from pub to pub, so check in with your local to see how much you will be charged.

It is also worth noting that airport, train station, service station and NEC Birmingham pubs are excluded from the Father’s Day offer.

To find your nearest Wetherspoons head over to the website and use its handy locator tool.

It comes as the chain has shaken up its menu in recent weeks, with a number of popular menu items axed.

Two weeks ago, the budget pub chain stopped serving steaks, mixed grills and gammon.

The dishes have long been Wetherspoon staples, but have reportedly become too expensive to keep serving.

In an email sent to staff, Wetherspoons chief John Huston confirmed that the meats were being ditched “after much debate”, as part of a planned menu change.

But it’s not all bad news as the chain has welcomed a number of new menu items including three new beef burgers.

You can check out the new menu change here.

What else is happening at Wetherspoons?

Late last week, Spoons closed a beloved pub in Coventry.

The Spon Gate in Coventry was a favourite among locals and closed for good on May 25.

Two other Spoons still serve the city with The Flying Standard and The Early of Mercia remaining in operation.

The Spon Gate was a favourite among locals though and was called the “best” city centre pub.

Elsehwere, Spoons also launched a £2.99 breakfast deal in February, with customers able to get a breakfast muffin or small breakfast with soft or hot drink.

There are also veggie options available, which is served between 8am and midday.

Match of the Day’s Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards discuss Mohamed Salah’s “ridiculous consistency” for Liverpool and how his “deadly” style of play is so difficult to stop.

MATCH REPORT: Salah clinches equaliser against Palace before Liverpool lift second PL title

I wasn’t expecting a painting of a naked clown to greet me when I FaceTimed Demetri Martin on a Monday afternoon in May. After the longest two seconds of my life, the comedian appeared in front of the camera with an unassuming smile.

For the past few months, Martin has been toiling away in the studio shed designed by his wife, interior designer Rachael Beame Martin, in the backyard of their Beverly Glen home. Lush greenery peeks through the windows above a lattice he constructed to mount canvases of various sizes. His first solo exhibition of paintings and drawings is just days away and he has some finishing touches to make.

Visual art is not new to Martin, a wiz at one-liners who incorporates drawings in his stand-up.

“The cool thing about a drawing is I can share something personal and I can use a graphic to illustrate it more specifically,” he says in “Demetri Deconstructed,” his 2024 Netflix special. In one graph from the special, he plots the inverse relationship between the amount of “past” and “future” time across an individual’s lifespan. The point where “past” and “future” meet is the mid-life existential crisis.

There is a synergy between Martin’s jokes and his sketches, which are more akin to doodles than drawings. Their humor lies in their pared-down specificity. They “make you ponder something on the absurdity-of-life level, which I guess is comedy,” says Martin’s close friend and musician Jack Johnson.

“I brought visual art into my stand-up comedy,” says Demetri Martin. “Can I bring comedy into the visual art world?”

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

With his love of joke crafting, Martin says he represents the comedy old guard as stand-up has become heavily autobiographical in today’s internet age.

“Specifically, it’s jokes that have always attracted me when we’re talking about the comedy world,” Martin says of his aversion to storytelling. “Can you do a joke in 12 words? Can you get an idea across? How much can you take away and it still lands with people?”

“Acute Angles,” Martin’s solo exhibition running Sunday to May 31, takes his obsession with constraint a step further. The experiment: Can you communicate jokes visually without any words?

“I brought visual art into my stand-up comedy,” says Martin, who worked on paintings for two-plus years before he figured he had enough material to fill a gallery. “Can I bring comedy into the visual art world?”

“Acute Angles” — he says the title references the shape of his nose — features large-scale paintings with a unifying color palette of bright red, sky blue and medium gray, in addition to 30 smaller drawings. The paintings depict implausible scenarios: What if the grim reaper slipped on a banana on his way to kill you? What if Superman ripped his underpants on his quest to save you?

The show is a collaboration with his wife, whom he adoringly describes as the muscles of the operation. The two secured a month-long lease of an abandoned yoga studio tucked behind a California Pizza Kitchen in Brentwood. Using her design skills — they met in New York City when she was attending Parsons School of Design and he was pursing comedy — Beame Martin led a rebuild of the studio-turned-gallery.

When Martin’s publicist called to ask if the gallery had a name, the couple turned to Google. They eventually came up with “Laconic Gallery,” for Laconia, Greece, where Martin traces his roots, and because the word laconic perfectly describes Martin’s ethos: marked by the use of few words.

