Shakira is all in for the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime performance, despite ongoing public efforts to replace the Puerto Rican singer with another artist.
In an interview with Variety, the Colombian superstar voiced support for Bad Bunny, who is set to perform on Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.
“It’s about time!” she said.
In 2020, Bad Bunny joined Shakira and Jennifer Lopez on stage during their halftime performance, which marked the first all-Latine show in Super Bowl history — J Balvin was also featured.
“I remember when we did ours that even having part of our set in Spanish was a bold move… Acceptance of Spanish-language music as part of the mainstream has come so far from when I started,” said Shakira, who during the interview reflected on the recent anniversaries of her critically-acclaimed Spanish album “Pies Descalzos” (released in 1995) as well as “Oral Fixation (Vol 1 and 2)” (both released in 2005).
“I hope and like to think that all the times my music was met with resistance or puzzlement from the English-speaking world before it was embraced helped forge the path to where we are now,” Shakira added.
The news that Bad Bunny would headline the major American sporting event has been met with some pushback from conservative figures, including President Trump, who labeled the decision as “crazy” and “absolutely ridiculous” in an interview with Newsmax earlier this month.
One floating petition on Change.org, which has acquired over 54,000 signatures, called for Bad Bunny to be replaced by Texas singer George Strait as a way to “honor American culture.”
The late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA also announced an alternative halftime show titled, “The All American Halftime Show,” though the conservative organization has not yet announced artists.
Claims that Bad Bunny is not an American artist are factually incorrect: Puerto Rico is an unincorporated U.S. territory and Puerto Ricans are therefore American citizens. Past Super Bowl halftime shows have also featured non-American acts, including the Rolling Stones, U2, Rihanna, Shania Twain and Coldplay, to name a few.
Despite the anti-Bad Bunny buzz, Shakira doubled down on her support of the singer.
“And I’m so proud that Bad Bunny, who represents not only Latin culture but also how important Spanish-language music has become on a global scale and how universal it has become, is getting to perform on the biggest stage in the world,” she said.
“It’s the perfect moment for a performance like this. I can’t wait to watch it.”
Napheesa Collier covered a lot of bumpy ground in her lengthy end-of-season statement. Yes, officiating in WNBA games is substandard. Sure, the collective bargaining agreement is about to expire and negotiations could cripple the league’s extraordinary popularity.
But let’s not bury the lead. It was a comment Collier attributed to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert in response to the paltry rookie contracts forced on stars such as Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers that could have lasting impact.
During Indiana Fever exit interviews Thursday, Clark said she was unaware of Collier’s unabashed finger-pointing, which went like this:
“I … asked how [Engelbert] planned to fix the fact that players like Caitlin, Angel and Paige, who are clearly driving massive revenue for the league, are making so little for their first four years,” Collier said Tuesday. “Her response was, ‘Caitlin should be grateful she makes $16 million off the court because without the platform the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything.’”
Collier added that Engelbert told her, “players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them.”
Reporters filled in Clark on what Collier said. Then Clark took a breath and responded.
“First of all, I have great respect for [Collier],” Clark said. “I think she made a lot of very valid points. I think what people need to understand is we need great leadership in all levels. … This is a moment we have to capitalize on…. Phee said it all.”
She alluded to the increasing income opportunities afforded women players, even at the college level with NIL money.
“I think that’s probably the way in which the league has changed over the course of the last few years,” she said. “These kids in what they’re making in college these days is insane, and it’s probably more than what I was making.
“Young women are beginning to build their brands in college and bringing that to the WNBA. We are in the biggest moment in WNBA history. There’s no denying that, everybody knows that.”
Clark missed the last 19 regular-season games and the Fever’s spirited playoff run because of a right groin strain and a bone bruise in her left ankle. She said that although it was “probably one of the worst sprains I’ve ever dealt with,” it is “very reasonable” that she could be back to five-on-five play by the end of October.
Asked where she might play during the long WNBA offseason, Clark demurred, smiling as she said she’ll look at all opportunities. She did mention that USA Basketball would likely be her top priority.
Otherwise, Clark’s focus seems to be on the WNBA, with CBA negotiations looming.
“I want the league to be something kids and adults — everyone — can be proud of,” she said. “I hope that’s what my legacy can be.”
Clark’s teammate Lexie Hull, an alternate team representative in CBA negotiations, also spoke about the future of the WNBA. Neither player sounded as if a strike or lockout would benefit anyone.
“We’re still headed forward and up,” Hull said. “The growth of the sport has shown you can’t set a bar because we continue to reach farther and expand. It’s so exciting to be a player at this pivotal time in the sport.
“I’m really hopeful that will be valued, especially with CBA negotiations coming up. We’ll see how the league values us as players and as drivers of that growth.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he supports US President Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war on Gaza. He emphasised his distrust of the Palestinian Authority, which under the plan would have no role in managing the strip until after a period of reform.
