week

Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift announced their engagement more than a week ago, and the excitement has yet to wear off for the Kansas City Chiefs tight end.

On this week’s episode of the “New Heights” podcast, Kelce described to his brother, Jason, how it feels to introduce the pop music superstar as his fiancée.

“I still get giddy,” Kelce said. “I love it. It’s exciting times.”

The brothers opened the show with Kelce’s first public comments on his upcoming nuptials since he and Swift made the announcement on Aug. 26 with a joint Instagram post. That post has received more than 36 million likes and has been reposted more than any other Instagram post, passing the 1-million mark in its first six hours.

“I appreciate everybody that reached out and sent something, and all the posts, and all the excitement that’s been going on,” Kelce said. “It’s been really fun telling everybody who I’m going to be spending the rest of my life with.”

Just days after the announcement, the couple attended a college football game between Cincinnati (the Kelce brothers’ alma mater) and Nebraska at Arrowhead Stadium, the Chiefs’ home field. While much of the public was thrilled to see Swift’s massive engagement ring out and about for the first time, Kelce said it was another first that made the occasion special to him.

“Actually, it was my first time introducing Taylor as my fiancée to a few of my teammates,” Kelce said. “So, yeah, it was pretty cool.”

Kelce provided no insight into any wedding plans, though, telling his brother at one point, “We’re gonna see how it all shakes out.”

Both the groom and bride would seem to have plenty on their plates in upcoming months, with the Chiefs starting the 2025 season Friday against the Chargers in São Paulo, Brazil, and Swift releasing a new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on Oct. 3.

MEXICO CITY — Security, sovereignty, tariffs, trade, drugs and migration — all hot-button issues for the Trump administration and its neighbors in the Western Hemisphere — will top Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s agenda this week on his third trip to Latin America since becoming the chief U.S. diplomat.

In talks with leaders in Mexico and Ecuador on Wednesday and Thursday, Rubio will make the case that broader, deeper cooperation with the U.S. on those issues is vitally important to improving health, safety and security in the Americas and the Caribbean.

Yet, President Trump has alienated many in the region — far beyond the usual array of U.S. antagonists like Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela — with persistent demands, coupled with threats of sweeping tariffs and massive sanctions for not complying with his desires.

Mexico has been a focus for Trump

Mexico, the only country apart from Canada to share a border with the U.S., has been a particular target for Trump. He has demanded, and so far won, some concessions from Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government, which is eager to defuse the tariff threats.

Just a few hours before Rubio’s arrival Tuesday, Sheinbaum was set to lead a meeting of the country’s most important security forum, which brings together all 32 governors, the army, navy, federal prosecutor’s office and security commanders to coordinate actions across Mexico.

Sheinbaum had been talking for weeks about how Mexico was finalizing a comprehensive security agreement with the State Department that, among other things, was supposed to include plans for a “joint investigation group” to combat the flow of fentanyl and the drug’s precursors into the U.S. and weapons from north to south.

“Under no circumstance will we accept interventions, interference or any other act from abroad that is detrimental to the integrity, independence and sovereignty of the country,” she said Monday in her State of the Nation address marking her first year in office.

Last week, however, a senior State Department official downplayed suggestions that a formal agreement — at least one that includes protections for Mexican sovereignty — was in the works.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to preview Rubio’s meetings, said sovereignty protections were “understood” by both countries without having to be formalized in a document.

Sheinbaum lowered her expectations Tuesday, saying during her morning news briefing that it would not be a formal agreement but rather a kind of memorandum of understanding to share information and intelligence on drug trafficking or money laundering obtained “by them in their territory, by us in our territory unless commonly agreed upon.”

Mexico’s president touts keeping close ties with the U.S.

Of her meeting with Rubio on Wednesday, she said it was always important to maintain good relations with the United States.

“There will be moments of greater tension, of less tension, of issues that we do not agree on, but we have to try to have a good relationship, and I believe tomorrow’s meeting will show that,” Sheinbaum said. “It is a relationship of respect and at the same time collaboration.”

To appease Trump, Sheinbaum has gone after Mexican cartels and their fentanyl production more aggressively than her predecessor. The government has sent the National Guard to the northern border and delivered 55 cartel figures long wanted by U.S. authorities to the Trump administration.

The Trump-Sheinbaum relationship also has been marked by tension, including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announcing a new initiative with Mexico to combat cartels along the border that prompted an angry denial from Sheinbaum.

Despite American officials singing her praises, and constantly highlighting collaboration between the two countries, Trump glibly said last month: “Mexico does what we tell them to do.”

Migration and cartels are a focus of Rubio’s trip

In announcing the trip, the State Department said Rubio, who has already traveled twice to Latin America and the Caribbean and twice to Canada this year, would focus on stemming illegal migration, combating organized crime and drug cartels, and countering what the U.S. believes is malign Chinese behavior in its backyard.

He will show “unwavering commitment to protect [U.S.] borders, neutralize narco-terrorist threats to our homeland, and ensure a level playing field for American businesses,” the department said.

Rubio’s first foreign trip as secretary of state was to Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic, during which he assailed Chinese influence over the Panama Canal and sealed deals with the others to accept immigrant deportees from the United States. Rubio later traveled to Jamaica, Guyana and Suriname.

The senior State Department official said virtually every country in Latin America is now accepting the return of their nationals being deported from the U.S. and, with the exception of Nicaragua, most have stepped up their actions against drug cartels, many of which have been designated foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S.

The official also said progress has been made in countering China in the Western Hemisphere.

Lee and Janetsky write for the Associated Press. AP writer María Verza in Mexico City contributed to this report.

In a week that saw the S&P 500 lose value, one stock in particular, space rocket operator Rocket Lab (RKLB 1.42%), glowed a bright shade of green as it rocketed to close the week 9.5% higher on Friday.

And I know why.

Because I was there to see it.

Image source: Rocket Lab.

Welcome to Virginia, LC-3

On Thursday morning, Aug. 28, Rocket Lab officially opened its third “launch complex” in the world, LC-3, at the Virginia Spaceport Authority’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, just off the Virginian eastern seaboard.

LC-3 will be home to Rocket Lab’s newest and biggest rocket, the 141-foot-tall, methane-and-liquid oxygen-fueled Neutron. Capable of lifting 13 metric tons to low Earth orbit, Neutron will be 43 times more powerful than its little brother (and Rocket Lab’s current only rocket), the Electron. Neutron is scheduled to make its inaugural test flight from LC-3 later this year.

Of course, all of this we already knew about Neutron. We’ve know this since Rocket Lab CEO Sir Peter Beck promised the rocket was coming, four years ago. But here are three things you probably didn’t know about Rocket Lab stock and Neutron., things I only learned myself by attending the LC-3 ribbon-cutting last week.

From MARS to Mars

As Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin pointed out in his opening speech before assisting with the ribbon-cutting, Neutron will be launching from a site at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport — “MARS,” the spaceport. And as CEO Beck observed, bigger rockets can send bigger payloads farther distances — including to Mars, the planet.

Rocket Lab actually already has two satellites built and ready to go to Mars, as part of the ESCAPADE science mission for the University of California Berkeley’s Space Science Laboratory and NASA. What it hasn’t had is a rocket big enough to get them there, and delays caused by trying to hitch rides on other companies’ rockets — SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and Blue Origin’s New Glenn — have delayed the mission.

Neutron, when it’s ready, could solve that problem by giving Rocket Lab a way to get to Mars under its own power.

Targeting SpaceX

With 43 times the payload capacity of Electron, which can itself often carry multiple small satellites at a time to orbit, Rocket Lab’s Neutron rocket is often described as ideal for the deployment of Earth orbit satellite constellations. Rocket Lab’s most recent descriptions of the medium-lift rocket, however, suggest the company is preparing to compete with rivals such as SpaceX and Northrop Grumman (NOC 0.36%) in the “cargo resupply” market as well.

Resupply whom, you may ask? Well, the International Space Station is the party most obviously in need of regular resupply runs, and currently, SpaceX and Northrop Grumman are fulfilling that function. NASA has indicated openness to allowing other companies to bid on Commercial Resupply Services contracts, however, awarding one to Sierra Nevada Corporation in 2016, for example. Nearly a decade later, Sierra Nevada has yet to actually perform a resupply mission.

Seems to me that opens up a gap that Rocket Lab may soon be able to fill.

Uncle Sam is looking for a few good astronauts

Arguably the biggest reveal of last week’s LC-3 opening, though, was a heavy hint Rocket Lab dropped as to a previously unexpected aspiration: putting astronauts in orbit.

Describing the missions it hopes Neutron to perform once it starts launching, Rocket Lab named all the things we’ve already discussed — launching constellations, visiting other planets, “and eventually human spaceflight,” too.

This revives an early hope that Neutron might give NASA and other space-users a third way to send astronauts to space, in addition to SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing‘s (BA -0.54%) ill-starred Starliner.

Admittedly, Rocket Lab stopped short of giving any real detail on its plans to develop a human-rated spacecraft for Neutron to carry. Just the hint it did drop at the LC-3 opening, though, already has investors talking about what Rocket Lab’s plans might be along these lines, which could run the gamut from helping to keep space stations crewed, to sending astronauts to the moon or Mars, or even conducting space tourism around Earth.

Stay tuned. As soon as I know more, so will you.

I’m on a mission to reach financial freedom through passive income. My goal is to build multiple income streams that combine to eventually cover my basic living expenses, thereby eliminating the stress of having to earn money to meet my financial needs.

Every week, I aim to make progress toward this financial goal. This time, I plan to invest $250 into three leading dividend stocks: Coca-Cola (KO 0.94%), Camden Property Trust (CPT 1.12%), and W.P. Carey (WPC 0.90%). I believe these companies offer great potential to help me achieve my passive income ambitions.

Image source: Getty Images.

Satisfying income-seeking investors for decades

Coca-Cola has a terrific record of paying dividends. The global beverage giant has paid dividends for over a century, while increasing its payout for 63 consecutive years. That qualifies it for the elite group of Dividend Kings, companies that have had 50 or more consecutive years of annual dividend increases. Coca-Cola has been growing its payout at a low- to mid-single-digit rate in recent years.