Demetri Martin describes his wife, Rachael Beame Martin, as the muscles of the operation.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

On the day of our interview, Martin is completing the last of 12 paintings for the show and is puzzled why the paint appears differently on the canvas than in the can. He’s trying hard to ensure the color of the naked clown’s pubic hair matches his hair.

The relationship between the viewer and the art is both exciting and scary to Martin. When taking a comedy show on the road, you more or less know your jokes will land, he says. With an art show, there’s more of a vacuum between him and the audience, yet the conceit remains: the show is meant to be funny.

But whether viewers laugh while visiting the art exhibition almost doesn’t matter. For Martin, the reward has been the process of creation — the meditative zone he sinks into, indie rock oozing from his CD player, as he envisions and re-envisions the work. (Many of the paintings in the show are derived from old sketches.)

The show also represents Martin’s re-emergence from his own mid-life existential crisis. At 51, he is older than his dad was when he died and about the same age as his late mom, when she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. “So now, is this like bonus time for me?” he started to ask himself in his late 40s.

In some ways, Martin has always been a tortured artist. After graduating from Yale, he attended NYU Law only to drop out after the second year. But New York City is also where he found himself, spending late nights at the Comedy Cellar and the Boston Comedy Club. His days were spent visiting the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Daydreaming his way through the galleries, jotting jokes in his notepad, is when he first gained an appreciation for the arts.

“He’s not without cynicism once you know him, but where comics so often lead with cynicism, he has this wide-eyed openness, and I think that’s a thread that pulls through all of his work,” says comedian and fellow Comedy Central alum Sarah Silverman.

Demetri Martin’s first solo art exhibition is a collaboration with his wife, Rachael Beame Martin.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Now, Martin is a father to an 8-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son — the same age he was when manning his Greek family’s shish kebab stand on the Jersey Shore. His self-described anger at seeing the world his kids are growing up in, namely their peers’ obsessions with cell phones, seeps into his paintings and drawings. But ultimately, being a father has irrevocably improved Martin’s perspective on life.

“I think sometimes resignation is also acceptance,” he says, on his new appreciation of midlife. “You’re still motivated, but maybe not in the same way. … You still want to make things, but maybe it doesn’t matter as much, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. So that’s where I feel like I’m at, where I’m saying, ‘You know what, I’m grateful.’ I understand how lucky I’ve been now.”

He’s not quite done with touring but “Acute Angles” represents a potential escape. If his comedy can travel without him, if he can make money while foregoing lonely nights on the road, he can prioritize more important moments, like playing catch with his son after school. After all, his kids aren’t at the age yet where they hate him — a joke his kids don’t like.

Still, Martin’s art-making mirrors his joke-writing. It’s a numbers game, meticulously filling notebooks in handwriting Silverman describes as “tiny letters all perfectly the same size,” then revisiting and sharpening material until the joke emerges, like a vision.

“It’s really a privilege to have the kind of career where I can try something like this,” Martin says. “I don’t take that for granted anymore.”

A PRIMARY school has been evacuated after a pupil brought a grenade to show and tell.

Students at Osmaston CofE Primary School in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, were rushed off the site after the shocking discovery on Friday.

Teachers were concerned when a boy pulled out a World War Two hand grenade.

Headteacher Jeanette Hart did not know if the weapon was live or not so quickly took it and put it behind a large tree outside.

Despite not being “100 per cent happy” carrying the old bomb, she said she “didn’t want to take the risk” and leave it in the school.

The head teacher raised the alarm and Derbyshire Police arrived on the scene with army explosives experts.

Mrs Hart told the BBC: “It was quite an eventful assembly.

“It was going fine and there was a boy who brought an old bullet case in, which I knew about, but then his friend produced a hand grenade from his pocket.

“That, I was not expecting.”

Experts determined the heirloom was safe through X-ray analysis.

A spokesman for the Matlock, Cromford, Wirksworth and Darley Dale Police Safer Neighbourhood Team added: “Just a word of guidance for parents and guardians – double check what your kids are taking to show-and-tell, especially when they are family heirlooms.”

Mrs Hart the ordeal was completely “innocent” and the boy thought the grenade was “interesting” after learning about VE Day.

“His family didn’t know [he took it] and they were a little taken aback,” she added.

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