As the Nepali night takes on the texture of velvet, the party naturally divides. The men sway in a circle, singing plaintively. The women surround an elderly lady who smokes tobacco rolled in writing paper. And I settle into swapping stories with the girls. Alina and her younger cousins Miching and Blinka may be draped in the silks and heavy jewellery of the Indigenous Aath Pahariya Rai community, but they’re as keen to talk love and travel as any young women. “I’m too independent to get married until I’m very old,” declares 21-year-old Alina. “When I graduate, I want to go to Paris – and then come home to Sipting. Life’s peaceful here and the air is clear.”
I’m in the little-visited Dhankuta region of eastern Nepal on a trip hosted by Community Homestay Network (CHN). This social enterprise is working with governmental organisations and non-profits such as Human and Social Development Centre (Husadec) to support women – including Alina’s mother, Prem Maya – to open their homes to travellers. Since launching with just one homestay in Panauti, south-east of Kathmandu, in 2012, CHN has grown to more than 362 families across 40 communities. This is the first in the country’s rural east.
The writer stayed with Prem and her daughter Alina
As rising temperatures, seasonal flooding and erratic monsoons force droves of Dhankuta’s subsistence farmers over the border into India, this remote region is turning to international tourism for the first time. Empowering women to earn without having to leave their villages, and working on sustainable rainwater-harvesting solutions, is central to this vision.
While tourism contributed about $2.2bn (£1.64bn) to Nepal’s GDP in 2024, it remains concentrated around Khatmandu, trekking routes such as Everest and the Annapurna Circuit, the second city Pokhara and Chitwan national park. The result is overloaded infrastructure, traffic jams at key viewpoints and the economic benefits of the industry concentrated into just a few hands. Schemes such as CHN hope to spread the tourist dollar and offer visitors a memorable experience away from the crowds.
The orange-painted buildings of Dhankuta
After a 40-minute flight from Kathmandu and a two-hour-plus bus journey along a road that winds upwards like a series of sickle moons, our first stop is the town of Dhankuta. It served as the region’s administrative hub until the 1960s, when it sank into a slumber. At first, it appears the government’s new tourism policy might not have registered with local residents. As I wander past the orange-painted buildings, the sewing machine in a tailor’s shop stills as its owner looks up at me in astonishment; a shopper wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words “Mama’s little man” drops his bags to stare; and a woman freezes in her doorway, oblivious to the dal dripping from the wooden spoon she’s holding.
“In the last few decades this neighbourhood was so empty that jackals roamed the streets,” explains our guide, Kalpana Bhattarai. “Locals painted it to celebrate their history as orange growers before climate change – and in the hope of appealing to visitors. It seems they’re a little surprised to see it actually working.” She flashes a winning smile, and they all beam back.
A view on the hike through the hill forest to Khambela
Bringing as many local people as possible into the tourism supply chain is central to CHN’s ethos, which is why it also runs programmes to train youngsters as guides. After a night in the comfortable Hotel Murchunga International in Dhankuta we meet one of the programme’s first two graduates, Nabin Rai of the Aath Pahariya Rai community. This morning, he’ll be leading the 7½-mile forest hike to his home village of Khambela for the first time and, given my incessant questions, I suspect this is a baptism of fire.
As we walk, he talks about his life as the only young man remaining in the village – staying behind partly to care for his disabled father and partly out of love for this place. “When I come to the forest, it feels like my own house,” he says, leading the way along a path studded with silver silica particles that gleam like the Tamor River below. “You can feel the gods here.”
As we enter Khambela through trees woven with jasmine, Nabin points out the rainwater storage tanks installed by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), which help to supplement the unreliable supply from the government pipeline two hours away by foot.
One of the village elders in Khambela
The hike ends with vegetable curry in a courtyard owned by a woman in her 60s who tells us to call her Didi (big sister), and observes our fascination with her home with quiet amusement. As we prepare to leave, she presses a veena into my hand: a hand-carved instrument that hums grudgingly when I blow through it and tug its string with clumsy enthusiasm.
After another night at our hotel, we wander round Dhankuta’s haat (bazaar), where Rais, Magars, Limbus and people from several Hindu castes haggle for everything from buffalo-skin stools to cucumbers as fat as a child’s leg. Then we take the bus to Sipting to meet the Aath Pahariya Rai family, our hosts for the next few days.
Prem leads the way up a dirt staircase hewn from the mountain to her home, the highest in the village. From its squat toilet to three bedrooms haunted by a kitten called Nimki, it’s impeccably clean and has arresting views over the valley’s forested floor.
She shyly points out the water and fresh soap by my bed. “I’m not sure where you’re from and haven’t seen many people who look like you, but I am very glad you’re here,” she says. A towel folded in the shape of a butterfly and the light left on – a gesture that always reminds me of my parents – suggest that this couldn’t be more true.