The iconic beverage company’s dividend currently yields about 3%. That’s more than double the S&P 500‘s dividend yield, which is around 1.2%.

Coca-Cola generates significant cash flow, enabling it to reinvest in growing its business while paying its lucrative dividend. The company expects its capital investments to drive 4%-6% annual organic revenue growth over the long term, which should support mid- to high-single-digit annual earnings-per-share growth. Coca-Cola also has an A-rated balance sheet, giving it the financial flexibility to make acquisitions as attractive growth opportunities arise. Since 2016, a quarter of the company’s earnings growth has come from acquisitions. Those drivers should enable Coca-Cola to continue growing its cash flows and dividends.

Cashing in on demand for rental housing

Camden Property Trust is a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on owning multifamily properties. The landlord owns nearly 60,000 apartment units across 15 major markets in the southern half of the country. It invests in metro areas benefiting from strong employment and population growth trends. That drives demand for rental housing.

The REIT has paid a stable and steadily rising dividend over the past decade and a half. While Camden hasn’t increased its dividend every single year, it has been on a steady upward trajectory since the REIT reset its dividend during the financial crisis. The company’s payout currently yields around 3.8%.

Camden expects to deliver consistent earnings and dividend growth in the future. Its apartment portfolio should benefit from strong demand for rental housing, which should keep occupancy levels high while driving steady rent growth. Camden also has a strong financial profile, enabling it to invest in expanding its portfolio by acquiring stabilized apartment communities and starting new development projects. These growth drivers should enable Camden to continue increasing its dividend.

Building back better

W.P. Carey is a diversified REIT. It owns operationally critical commercial real estate (retail, industrial, warehouse, and other properties) across North America and Europe, secured by long-term net leases with built-in rental escalation clauses. These properties produce very stable rental income that rises each year.

The REIT has increased its dividend every single quarter since resetting the payment at the end of 2023. W.P. Carey realigned its dividend with its expected cash flows after exiting the office sector by selling and spinning off those properties. That strategy shift enabled the company to focus on properties with better long-term growth potential.

W.P. Carey has been steadily rebuilding its dividend (which currently yields 5.4%) and its portfolio. It spent $1.6 billion on new property investments last year and is on track to invest at a similar rate this year. That should enable it to grow its cash flow per share at a mid-single-digit annual rate, supporting a similar dividend growth rate.

Ideal passive income stocks

Coca-Cola, Camden Property Trust, and W.P. Carey are excellent fits for my passive income investment strategy. They pay dividends with above-average yields that steadily grow. As a result, they enable me to generate an attractive and growing stream of dividend income. Investing an additional $250 in these stocks this week will add nearly $10 to my annual passive income total, bringing me a little closer to achieving financial independence.

The Sparks won a critical game Sunday, defeating the Washington Mystics 81-78 to keep their slim playoff hopes alive heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.

Washington hit a trio of three-pointers in the final minute, but Dearica Hamby‘s jumper in the paint and Kelsey Plum‘s two free throws in the final 20 seconds were enough to seal a Sparks win.

Hamby led the Sparks with 20 points and 12 rebounds, recording her 11th double-double of the season. Plum added 18 points, four rebounds and six assists. Rickea Jackson contributed 16 points and Azurá Stevens had 12 rebounds.

“Dearica was just a beast on the boards and finishing in traffic with those-and-ones,” Sparks coach Lynne Roberts said. “She’s just so strong and athletic,”

It was a critical win for a ninth-place Sparks team that is three wins behind the Indiana Fever for the final playoff spot.

The Sparks (18-20) likely will need to win a majority of their remaining games to have a chance at the postseason. Their final six-game slate includes two tests against Atlanta this week and games against Phoenix and Las Vegas to close the regular season.

They also need the Valkyries, Fever and Seattle Storm to lose. Golden State, which beat Indiana on Sunday night to move ahead of Seattle and into sixth, also owns the playoff tiebreaker after winning the season series against the Sparks.

The Sparks could help their cause with a road win over Seattle (22-19) on Monday night.

Before Sunday’s win, Roberts wanted to see better pacing from her team. She got that, along with better shot execution. Unfortunately, 13 turnovers allowed the Mystics to stay on the Sparks’ heels most of the game.

The Sparks came out strong in the first quarter, building a double-digit lead of 13 points.

Washington (16-25) responded in the second quarter and tied the game 24-24. Plum then split a pair of free throws to put the Sparks ahead and they pulled away to take a 40-31 lead by halftime.

The Sparks continued to stay ahead in the third quarter, but six points from Kiki Iriafen coupled with a Stefanie Dolson three-pointer gave Washington a 56-55 lead with 8:21 left. The Sparks retook the lead before a Sonia Citron three-pointer tied the score at 61-61 with 5:35 remaining.

Hamby then made a couple of free throws and scored on a two-foot layup to put the Sparks ahead for good.

Iriafren finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds, securing her 15th double-double of the season. Shakira Austin added 11 points and seven rebounds. Citron chipped in 12 points.

With some much at stake in days ahead, Stevens knows the Sparks can’t afford to lose their focus.

“We know the circumstances, but all we can control is the next possession.” Stevens said, “Just taking it day by day and really focusing on us, our defense, our rebounding, our pace on offense.”

Roberts also would like to see more from her players Monday night against Seattle.

“We’ve got to be better at putting teams away and not making it a close game, but we took care of business [tonight],” Roberts said.

DEFENCE chiefs were hit by nearly 300 suspected security breaches every week, latest figures show.

The toll, for the first half of last year, more than doubled in two years.

It included staff posting sensitive information on social media and gaming sites.

Military personnel have also given away secrets on their OnlyFans subscription pages, while restricted papers have been found in the street.

Blunders have included revealing the position of troops and ships, the security of military bases and details on weaponry and manoeuvres.

Figures obtained by The Sun show that in 2023 — the most recent full year with available stats — there were 12,713 security incidents.

In the first six months of 2024 there were a further 7,710. In 2021, the MoD recorded just 5,522.

There are no rules banning personnel from joining social networks as long as they maintain high standards.

This year Apache helicopter pilot Harry Bourne was dishonourably discharged from the Army for sharing videos and photos of himself on OnlyFans which revealed secrets of Wattisham Airfield, in Suffolk.

Security expert Graham Cluley said: “It all sounds like a joke but it’s deadly serious.”

The Ministry of Defence said: “We take data security extremely seriously and are committed to ensuring incidents are dealt with properly.”

1

Ed Hodgkiss is no longer the football coach or co-athletic director at Bishop Montgomery. Principal Michele Starkey and president Patrick Lee made the announcement in a letter to parents on Saturday, writing Hodgkiss is “no longer employed at Bishop Montgomery.”

Bishop Montgomery and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles have been scrambling to deal with the fallout from weeks of turmoil in the football program.

It started with the Southern Section declaring five transfer students ineligible this season for violation of CIF bylaw 202, which is providing false information. Then the team had numerous players suspended after a first-game loss in Hawaii when they left the bench with 24 seconds left. That forced Bishop Montgomery to forfeit Friday’s game against Santa Ana Mater Dei because of a lack of players.

The Archdiocese announced it would conduct an investigation into the transfer issues.

Hodgkiss came to Bishop Montgomery in 2010 from the Los Angeles Avengers of the Arena Football League.

Bishop Montgomery changed principals and presidents last school year and appeared to move to a different sports philosophy, accepting numerous transfer students with the hope of elevating the football program to a higher level of competition. The school is scheduled to leave the Camino Real League after this season.

No new coach was announced. Messages left for Hodgkiss and Lee were not returned.

HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL

WEEK 2

(Games at 7 p.m. unless noted)

THURSDAY’S SCHEDULE

CITY SECTION

Nonleague

Fremont at Manual Arts

L.A. Hamilton at Crenshaw

SOUTHERN SECTION

Nonleague

Alemany at Salesian

Arroyo at Bolsa Grande

Ayala at La Habra

Colton at Arrowhead Christian

Desert Hot Springs at Citrus Hill

Etiwanda at Cajon

Fountain Valley at Marina

Garden Grove at Santa Ana

Garden Grove Santiago at Savanna, 6:30 p.m.

Glendale at Montclair

Hemet at Carter, 7:30 p.m.

Heritage at Chaffey

Hesperia at Liberty

Indio at Rialto

Los Amigos at Irvine University

Magnolia at Pioneer

Norco at Orange Vista

Redlands at Grand Terrace

Rio Hondo Prep at Maranatha

Serrano at Xavier Prep

Silverado at Patriot, 7:30 p.m.

Sultana at Victor Valley

Warren at La Serna

Western at Huntington Beach

Workman at Canyon Springs, 7:30 p.m.

Yorba Linda at San Jacinto

Yucca Valley at Cathedral City

8-MAN

SOUTHERN SECTION

Heritage League

Faith Baptist at Milken

Nonleague

California Lutheran at United Christian

Vista Meridian at Calvary Baptist, 7:30 p.m.

INTERSECTIONAL

Alpaugh at East Valley

Laton at Coast Union, 5 p.m.

Lebec Frazier Mountain at Valley Oaks CES

FRIDAY’S SCHEDULE

CITY SECTION

Central League

Bernstein at Mendez

Nonleague

Arleta at Taft

Contreras at LA Marshall, 3:30 p.m.

Dymally at Westchester

Eagle Rock at Bell

Fairfax at Los Angeles, 3 p.m.

Gardena at King-Drew

Granada Hills vs. Palisades at Santa Monica College

Hawkins at Canoga Park

Hollywood at Marquez

Legacy at Grant

Lincoln at Jefferson

Marquez at Hollywood

Maywood CES at Reseda

Monroe at Belmont

Panorama at Fulton, 4 p.m.

Rancho Dominguez at West Adams, 4 p.m.

Reseda at Maywood CES

Rivera at Washington

Roybal at Van Nuys

Santee at LA University, 7:30 p.m.

South East at Angelou

Sylmar at Chavez

SOUTHERN SECTION

Nonleague

Agoura at Thousand Oaks

Aliso Niguel at Chino

Alta Loma at Claremont

Anaheim Canyon at Beckman

Aquinas at Bonita

Ayala at La Habra

Azusa at Gabrielino

Baldwin Park at California

Banning at Whittier Christian

Barstow at Segerstrom

Bell Gardens at Hacienda Heights Wilson

Bellflower at Oxnard

Beverly Hills at Loara

Bishop Amat at Valencia

Bishop Montgomery at Leuzinger

Buena Park at Ocean View

California City at Riverside Prep

California Military Institute at Glenn

Camarillo vs. Saugus at College of the Canyons

Capistrano Valley at Crean Lutheran

Capistrano Valley Christian at Laguna Hills

Carpinteria at Santa Clara

Chaminade at Servite

Channel Islands at Hueneme

Chaparral at San Clemente

Chino Hills at San Juan Hills

Citrus Valley at La Quinta

Colony at San Dimas

Compton Centennial at Heritage Christian

Costa Mesa at Godinez

Covina at Baldwin Park

Covina at Diamond Ranch

Cypress at Eisenhower

Desert Mirage at Bermuda Dunes Desert Christian

Diamond Bar at Brea Olinda

Dominguez at Hawthorne

Don Lugo at El Segundo

Eastside at Nordhoff

El Dorado at El Toro

Elsinore at Palm Desert

Esperanza at Dana Hills

Fillmore at Buena

Firebaugh at Artesia

Fontana at Arlington

Foothill at Norte Vista

Fullerton at Troy

Golden Valley at Lancaster

Granite Hills at Kaiser

Hart at Paraclete, 7:30 p.m.

Hawthorne at Dominguez

Hesperia at Liberty

Hillcrest at Ramona

Irvine at Woodbridge

Jurupa Hills at Temescal Canyon

Jurupa Valley at Ontario

Katella at Estancia

Keppel at Compton Early College

King at Riverside North

La Mirada at Tesoro

La Sierra at Saddleback

Long Beach Jordan at La Canada

Los Alamitos at Gardena Serra

Mary Star at Cerritos Valley Christian

Miller at Corona

Millikan at Downey

Mira Costa at Redondo

Mountain View at Garey

Muir at Charter Oak

Murrieta Mesa at Rancho Verde

Newbury Park at Oxnard Pacifica

Newport Harbor at El Modena

Nogales at Cantwell-Sacred Heart

Northview at Glendora

Northwood at Garden Grove Pacifica

Oak Hills at Rancho Cucamonga

Oak Park at Brentwood

Ontario Christian at Eastvale Roosevelt

Orange at Los Osos

Pacific at Pasadena Marshall

Palm Springs at Coachella Valley

Paloma Valley at Temecula Valley

Paramount at Compton

Pasadena at Norwalk

Perris at Rim of the World

Pomona at Ganesha

Portola at Cerritos

Riverside Notre Dame at Temecula Prep

Rosemead at Whittier

Rowland at Placentia Valencia

Rubidoux at Bloomington

San Bernardino at Arroyo Valley

San Gabriel at El Monte

San Jacinto Valley Academy at Duarte

San Marino at South Torrance

Santa Ana Calvary Chapel at Westminster

Santa Ana Valley at Century

Santa Barbara at Dos Pueblos

Santa Margarita at Highland

Santa Monica at Burbank Burroughs

Santa Paula at Del Sol

Sierra Vista at La Puente

Silver Valley at Indian Springs

South El Monte at Montebello

South Hills at St. Genevieve

South Pasadena at Crescenta Valley

St. Anthony at Torrance

St. Bonaventure at Inglewood

St. Francis at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame

St. Margaret’s at La Salle

St. Paul at Damien

St. Pius X-St. Matthias at Trabuco Hills

Summit at Beaumont

Sunny Hills at Long Beach Wilson

Tahquitz at Rancho Mirage

Temple City at Alhambra

Trinity Classical at Bosco Tech

Tustin vs. Long Beach Poly at Veterans Stadium

Twentynine Palms at Lakeside

Vasquez at Littlerock

Ventura at Rio Mesa

Villa Park at Upland

Village Christian at Schurr

Vista del Lago at Adelanto

Walnut at Sonora

Webb at Anza Hamilton

West Covina at El Rancho

West Ranch at Antelope Valley

West Torrance at Peninsula, 4:30 p.m.

West Valley at Rancho Christian

Westminster La Quinta at Bassett

Yucaipa at Shadow Hills

INTERSECTIONAL

Apple Valley at Tempe (Ariz.) Corona del Sol

Bakersfield West at Ridgecrest Burroughs, 7:30 p.m.

Baltimore (Md.) St. Frances Academy at St. John Bosco

Birmingham at Moorpark

Burbank at Reno (Nev.) Galena

Carson at Palos Verdes, 3:30 p.m.

Crespi at Cleveland

Culver City at Narbonne

El Camino Real at Grace

Folsom at Mission Viejo

Garfield at La Palma Kennedy

Granada Hills Kennedy at Canyon Country Canyon

Harvard-Westlake at Venice

JSerra at Honolulu Kamehameha

Kahuku (Hawaii) vs. Mater Dei at Santa Ana Stadium

Las Vegas (Nev.) Centennial at North Torrance

Las Vegas (Nev.) Shadow Ridge at Quartz Hill, 6 p.m.

Locke at Lynwood

Long Beach Cabrillo at Wilmington Banning

LA Wilson at Lawndale

Monrovia at L.A. Roosevelt

Nuview Bridge at Pine Valley Mountain Empire

Oakland Castlemont at Dorsey

Oaks Christian at Bakersfield Liberty, 7:30 p.m.

Orange Lutheran at Chandler (Ariz.) Basha

San Pedro at Great Oak

Santa Fe at South Gate

St. Bernard at LA Jordan

St. Monica at Huntington Park

Verdugo Hills at Hoover, 5:30 p.m.

Westlake at Chatsworth

8-MAN

SOUTHERN SECTION

Majestic League

Highland Entrepreneur at Hillcrest Christian, 6:30 p.m.

Nonleague

Academy for Careers & Exploration at Lancaster Baptist

Maricopa at Lucerne Valley

Orcutt Academy at Malibu, 5:30 p.m.

Rolling Hills Prep Desert Christian

Santa Ana Magnolia Science at Southlands Christian

INTERSECTIONAL

Animo Jackie Robinson at Sage Hill, 6 p.m.

Legacy Christian Academy at Noli Indian, 6:30 p.m.

New Designs Watts at Public Safety Academy

Sherman Oaks CES at Chadwick, 3:30 p.m.

New Designs University Park atVictor Valley Christian

Vista St. Joseph Academy at Cornerstone Christian, 5 p.m.

SATURDAY’S SCHEDULE

SOUTHERN SECTION

Nonleague

Pasadena Poly at Flintridge Prep, 5 p.m.

Redlands East Valley at Riverside Poly

Santa Rosa Academy at Western Christian

INTERSECTIONAL

Henderson (Nev.) Basic at Linfield Christian, 11 a .m.

Honolulu (Hawaii) Punahou at Sierra Canyon

Lakewood (Colo.) Green Mountain at Corona del Mar, 8 p.m.

Las Vegas (Nev.) at Mayfair, 2 p.m.

South Jordan (Utah Bingham at Corona Centennial

8-MAN

SOUTHERN SECTION

Nonleague

Mammoth vs. Santa Clarita Christian at Hart

Pasadena Poly at Flintridge Prep, 5 p.m.

Valley Christian Academy at Thacher, 2 p.m.

INTERSECTIONAL

Bakersfield Valley Oaks at San Luis Obispo Classical Academy, 6 p.m.

Escondido Calvin Christian at Hesperia Christian, 6 p.m.

New Designs University Park at Lighthouse Christian

MILLIONS of phones will sound a siren next week in one of the largest public safety exercises.

The national emergency alert test will take place at around 3pm on ­Sunday, September 7.

1

Pat McFadden, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “It will be one of the UK’s largest public safety exercises in history.”

“It is a vital tool for keeping the nation safe when lives are on the line – and every minute matters.”

Phones will vibrate and emit a siren-like tone for ten seconds, with a test message appearing on screens to make clear the alert is only a drill.

Only 4G and 5G-enabled phones and tablets will receive the alert.

The Government has used the system to issue real warnings five times, including in January during Storm Eowyn to warn people in Scotland and Northern Ireland about severe weather.

Approximately 3.5 million people across Wales and south-west England received an alert during Storm Darragh last December.

A 500kg unexploded Second World War bomb found in a Plymouth back garden triggered a warning to some 50,000 phones in February last year.

Messages can be targeted to relatively small areas to pinpoint those at risk.

Some 15,000 phones were alerted during flooding in Cumbria in May 2024, and 10,000 received a warning during flooding in Leicestershire in January this year.

The system is designed for use during the most likely emergencies to affect the UK and warnings would also be transmitted on television, radio and locally by knocking on doors.

Cronos (CRO 14.13%) has been one of the hottest gainers in the crypto market over the last week of trading. The company’s share price had risen 100% over the last seven days of trading as of 6:15 p.m. ET Saturday.

Cronos has seen massive gains this week thanks to news that the cryptocurrency will be a key holding for a new crypto-treasury company connected to President Trump that looks poised to launch in the near future. As of this writing, Cronos has a market capitalization of roughly $10.5 billion and ranks as the 17th-largest cryptocurrency by valuation.

Image source: Getty Images.

Cronos has seen massive gains following Trump-connected deal

Trump Media announced on Tuesday that it had entered into a partnership that would facilitate the merging of Crypto.com with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Yorkville Acquisition to create Trump Media Group CRO Strategy — a new publicly traded company. Cronos is a cryptocurrency launched by Crypto.com, and Trump Media Group CRO Strategy will be purchasing $1 billion worth of the token for its treasury.

Upon completion of the SPAC merger, foundations are place for Trump Media Group CRO to have $200 million in cash and $220 million cash-in mandatory exercise warrants,, and secure a $5 billion credit line. With the new company having access to a large capital base, it’s possible that the large prospective cash pile could be used to purchase more Cronos tokens.