Over the next few days, I adjust to the rhythms of life in Prem’s house: the scent of cow dung and woodsmoke as I learn to fold large leaves that will be used as dishes; the way the valley appears almost flat beneath the midday heat, and becomes soft and deep in the afternoons; Alina recalling that when she was little and her father, Ram, carried her to bed, she fancied the stars were walking with them.
“I can’t read or write beyond my name and have never earned my own money before. Now I’m a businesswoman,” says Prem, watching with approval as I demolish a millet pancake bursting with potato curry.
By day, Kalpana leads us on intriguing outings. At Dhoje Dada, we climb through a mogul cemetery in a cloud that echoes with the calls of cuckoos, only for it to clear in rapid, smoke-like wisps to reveal the sunrise. As darkness swallows the mountains at Kachide, we harvest sour tree tomatoes and learn local recipes from a woman who is using the income to fund her daughters’ university educations.
The road winds through dripping rhododendron forests and mountain villages where I sense that we are the first westerners local people have ever seen.
At Cholung Park, most visitors seem more interested in watching me receive a blessing from a Mundhum samba (a figure in charge of rituals for the Limbu people, who flicks a leaf on to my throat that clings like a damp butterfly’s wing) than browsing the museum’s collection of sacred Limbu artefacts. Given the queues that now form at the peak of Everest and on Annapurna’s trails, getting such an unfiltered glimpse of Nepali life feels like an enormous privilege.
For my final breakfast in Sipting, Ram watches through the window while Alina and Prem fill my pockets with freshly picked passion fruit and tuck a sprig of mugwort behind my ear to ward off evil spirits on the road to Janakpur. Prem patiently attempts to braid a lacha dori (a colourful thread adorned with beads) of Alina’s into my slippery bob. “We’re so sad to see you leave,” she says. “Come back whenever you like – this is your home now.”
The trip was provided byCommunity Homestay Network;its eight-day Eastern Nepal: The Road Less Taken adventure blends nature, Indigenous culture, homestays and hikes and costs US$2,359 for a single traveller, $2,657 for two or $3,597 for a group of four, including a local guide, ground transport, accommodation and most meals. Many shorter personalised trips and packages are also available. Responsible tourism in Dhankuta is being implemented through the HI-GRID Project, supported by the Australian government and led by ICIMOD. For more information on travel to Nepal, visitntb.gov.np
Federal Trade Commission Commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter (L) and FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya (R) listen as Chair of the Federal Trade Commission Lina Khan testifies before the House Judiciary Committee in a hearing on “Oversight of the Federal Trade Commission on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in 2023. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI | License Photo
Sept. 4 (UPI) — The Justice Department has asked the Supreme Court to allow President Donald Trump to fire a member of the Federal Trade Commission without cause, a direct challenge to a 90-year-old precedent that limits political influence on such agencies.
Trump attempted to fire to Democratic commissioners, Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya in March. Both challenged the move, but Bedoya later dropped out of the case.
Solicitor General John D. Sauer said in the most recent court filing that the commission has more power now than it did at its inception, implying support for Trump’s ability to fire Slaughter by exercising his presidential authority under Article 2 of the Constitution.
“In this case, the lower courts have once again ordered the reinstatement of a high-level officer wielding substantial executive authority whom the President has determined should not exercise any executive power, let alone significant rulemaking and enforcement powers,” Sauer wrote.
Sauer asked the high court to expedite the case, sidestepping any more action by lower courts.
This move is the latest in a series of efforts by Trump to remove members of other independent federal agencies, which the Supreme Court has approved.
A 1914 law that established the agency said members of independent commission can only be removed from “inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance in office.”
Slaughter was appointed to the commission in 2018. Bedoya was originally appointed by Trump the same year. President Joe Biden re-appointed her in 2024.
The UN chief says he values China’s support, where he is attending the 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.
Published On 30 Aug 202530 Aug 2025
Chinese President Xi Jinping has told United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that China supports the global organisation playing a central role in international affairs and that it upholds “true multilateralism”, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
As the rotating chair, Xi will preside over the summit, which marks the fifth annual SCO summit hosted by China.
Leaders from more than 20 countries and heads of 10 international organisations will attend the summit.
Among the participants will be Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Iranian President Masood Pezeshkian and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Xi will also meet Erdogan on the sidelines of the crucial summit.
The summit’s agenda includes promoting the “Shanghai Spirit”, improving internal mechanisms, and fostering multilateral cooperation in areas such as security, economics and culture.
A joint signing of the new Tianjin Declaration and the approval of a strategy for the next decade are other expected outcomes.
The summit will issue statements marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in World War II against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, and the 80th founding anniversary of the UN, aside from adopting a string of outcome documents on strengthening security, economic, people-to-people and cultural cooperation.
Founded in 2001, the SCO is a political and security alliance comprising 10 members: China, Russia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus.
The Chinese leader will also host Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a large-scale military parade on September 3 to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Asia.