What’s next for Cronos?

The new partnership with Trump-connected companies has been a big bullish catalyst for Cronos and could help push its valuation higher. On the other hand, this doesn’t necessarily guarantee that Cronos will be a strong performer.

For one prominent counterexample, consider the Official Trump cryptocurrency. While the token’s market capitalization surged as high as $5.5 billion shortly after it was launched and endorsed by President Trump on social media, its valuation has now fallen to roughly $1.7 billion. The fact that a crypto-treasury company built around Cronos holdings is seemingly on the horizon may suggest a significantly higher level of institutional support, but it still looks like a high-risk investment.

The Trump administration has moved to lay off more than 500 employees who work for the federally funded network Voice of America, which provides global reporting in places with restricted press freedom.

In March, Trump officials first attempted to close down some of the organization’s newsrooms. But Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia called for the network’s restoration last April, citing a law that requires the Voice of America broadcast to be continued.

Despite the ruling, Kari Lake, the acting chief executive of Voice of America’s oversight agency, posted on social media on Friday evening that 532 government positions were eliminated.

Before the downsizing, Voice of America was responsible for broadcasting news in 49 languages to 360 million people every week, including in Russia and China. Now, the network only airs programming in four languages: Persian, Mandarin, Dari and Pashto.

The layoffs “will likely improve [the agency’s] ability to function and provide the truth to people across the world who live under murderous Communist governments and other tyrannical regimes,” wrote Lake on X.

Most of the 1,300 Voice of America journalists had already been fired or remained on paid leave prior to these layoffs. Only 100 journalists and other staff members remain employed by the organization.

After being asked by the remaining employees to ensure the administration was in line with his April ruling, Lamberth found that they appeared to be noncompliant.

Earlier this week, he ordered Lake to provide sworn testimony at a deposition and threatened to hold her in contempt for going against court orders. He also blocked the administration from firing Voice of America’s Director Michael Abramowitz, the day before these layoffs were announced.

The fight to save Dulan’s on Crenshaw … Jenn Harris’ immersion into Nobu Los Angeles vibes … the post-fire rebirth of Altadena’s Bernee as Betsy … plus a new restaurant with no-tip, no-fee, no-surprises menu pricing and more. I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with this week’s Tasting Notes.

Saving L.A. soul food

Greg Dulan inside Dulan’s on Crenshaw.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

On May 26, 1978, at 4:45 a.m., Adolf Dulan took out a black marker and yellow legal pad. The future “king of soul food,” who a few years later would open the Southern food mecca Aunt Kizzy’s Back Porch, noted the date and time in the upper right-hand corner and wrote across the top sheet in capital letters: “GREG.”

Then, itemizing each point in Roman numerals and underlining key words twice, the late social worker-turned-entrepreneur, who started out with an Orange Julius franchise and had at that point opened his first independent restaurant, Hamburger City, wrote instructions to his eldest son, Greg Dulan, on running a business.

One of Adolf Dulan’s five guidelines: “Find out [the] cost of each item you sell and how much profit it brings in — determine if you need to drop or add items to be sold.”

At the bottom of the second sheet of paper, taped to the first sheet to form a scroll-like document, Adolf Dulan wrote this directive to his son: “If you are ever going to be a business man, this will be your bible to use … [for] ‘making the nut.’ ”

One piece of advice the elder Dulan didn’t pass on to his son: Don’t let a parking lot deal take you down.

Earlier this week Greg Dulan, who in 1992 opened his own successful soul food restaurant, Dulan’s on Crenshaw — years before his father started Dulan’s Soul Food Kitchen — posted a call on social media for help from the community.

“I bought some adjacent real estate with the goal of building parking for the restaurant and a culinary kitchen for training and workforce development,” he said on a video collaboration with radio station KJLH. “The real estate portion is dragging down the restaurant. The restaurant is doing great but the overall business is in trouble and maybe won’t survive unless I get some kind of support.”

On a fundraising page put up by the nonprofit civic and public arts organization Destination Crenshaw, the situation for the restaurant, which reopened early last year after a two-year renovation, was presented as dire: “With foreclosure looming on September 6,” read the plea, “time is measured in days, not weeks.”

During a phone interview on Friday afternoon, however, Greg Dulan wanted to make one thing clear: “I’m going to be here.” There’s no way, he insisted, that he’s giving up on his restaurant without a fight.

“It’s more of a real estate issue than a restaurant issue,” he said. “The remodel took longer than I expected, and it went over budget. It ate up a lot of my reserve capital.”

Dulan’s on Crenshaw, on a busy section of Los Angeles’ Crenshaw corridor, which has become denser with redevelopment and the building of the Metro K line. After a two-year renovation, the restaurant, which has been a fixture for more than 30 years, reopened early last year.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

Redevelopment along the Crenshaw corridor, which prompted Dulan’s renovation, also put pressure on the restaurant. “We lost a lot of parking,” Dulan said. “The density on Crenshaw has been increased.”

He added valet parking to help relieve the pressure but hasn’t had the money to build a proper parking lot for the restaurant. Earlier this year, however, he started using the production kitchen on one of the two lots he bought to prepare heat-and-serve meals for Vallarta supermarket’s Hyde Park location and hopes to expand that operation.

The problem is that he took out a hard-money loan to fund the business and now a big balloon payment is due. “Sept. 6,” he said, “is the deadline for me to satisfy my loan obligation or refinance.” He’s hoping to avoid selling the two parcels he bought or even the land with the restaurant itself, but if he is forced to sell he says he would find a way to keep the restaurant going.

“I can run a successful restaurant,” Dulan said over the phone, “but real estate development is a whole different animal.”

Since the word went out that Dulan’s was in trouble, many people have responded with offers to help the restaurant, a soul food fixture for more than 30 years. “We’re getting calls from a lot of celebrities and people from the community,” he said. “Revenue is up 40% at the restaurant.”

Whether these offers will lead to a solution for Dulan’s money troubles is still uncertain, but for Los Angeles soul food lovers, the remodel has been a success. Dulan’s refurbished patio area has become a popular gathering spot for family parties, political events and even yoga classes. And his fried chicken is still some of the best in the city.

Fried chicken, meat loaf and more soul food favorites at Dulan’s on Crenshaw.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

“I had no idea that that my little soul food restaurant would go viral,” Dulan said of the community response, “but apparently we built up a lot of goodwill that I underestimated.”

Vibes and miso cod at Nobu Los Angeles

A view of the sushi bar and main dining room at Nobu Los Angeles on La Cienega Boulevard.

(Catherine Dzilenski / For The Times)

Nobu Los Angeles, “which opened in 2008, several years after its more famous Malibu cousin,” writes columnist Jenn Harris, “is somewhat of a hidden gem on a stretch of La Cienega Boulevard, where black cars once swarmed its valet stand and reservations were elusive. Now … weeknight dinner reservations are procured with ease.” Though it “still vibrates with a current of money, celebrity and those who seek it,” Nobu L.A., Harris says, “suffers from the aesthetic malaise of an Asian-themed chain restaurant in the mid-2000s … The menu, for the most part, is … past its prime even if everyone (this writer included) still loves the black cod with miso.”

With a new chef at the helm of Nobu Los Angeles and a Netflix documentary on founder Nobu Matsuhisa released this summer, Harris tries to determine the value of the younger restaurant, up the road from the original Matsuhisa, which after nearly 40 years, she writes, has “exemplary” nigiri. Can Nobu L.A. “continue to thrive on vibes”?

Post-fire rebirth

At the newly reopened and renamed Betsy in Altadena (formerly Bernee), owner Tyler Wells, in a wide-brimmed hat, huddles with his staff at the bar overlooking the hearth.

(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)

I was one of the few who was able to eat at the ambitious Altadena restaurant Bernee in the single month it was open before the Eaton fire destroyed much of the neighborhood around it. The restaurant, which was saved from the flames, was one of the spots that had been attracting diners from all over Los Angeles to the neighborhood. After the fire, chef Tyler Wells — who lost his home and was in the process of separating from his wife and restaurant partner, Ashley — thought he might leave the state and start over. But as Food’s Stephanie Brejo writes, Wells was drawn back to Altadena and is reopening the restaurant this weekend with a new name, Betsy, in honor of his late mother. Breijo’s story has all the details of Wells’ post-fire journey.

Chef-owner Justin Pichetrungsi’s doodles of new dishes for the renovated Anajak Thai Cuisine, left, and dishes served before the restaurant’s extensive remodel.

(Stephanie Breijo and Mariah Tauger / Los Angeles Times

)

And if you missed it, Breijo also talked with Anajak Thai‘s Justin Pichetrungsi last week about the two-month renovation of his family’s restaurant, which has reopened. “The hardest part of the business is the organization part, not the innovation,” he told Breijo. “Innovation is so fun…. But with all the behind-the-scenes stuff, people never saw how broken [the restaurant] was in order to make the show go on.” I can’t wait to check out the new show.

‘Instant-izing’ food

Customers shop and eat in the dining area at CU Ramyun Library convenience store in Hongdae, Seoul. Ramyun packets are ranked in terms of spiciness levels from “mild” to “very hot & hell.”

(Tina Hsu / For The Times)

Imagine “nearly every conceivable dish” … “turned into a packaged meal,” even “fried rice that you squeeze out of a tube,” writes Times Seoul correspondent Max Kim. “These have turned convenience stores into a $25-billion industry in South Korea and those food products are churned out at a staggering pace: up to 70 new food items hit the shelves each week, effectively offering a live feed of South Korean tastes.”

“In South Korea’s food retail market,” convenience store critic Chae Da-in tells Kim, “you go extinct if you’re not quick to change.”

Cooling down

The refreshing Mexican drink suero with lime and sparkling water.

(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)

For these sweltering days, contributor Carolynn Carreño wrote about the refreshing Mexican water cocktail suero. It’s made with lime, sparkling water and lots of ice, then served in a salt-rimmed glass. She also includes two other cooling drink recipes, including IPA-Lada Michelada from the much-missed Whittier restaurant Colonia Publica and Salty Angeleno Micheladas, developed in our Times Test Kitchen using our own L.A. Times Salty Angeleno blend developed in collaboration with Burlap & Barrel. Salty Angeleno and our other spice blends, California Heat and L.A. Asada, are available online at Burlap & Barrel.

In the kitchen

Martin Draluck prepares sweet potato chili in the Times Test Kitchen.

(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)

Black Pot Supper Club chef and founder Martin Draluck, who was featured in the Netflix documentary series “High on the Hog” on Black food traditions, came to the Times Test Kitchen recently for our “Chef That!” video series. Watch him make sweet potato chili with a secret ingredient — a tab of Abuelita chocolate. As deputy food editor Betty Hallock writes, it “gives the chili a mole-reminiscent richness.” The vegetarian chili, she adds, “comes together in under an hour. Find the recipe here.

And if you missed last week’s “Chef That!” episode, you can watch Adrian Forte, the cookbook author of “Yawd” and chef at Sam Jordan’s modern Caribbean restaurant Lucia, make easy fried plantains with Scotch Bonnet aioli. Get the 30-minute recipe here.

Early bird tickets

VIP tickets (allowing early entry) to The Times’ Food Bowl Night Market, presented by Square, are already sold out for the Saturday-night session taking place Oct. 11 at City Market Social House in downtown L.A. But Friday-night VIP tickets are still available and for early birds, there is a “date night deal” with two general admission tickets available for $199, a savings of about 20%. More than 40 restaurants are participating, including Holbox, Baroo, the Brothers Sushi, OyBar, Heritage Barbecue, Crudo e Nudo, Hummingbird Ceviche House, Rossoblu, Perilla LA, Evil Cooks, Villa’s Tacos, Holy Basil and Luv2Eat Thai Bistro. Check lafoodbowl.com for tickets and info.

Also …

A recent latte art throwdown at Picaresca Barra de Café in Boyle Heights.

(Julie Wolfson / For The Times)

• Latte art “throwdowns, special menus, omakases, pop-ups, speakeasies and out-of-the-box events are part of L.A.’s growing underground coffee scene,” writes contributor Julie Wolfson in her guide to 9 places to check out IYKYK coffee events. Kumquat, Be Bright, York Manor Market, the Pasadena branch of Woon, Mandarin and Picaresca Barra de Café are some of places that host the events. Of course, if you don’t want to wait for a special event to immerse yourself in coffee geekdom, Jack Benchakul is almost always pouring and, as restaurant critic Bill Addison described a while back, talking water alkalinity at Endorffeine in Chinatown.
• “The American beverage firm Keurig Dr Pepper,” reports the business section’s Caroline Petrow-Cohen, plans to buy JDE Peet’s, the European parent company of California’s gourmet coffee trailblazer, Peet’s Coffee, in an all-cash transaction worth about $18 billion.” Note that JDE Peet’s also owns Stumptown.
• Cracker Barrel is keeping its old-time logo after a new design elicited an uproar, reports Dee-Ann Durbin.
• Durbin also breaks down the rise of Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte business, by the numbers.
• And here’s a restaurant model to watch: San Francisco’s soon-to-open 14-seat counter spot La Cigale from chef-owner Joseph Magidow is instituting all-inclusive pricing with no additional tax, tip or service fees. “When the bill arrives, there will be no surprises,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle’s Elena Kadvany. “The price on the set menu — $140 — is exactly what diners pay.”

It didn’t turn out to be a “Cruel Summer” for singer Taylor Swift: she and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, in a continuation of their ongoing “Love Story,” have officially told each other, “You Belong With Me.”

The pop icon, self-made billionaire, and self-described “Anti-Hero” announced her engagement to Kelce in an Instagram post on Tuesday. Sure enough, where there used to be a “Blank Space” on Swift’s ring finger, she was now “Bejeweled” with a large engagement ring (and we hope she doesn’t accidentally “Shake It Off”).

Swift surely knew “All Too Well” that the announcement would make “Sparks Fly” among her legion of fans (to them I say, “You Need to Calm Down”), but even in her “Wildest Dreams,” she probably never expected the news to affect the stock market.

But it did. Here’s how.

Image source: Getty Images.

Look what you made me do…to the market

In the immediate wake of the announcement, as fans were still trying to identify the exact cut of the diamond in Swift’s ring (it was a “cushion cut,” for those who are interested), there was a brief, otherwise-unexplained 1% pop in the stock price of Signet Jewelers Limited (SIG -2.54%), one of the few publicly traded jewelry companies.

As the afternoon wore on, Signet’s shares climbed higher in a rally continued through Wednesday and into Thursday’s premarket trading, when Signet’s stock briefly hit $95/share, up nearly 10% over the pre-“pop star pop” price. The Swift Effect was even more pronounced for Brilliant Earth Group (BRLT 8.55%), which soared from $2.17/share at 12:50 PM on Tuesday to close at $2.82/share, a 30% gain.

Even luxury brands only partially exposed to the jewelry market rose in the wake of the announcement: Movado Group (MOV 2.47%), which is primarily a watchmaker but does sell other jewelry items, and LVMH (LVMHF -1.43%), which owns Tiffany & Co., were both up more than 4% over their pre-engagement price at Thursday’s close.

Today was a fairytale

It’s not the first time that Taylor Swift’s legions of fans — known as “Swifties” — have collectively influenced the financial world. In July 2023, the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book credited Swift’s “Eras” tour as being responsible for the strongest month of hotel revenue in Philadelphia since the pandemic. This mirrored reports from Cincinnati and Chicago, among many other cities, that credited the “Eras” tour for record hotel revenues.

So how did this happen? There was likely a noticeable spike in internet searches for various types of wedding rings in the wake of Swift’s announcement as eager fans tried to identify the exact ring in question (and possibly score one for themselves). That activity may have triggered certain traders’ algorithms to buy jewelry stocks…or perhaps there are just plenty of Swifties among the ranks of hedge fund managers.

The money question is, could this one-time pop in interest translate into a meaningful increase in jewelry sales, or lasting gains for these jewelry stocks?

Is it over now?

Unfortunately, it looks like the rally may already be fizzling. Although Signet Jewelers closed on Thursday at $89.86/share, which is 3.6% above its pre-engagement price, it had fallen significantly from its post-engagement high of $95. Brilliant Earth Group also closed lower on Thursday at $2.69/share, though that was also well above its pre-engagement price.

Getting engaged is a much bigger commitment than buying an album or attending a concert (although the cost of some resold “Eras” tour tickets could have funded an entire wedding and then some). Sure, it might be fun to dream about getting a ring like Taylor Swift, or to shop for one online, but even if you idolize Swift, will her engagement really prompt legions of uncommitted Swifties to propose? (Don’t get me wrong: I know the intensity of Swift’s fandom is strong…but that strong?)

Meanwhile, all of the aforementioned jewelry and jewelry-adjacent companies have significantly lagged the S&P 500 over the past five years: some by a little (Signet is trailing on a total return basis by about 35 percentage points) to a lot (Brilliant Earth is “Down Bad,” by a jaw-dropping 130 percentage points).

I’d classify those returns as not just in the “Red,” but redder than “Bad Blood,” and it’ll take more than a one-time surge of interest from Swifties to make me say anything besides “I Knew You Were Trouble” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Together.”

That said, whichever jeweler can be the first to mass-produce a Taylor Swift-inspired cushion-cut engagement ring will almost certainly have a hit on their hands.

Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s David Zahniser, with an assist from Dakota Smith and Julia Wick, giving you the latest on city and county government.

L.A.’s political leaders are facing a daunting and possibly insurmountable deadline. If they blow it, they could face all kinds of headaches — legal, financial and otherwise.

By June 2026, they must show a federal judge that they have removed 9,800 homeless encampments from streets, sidewalks and public rights of way. That means 9,800 tents, cars, RVs and makeshift structures — those created out of materials like cardboard or shopping carts — over a four-year period.

The city’s strategy for reaching that goal has become a huge source of friction in its long-running legal battle with the LA Alliance for Human Rights, which sued the city in 2020 over its handling of homelessness.

In recent months, the encampment removal plan has also become the subject of a second lawsuit — one alleging that the City Council approved it behind closed doors, then failed to disclose that fact, in violation of a state law requiring that government business be conducted in public view.

The encampment removal plan was “drafted and adopted without any notice to the public (which includes the owners of these tents, makeshift encampments, and RVs that the City has agreed to clear), let alone any public debate or discussion,” said the lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Community Action Network, the homeless advocacy group also known as LA CAN, which is an intervenor in the LA Alliance case.

Lawyers for the city say they followed the Ralph M. Brown Act, which spells out disclosure requirements for decisions made behind closed doors by government bodies. In one filing, they said their actions were not only legal, but “reasonable and justified under the circumstances.”

As with everything surrounding the LA Alliance case, there is a tortured backstory.

The LA Alliance sued the city in 2020, alleging that too little was being done to address the homelessness crisis, particularly in Skid Row. The case was settled two years later, with the city agreeing to create 12,915 new shelter beds or other housing opportunities by June 2027.

After that deal was struck, the city began negotiating with the LA Alliance over an accompanying requirement to reduce the number of street encampments, with quarterly milestones in each council district.

The LA Alliance eventually ran out of patience, telling U.S. District Judge David O. Carter in February 2024 that the city was 447 days late in finalizing its plan. The group submitted to the court a copy of the encampment removal plan, saying it had been approved by the City Council on Jan. 31, 2024.

Two months later, City Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office also told Carter that the plan to remove 9,800 encampments, and the accompanying milestones, had gone before the council on Jan. 31.

The council “approved them without delay,” Feldstein Soto’s team said in a filing submitted jointly by the city and the LA Alliance.

Video from the Jan. 31 meeting shows that council members did in fact go behind closed doors for more than two hours to discuss the LA Alliance case. But when they returned, Deputy City Atty. Jonathan Groat said there was nothing to report from the closed session.

The encampment removal plan is a huge issue for LA CAN, which has warned that the 9,800 goal effectively creates a quota system for sanitation workers — one that could make them more likely to violate the property rights of unhoused residents.

At no point during the council’s deliberations did the public have the opportunity to weigh in on the harm that would be caused by seizing the belongings of thousands of unhoused people, said attorney Shayla Myers, who represents LA CAN. Beyond that, she said, the public was never told who supported the plan and who opposed it.

“The narrow exception in the Brown Act that allows a legislative body to confer with their attorneys in closed session was never intended to allow the City Council to shelter these kinds of controversial decisions from public view,” the lawsuit states.

LA CAN now wants a Superior Court judge to force the city to disclose any votes cast by council members on the encampment removal plan. The group also wants recordings and transcripts of those proceedings, as well as a declaration that the city violated the Brown Act in its handling of the matter.

Beyond that, the group alleges that the council violated the Brown Act a second time, in May 2024, by failing to disclose its approval of an agreement with L.A. County — again reached behind closed doors — over the delivery of services to homeless residents.

Assistant City Atty. Strefan Fauble pushed back on LA CAN’s assertions, saying “no settlement or agreement was voted on or approved” by the council on Jan. 31, 2024. In a letter to LA CAN last year, Fauble also said the agreement with the county was not disclosed at the time because it had not been finalized in federal court.

“The City has always complied with its post-closed session disclosure requirements under the Brown Act when a settlement or agreement is final,” he wrote. “It will continue to do so.”

Meanwhile, the fight over the encampment removal plan is getting messier.

Two months ago, Judge Carter spelled out restrictions on the types of tents that can be counted toward the 9,800. In a 62-page order, he said a tent discarded by sanitation workers could be counted toward the city’s goal only if its owner had been offered housing or a shelter bed beforehand.

The city is weighing an appeal of that assertion. In a memo to the council, Feldstein Soto said the judge had “reinterpreted” some of the city’s settlement obligations.

An appeal would be expensive, and Feldstein Soto is already in hot water over legal bills racked up in the LA Alliance case.

On Wednesday, the council balked at Feldstein Soto’s request for a $5-million increase to the city’s contract with the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, which would include work on an appeal and other tasks. The council sent the request to the budget committee for more review.

Some councilmembers voiced dismay that Gibson Dunn billed $3.2 million in less than three months, after the council had allocated an initial $900,000 for a two-year period.

State of play

— VA VOUCHERS: Los Angeles County housing authorities have more than enough federal rental subsidies to house all of the county’s homeless veterans. Yet chronic failures in a complicated bureaucracy of referral, leasing and support services have left those agencies treading water. About 4,000 vouchers are gathering dust while an estimated 3,400 veterans remain on the streets or inside shelters, The Times reported.

— TAKE THE STAIRS: Could new apartment buildings with only one staircase help solve L.A.’s housing crisis? Councilmember Nithya Raman favors such a change, saying it can be done without sacrificing safety.

— FILM FACTOTUM: More than two and a half years after taking office, Mayor Karen Bass fulfilled a longstanding campaign promise, announcing the selection of a new film liaison between City Hall and the entertainment industry. Steve Kang, president of the Board of Public Works, will serve as the primary point person for film and TV productions looking to shoot in L.A. He’ll be assisted by Dan Halden, who works out of the city’s Bureau of Street Services, and producer Amy Goldberg.

— VALLEY SHUFFLE? City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who faces term limits next year, told The Times he’s considering a run for state Senate in 2028. If he gets in the race, the former state lawmaker would compete for the North Hollywood-to-Moorpark district currently represented by state Sen. Henry Stern, who faces term limits in 2028.

— PROTESTER PAYOUT: A Los Angeles filmmaker and his daughter were awarded more than $3 million after a jury found Los Angeles County negligent for injuries the man sustained when a sheriff’s deputy shot him in the face with a projectile during a protest against police brutality in 2020.

— CRIME SPREE: Police announced the arrest this week of several alleged gang members accused of burglarizing nearly 100 homes and businesses, largely on the Westside. The suspects are believed to be part of a South L.A. group that called itself the “Rich Rollin’ Burglary Crew” and focused on the theft of high-end jewelry, purses, watches, wallets, suitcases and guns, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said.

— OFF THE BUS: Ridership on Metro’s network of buses continued to drop in July, weeks after federal immigration agents began a series of raids across L.A. County. Amid the decrease, Metro’s rail ridership grew by 6.5% over the same period.

— HOUSING WARS: After the L.A. City Council voted to oppose state Sen. Scott Wiener‘s new transit density bill, Councilmember Imelda Padilla joined Wiener and podcast host Jon Lovett (also a vocal supporter of the bill) to debate its merits on Pod Save America’s YouTube channel. The spirited conversation garnered more than 50,000 views, spawned numerous memes and sparked hundreds of replies on the r/losangeles subreddit.

At one point, Lovett appeared shocked when Padilla, who joined seven of her colleagues in opposing Senate Bill 79, boasted of getting a proposed six-story affordable housing project reduced to three stories. Padilla addressed her viral interview during Friday’s council meeting, saying she views the council’s role as one that seeks compromise “between the NIMBYs and the YIMBYs.”

— SHE’S (OFFICIALLY) RUNNING: L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis officially launched her campaign for a proposed new congressional district in southeast L.A. County, offering up a list of heavyweight backers, including Mayor Karen Bass, Sheriff Robert Luna, Supervisor Janice Hahn and civil rights icon Dolores Huerta.

QUICK HITS

• Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature program to combat homelessness went to Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles, moving 10 people indoors, according to a Bass aide.
• On the docket for next week: The L.A. County Board of Supervisors will take up a proposed ordinance to streamline the process of rebuilding in Altadena in the wake of the Eaton fire.

Stay in touch

That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement may have kicked off a major earthquake in the real world this week, but it hasn’t put serious seismic activity into the lives of the spouses-to-be: They were spotted out Thursday night in a luxury box catching — wait for it — a college football game, where Swift took her new engagement ring out for a test drive.

It was the first game of the 2025-26 NCAA season for the hometown University of Cincinnati Bearcats, the Kelce brothers’ alma mater, who lost to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Cornhuskers by a field goal at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. The bros (Jason was there too) were rooting for the Bearcats, obviously, with Travis rocking a street-art emblazoned Cincinnati cap and his older sibling sported a more traditional college typeface on his chapeau.

Swift rocked a denim miniskirt, according to People, with a white sweater, white boots, green nails and, oh yes, that massive engagement ring. The Old Mine Cut diamond ring was designed by Travis Kelce and New York City-based jewelry designer Kindred Lubeck, according to myriad media reports.

• Share via Close extra sharing options

While experts who talked to People put the size of the stone at between 5 and 10 carats and guesstimated its value as anywhere from $125,000 to $5 million — which is quite the range — folks who talked to Page Six said it likely came with a $1-million price tag. Basically, nobody knows the value of a custom-made, vintage-style ring with a one-of-a-kind hand-etched diamond that is currently sitting on the ring finger of a global pop star. Go figure.

“It’s my engraved pieces that put me on the digital map,” Lubeck told VoyageJacksonville in 2024. “I started making reels showcasing my work and people started noticing. Eventually, I started getting requests for me to make engagement rings.”

The Neptune Beach, Fla., native has described herself as a goldsmith specializing in hand engraving who got started working part time with her jeweler dad in her hometown during the pandemic lockdown.

“Basically, I take very small, sharp instruments and cut away bits of metal, usually on the sides of rings, into a particular design,” she said. “People just go crazy for it when I post it online.”

No kidding: On Friday, Lubeck appeared to be sold out of every big-ticket ring she had been offering on her website, though a handful of sub-$20,000 designs were still in stock. (Swifties, where you at? A bunch of them can be had for less than $5,000! And they’re not even “distressed.”)

The Grammy-winning “Love Story” pop icon and the Kansas City Chiefs tight end announced the beginning of their engagement era on Tuesday in a joint Instagram post.

“Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married,” Swift captioned photos from the garden engagement, which actually took place a couple of weeks earlier.

Kelce’s dad told a Cleveland news station the same day that Travis had popped the question at home in Lee’s Summit, Mo., after months of planning, right before the two headed out for dinner. Before they left, Travis told Taylor, “‘Let’s go out and have a glass of wine.’ … They got out there, and that’s when he asked her, and it was beautiful,” Ed Kelce said.

He added with a happy shrug, “I don’t know how much I’m supposed to say, but I don’t care!”

But Vice President JD Vance definitely cares — about the effects this pairing might have on the NFL this season.

“I will say as a football fan — as a Cincinnati Bengals fan — I hope that the NFL does not put a thumb on the scale for the Kansas City Chiefs just because Travis Kelce is now getting married to maybe the most famous woman in the world,” the veep told USA Today this week.

“You guys can’t sort of have this, ‘I’m worried they’re going to have a Super Bowl wedding’ thing this season. Can’t do it. The Kansas City Chiefs have to follow the same rules as everybody else.”

So in the case that the NFL’s “deep state” turns romantic and favors the Chiefs in this pigskin-tinted love story, Vance is urging fans to be ready to act.

“I think all football fans should be willing to push back on the NFL,” he said, “and say, ‘Look, you guys got to be fair.’”

Fair enough.

Times staff writer Alexandra Del Rosario contributed to this report.

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone who needs a mental health break from the Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce engagement vortex.

Three years after “The Terminal List” ended its first season, Prime Video’s prequel to the military-espionage thriller arrives. The debut season of the flagship series concluded with — spoiler alert! — Navy SEAL commander James Reece (Chris Pratt) discovering his closest ally, Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch) was involved in the ambush mission that led to the death of his platoon, as well as his wife and daughter. “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf” traces Ben’s journey from Navy SEAL to CIA operative. Creator and showrunner David DiGilio stopped by to discuss expanding the Jack Carr book universe and working with Kitsch.

Also in this week’s Screen Gab, our streaming recommendations are different types of nostalgia plays: Noah Hawley’s timely television prequel to the ‘Alien’ film franchise that is set on Earth, and “Gunsmoke,” the classic western that first hit TV screens 70 years ago and is finding new life in the streaming era.

ICYMI

Must-read stories you might have missed

Olivia Colman, left, and Benedict Cumberbatch of “The Roses,” a remake of “The War of the Roses,” photographed in London in June.

(Jennifer McCord / For The Times)

Olivia Colman and Benedict Cumberbatch are a match made in heaven — or, in ‘The Roses,’ hell: They’ve known each other for years, but having the opportunity to spar in a savage new take on ‘The War of the Roses’ was too good for the longtime friends to pass up.

How Taylor Kitsch became Hollywood’s go-to actor (and veterans’ favorite) for military roles: The star of ‘The Terminal List: Dark Wolf’ discusses his new prequel series and how, with the help of military veterans, he learned to embody a Navy SEAL.

Telluride Film Festival returns with an eclectic mix of politics, auteur visions and the Boss: The 52nd edition blends star power and auteurs, with world premieres from Scott Cooper, Chloé Zhao and Edward Berger, plus new work from Yorgos Lanthimos and Noah Baumbach.

Inside romance queen Emily Henry’s literary empire and soon-to-be cinematic universe: The author has become the master of the contemporary romance novel, publishing six bestsellers since 2020. Now, five are being adapted into movies and shows.

Turn on

Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Sydney Chandler as Wendy in FX’s “Alien: Earth.”

(Patrick Brown / FX)

“Alien: Earth” (Hulu, Disney+)

Reimagining a nearly 50-year-old franchise like “Alien” isn’t for the faint of heart (or stomach). The iconic sci-fi horror saga has already spawned a tangled web of sequels, prequels and spin-offs of wildly varying quality. But Noah Hawley — who turned “Fargo” and “Legion” into bold, brainy extensions of their cinematic roots — brings a jolt of fresh, unnerving life to “Alien: Earth.” The horror is real, the xenomorphs still terrifying (and, yes, there are new critters too). But this isn’t just eight hours of people running from acid-blooded monsters. It’s a sprawling, idea-rich vision of a future ruled by tech oligopolies, where minds are uploaded into synthetic bodies and morality is outsourced to machines — a world as indebted to Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” as his original “Alien.” The monsters are back, but the deeper thrill is how Hawley keeps you thinking even as you’re bracing for the next kill. Now midway through its eight‑episode run, “Alien: Earth” doesn’t just extend a franchise. It reanimates it with a mind of its own and a brand-new set of fangs. — Josh Rottenberg

James Arness, Amanda Blake, Ken Curtis and Milburn Stone in “Gunsmoke.”

(CBS)

“Gunsmoke” (Peacock, Pluto TV)

I long for the simple times when my family and I would gather around the television to watch the latest episode of “Gunsmoke.” The drama that featured James Arness as no-nonsense Marshal Matt Dillon was a staple in millions of households throughout its 20-year run, which ended in 1975. In the streaming era, “Gunsmoke” is now sparking a lot of new heat, and has ranked at least twice among Nielsen’s top 10 list of most-streamed acquired series. Beginning Saturday, MeTV will kick off a month-long 70th anniversary salute to the drama, airing specially-themed weeks such as “Best Characters of Dodge City” and five made-for-TV movies. — Greg Braxton

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Ben Edwards (Taylor Kitsch), James Reece (Chris Pratt) in “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf.”

(Justin Lubin / Prime)

Taylor Kitsch rose to fame with his portrayal of brooding football player Tim Riggins on “Friday Night Lights,” but he’s spent a good portion of his career since then stepping into the military mindset — as my former colleague Michael Ordoña astutely unpacked in his profile of the actor. With “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf,” which further expands Jack Carr’s book universe, Kitsch reprises his role as Navy SEAL-turned-CIA operative Ben Edwards in Prime Video’s prequel to 2022’s Chris Pratt-led series. Premiering its first three episodes earlier this week, the series takes place five years before the events of the first season of “The Terminal List” and explores Ben’s origin story and his crisis of faith that eventually led to his betrayal of James Reece (Pratt). Showrunner David DiGilio stopped by Screen Gab recently to discuss why Ben is a worthwhile character for a spin-off, the story behind that AC/DC needle drop and more. — Yvonne Villarreal

What was it about the story of Ben Edwards that resonated with you and made you so passionate about wanting to explore his origin story?

Ben is an ever-evolving character. He was different in the book than he was in our scripts for Season 1 of “The Terminal List.” Then Taylor arrived and brought a whole new layer of empathy, complexity and danger to the role. Unlike Reece, who represents a light wolf character pulled into a dark place by a conspiracy, Ben Edwards is a man with innate darkness inside him. But he also values loyalty, brotherhood and freedom. And that dichotomy in a character means we can give Taylor a ton of great stuff to play. It makes Ben unpredictable. And we get to watch how Ben evolves from a leader in the SEAL Teams to a Black Side Operator who thinks he can use his dark wolf for good.

You had involvement from real veterans in the making of the series, including in the writing of the season. There are seven episodes and five were written by veterans. Walk me through finding the voices to join the room and how did that enrich discussion as you broke stories?

As we were making Season 1 of the flagship series, we made a commitment to military authenticity. The lived experience is what defines Jack Carr’s writing in the books, and we wanted to make sure it translated to the shows. During Season 1 of “The Terminal List,” two military veteran storytellers in particular — Max Adams, a former Army Ranger, and Jared Shaw, a former Navy SEAL — really stepped up our action and authenticity and our storytelling overall. When it came time for “Dark Wolf,” we elevated Max and Jared to executive producer[s]. And we were able to include Jack Carr in more of the writing and creating side of the show as well. But we didn’t stop there. We brought writer-producer Kenny Sheard — also a former SEAL — into the writers room and brought back Ray Mendoza — a former SEAL and technical advisor on Season 1 — to second unit direct. So, between Max, Jared, Kenny, Ray and Jack Carr himself, I don’t think you have a show that’s more committed to getting it right for the military veteran audience.

Is there a personal connection — for you or the veterans who worked on the show — behind the use of AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” to score the time jump in the first episode?

Interesting story. We were trying to use Led Zeppelin for that training montage in the pilot. The band is notoriously tricky to clear, but we made it to about the five yard line before it got denied. Sadly, we’d been temp-editing with that song for months and were all quite attached. So we now had to pivot … quickly. We found AC/DC’s “Hells Bells” by asking our military veteran storytellers for bands/songs that were big for them during deployments. AC/DC was near the top of the list, and the civilian side of our EP team had connections to the music as well. We tried three AC/DC songs for the sequence, and “Hells Bells” was a no-brainer. But, truly, a classic example of the adage “don’t fall in love with the temp.” We made this music selection way tougher than it needed to be!

Tell us a good story about Taylor Kitsch and his time on the inflatable boat.

I think the biggest thing we learned from putting Taylor on that boat in the pilot is that we weren’t in Kansas anymore. Meaning, Budapest production is very different than production in the U.S. In the States, you would have a full “marine unit” dedicated to getting a scene like that. Half a dozen camera boats and follow boats built specifically to capture that sequence. In Budapest, we were tying camera men down on the boat itself, and turning tourist river boats into parts of our armada. Boats could not keep up with those beastly gunship engines. Smaller boats got waked. We got the scene, and we got it safely. But after the ease of filming the flagship series in Los Angeles, I think that day told all of us that Budapest would be a city with unique production challenges. But I give a huge hat tip to the Budapest crew, because even on a day like that, they never complained. And I think having the cast and American crew together in a foreign city really helped bond us all into one big family.

What have you watched recently that you are recommending to everyone you know?

My last watch was probably while flying to and from South Africa and Toronto for the filming of “The Terminal List” Season 2. I downloaded and binged “Adolescence” [Netflix] and Season 2 of “Andor” [Disney+]. I’m surprised more folks don’t talk about “Andor.” It’s probably the most smartly-written show on streaming these days. A World War II resistance film wrapped up in incredible sci-fi visuals. And on “Adolescence,” the performances were incredible. But note to all, whatever you do, don’t watch that show’s finale in a crowded airport lounge in London. I was bawling.

What’s your go-to “comfort watch,” the movie or TV show you go back to again and again?

Might not surprise folks to hear, but it’s either “Saving Private Ryan” [Prime Video, Pluto TV] or “Gladiator” [Prime Video, Paramount +]. Both movies capture the warrior’s ethos and sense of brotherhood that we strive for in the “Terminal List” shows. They also combine great action with big emotional character-driven scenes. Hollywood’s balance of VFX and character work was probably at its zenith right around the turn of the century. So I love to rewatch those films as a reminder of the balance I strive for in my writing, and for the balance we try to build into the Jack Carr Universe shows.

Shares in Serve Robotics (SERV -1.96%) rose by 15.7% in the week through Friday morning, driven higher by the initiation of coverage by Wedbush Securities, whose analyst Dan Ives slapped a $15 price target on the stock and gave it an “outperform” rating. Given that the price target represents a 33% premium to the stock price at the time of writing, it’s not too late to buy in if you have confidence in the analyst’s expectations.

Serve Robotics’ expansion plan

While it’s never a good idea to slavishly follow Wall Street analysts, there’s certainly a case for the stock based on the growth potential for its last-mile delivery of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven robots. Last-mile deliveries to residential addresses can be costly and inefficient, and it makes perfect logistical and commercial sense to have them carried out by robots; hence Serve’s contract with Uber Eats.

Management has already launched the service in Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, and Atlanta, and expects to scale these locations while launching additional ones in Chicago and ultimately reaching 2,000 robots in service by the end of the year.

Image source: Getty Images.

Where next for Serve Robotics?

The Wall Street consensus predicts sales to surge by $35 million in 2026 and then $71 million in 2027, driven by the rollout. That’s fair enough, but before investing in the stock, consider that this is a competitive field. Unlike Tesla and its robotaxi rollout, Serve simply doesn’t have a dominant market position in the type of vehicle/robot used in service. That might put pressure on its ability to grow margins in the future.

Stability is a thing of the past at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, which this past week fired its director of dance programming, Jane Raleigh, as well as two other full-time dance programmers, Mallory Miller and Malik Burnett.

A few days later, the center announced its new dance director — a young Washington Ballet dancer named Stephen Nakagawa, who, according to the New York Times, sent a letter to the center’s president, Richard Grenell, lamenting “radical leftist ideologies in ballet.”

Nakagawa also wrote that he was “concerned about the direction the ballet world is taking in America,” that he was upset by the “rise of ‘woke’ culture,” at various dance companies and that he “would love to be part of a movement to end the dominance of leftist ideologies in the arts and return to classical ballet’s purity and timeless beauty.”

If “woke” is a MAGA dog whistle for diversity, equity and inclusion, then restoring “purity” to classical ballet could lead to a regressive whitewashing of the art form.

“With God, all things are possible,” Nakagawa wrote in a social media post announcing his appointment. “I am excited and honored to begin working with the incredible Kennedy Center and this amazing administration.”

The Kennedy Center did not respond to a request for comment about how its dance programming might change now that Nakagawa has taken over, but a person close to the situation, who declined to be identified said, “The [terminated] individuals were given multiple opportunities to come up with new ideas and failed to offer any.”

In interviews following their dismissal, Miller and Burnett said they had attended a meeting with Grenell in which he told them that they needed to prioritize “broadly appealing” programming in order to attract corporate sponsorship. Grenell reportedly used the reality TV competition “So You Think You Can Dance” as an example of what he had in mind.

What Grenell seems to be missing is that, under Raleigh, dance programming at the Kennedy Center was among the best in the nation — with broad appeal. The current season, which had been programmed before Raleigh and the others were fired, included some of the country’s most vaunted and popular companies including Martha Graham Dance Company, American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet.

The Kennedy Center also commissioned great work, including Mark Morris’ “Moon,” which staged its world premiere at the center in April. Times classical music critic Mark Swed caught the show at an “unusually quiet” venue shortly after President Trump staged his February takeover of the center.

“‘Moon,’” Swed told me, “served as a marvelous example of how [the] dance series already provides what both its audiences and new administration want. It celebrates American greatness, representing the historic Moonshot and Voyager space missions through wondrous dance, sanguine 1930s swing music and cavorting spacemen. There is even bit of cheerful conspiracy theory with the help of a cuddly alien or two.”

It doesn’t take a MAGA apparatchik to know that’s a winning formula.

I’m arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt, dancing my way to a better tomorrow. Here’s your arts news for the week.

Best bets: On our radar this week

Prince on his 1987 Sign O’ The Times tour at the Palais Omnisports in Paris.

(FG/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images)

Prince – Sign O’ The Times
The purple one’s 1987 film featuring live performances of songs from his ninth studio album gets the Imax treatment this weekend. Neither a commercial nor critical success upon its original release, interest in the project has only increased as the artist’s stature continued to rise, even after his death from an accidental overdose in 2016. Ranking Prince’s singles in 2021, Times pop music critic Mikael Wood wrote, “Inspired in part by the bad news he saw splashed across the front page of the Los Angeles Times one summer day in 1986, the title track of Prince’s magnum opus addresses AIDS and the crack epidemic in language as haunted and unsparing as the song’s rigorously pared-down groove.” The movie opens Thursday in limited theatrical release; check theaters for showtimes. www.imax.com/prince

“Villagers on Their Way to Church from Book of Hours,” c 1550, by Simon Bening (Flemish, about 1483 – 1561) Tempera colors and gold paint Getty Museum Ms. 50 (93.MS.19), recto

(J. Paul Getty Museum)

Going Places: Travel in the Middle Ages
As we wrap up our own summer excursions, what better time to vicariously explore how it was done in medieval times through this exhibition of Getty Museum manuscripts illustrating the subject, augmented by an interactive component inspired by early 8-bit arcade video games. Times art critic Christopher Knight has described Northern European manuscripts as “one unmistakable strength of the Getty’s collection.” The show opens Tuesday. 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m. Tuesday–Friday and Sunday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday; closed Monday, through Nov. 30. J. Paul Getty Museum, 1200 Getty Center Drive. getty.edu

Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers performs Arturo Márquez’s concerto “Fandango” with the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl in 2021.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Márquez’s Fandango & Shostakovich’s Fifth
Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers performs Arturo Márquez’s Latin Grammy-winning composition with the L.A. Phil, conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero, Tuesday night at the Hollywood Bowl. The orchestra will also perform the Mexican composer’s “Danzon No. 2” and Shostakovich’s popular “Symphony No. 5.” When “Fandango,” commissioned by the L.A. Phil and written for Meyers, had its world premiere in 2021, Times classical music critic Mark Swed called it “substantial. It is based on the Mexican fandango Márquez grew up with in Sonora. His instrument is the violin, and his father was a mariachi violinist. But Márquez’s goal in the concerto was to use his folk and dance roots in a formal classical way, taking as his example such European composers as Manuel de Falla and Isaac Albéniz. In Márquez’s concerto, he allows Meyers to revel in her virtuosity. He writes melodies that sound old and worth keeping. Dance rhythms do what they’re supposed to, making feet tap and nerves tingle.” The gates open at 6 p.m. with the music scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave. hollywoodbowl.com

The week ahead: A curated calendar

FRIDAY
🎭 Masala Dabba
Food, cooking and the titular spice box are central to playwright Wendy Graf’s world-premiere drama about an Indian/African American family directed by Marya Mazor.
7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Sept. 14. International City Theatre, 330 E. Seaside Way, Long Beach. InternationalCityTheatre.org.

🎭 NOIR!
A Hollywood thriller is the milieu for a new immersive theatrical experience from the creators of “It’s Alive” and “The Assassination of Edgar Allan Poe.”
7:50 p.m. Friday-Sunday, Sept. 6, 13 and 20. Heritage Square Museum, 3800 Homer St. downtownrep.com

SATURDAY
🎥 Barry Lyndon
The American Cinematheque marks the 50th anniversary of Stanley Kubrick’s visually sublime adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel about an 18th century English rogue, starring Ryan O’Neal and Marisa Berenson, with the L.A. premiere of a new 4K restoration.
7 p.m. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. americancinematheque.com

🎥 Drop Dead Gorgeous
Actor Denise Richards will be in person for a 35 mm screening of the 1999 small-town beauty pageant mockumentary, a darkly comedic cult favorite written by Lona Williams, directed by the State’s Michael Patrick Jann and co-starring Kirstie Alley, Ellen Barkin and Kirsten Dunst.
7:30 p.m. Academy Museum, 6067 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles. academymuseum.org

🎭 Just Another Day
“Wonder Years” dad Dan Lauria wrote this romantic comedy on the enduring nature of love and stars with Academy Award nominee Patty McCormack (“The Bad Seed”) as a septuagenarian couple who meet every day on a park bench to verbally spar and reminisce.
8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through Sept. 28, with 8 p.m. Wednesday shows on Sept. 17 and 24. Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd. odysseytheatre.com

🎨 Rising Sun, Falling Rain: Japanese Woodblock Prints
An exhibition exploring the growth of Edo-period ukiyo-e printmaking and the later shin-hanga movement through more than 80 works from the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts features work by Katsukawa Shunshō, Utagawa Toyokuni, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Hiroshige, Tsukioka Yoshitoshi and Kawase Hasui.
11 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday–Sunday and Tuesday–Thursday, closed Monday, through Nov. 30. UCLA Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. hammer.ucla.edu

🎨 Martin Wittfooth: Deus ex Terra
The Canadian artist examines the repeating patterns of nature and the ways it serves as both muse and a mirror of the human soul in this solo exhibition.
Opening reception, 7 p.m. Saturday; noon-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Corey Helford Gallery, 571 S. Anderson St., Los Angeles. coreyhelfordgallery.com/

SUNDAY

The cast of “One Man, Two Guvnors” at a Noise Within: Trisha Miller, from left, Kasey Mahaffy, Ty Aldridge and Cassandra Marie Murphy.

(Daniel Reichert)

🎭 One Man, Two Guvnors
Richard Bean’s swinging ’60s British farce won James Corden a Tony Award and largely introduced him to American audiences. The show, based on “The Servant of Two Masters” by Carlo Goldoni, is directed by A Noise Within producing Artistic Directors Julia Rodriguez-Elliott and Geoff Elliott, with songs by Grant Olding.
Previews: 2 p.m. Sunday; 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Sept. 5; opening night: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 6; 2 p.m. Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, through Sept. 28. A Noise Within, 3352 E. Foothill Blvd., Pasadena. anoisewithin.org

TUESDAY
🎥 Who Killed Teddy Bear?
The Los Angeles premiere of a newly struck 35 mm print presents Joseph Cates’ uncensored director’s cut of his 1965 neo-noir thriller starring Sal Mineo, Juliet Prowse, Jan Murray and Elaine Stritch with footage seen for the first time in six decades.
7 p.m. Los Feliz Theatre, 1822 N. Vermont Ave. americancinematheque.com

WEDNESDAY
🎭 Am I Roxie?
Written-actor Roxana Ortega’s one-woman comedy is a wild ride through her mother’s mental decline. Directed by Bernardo Cubría.
7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday; 3 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday, through Oct. 5. Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. geffenplayhouse.org

THURSDAY
🎭 Oedipus the King, Mama!
Troubadour Theater, a.k.a. the Troubies, applies its brand of commedia dell’arte-inflected slapstick to Sophocles’ classic Greek tragedy, infused with the music of Elvis Presley.
8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, through Sept. 27. The Getty Villa, 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Pacific Palisades. getty.edu

🎼 Mozart’s Requiem
Conductor James Gaffigan leads the L.A. Phil in the composer’s final, uncompleted Mass, with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, preceded by Ellen Reid’s “Body Cosmic” and Brahms’ “Song of Destiny.”
8 p.m. Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave. hollywoodbowl.com

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Danielle Wade as Maizy, left, and Miki Abraham as Lulu in the North American Tour of “Shucked” at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre.

(Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

If you’re a sucker for puns, you’ll love “Shucked,” the musical comedy running through Sept. 7 at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre. The show, writes Times theater critic Charles McNulty, “never met a pun it didn’t like.” But there’s more to the folksy tale of mixed-up love in a place called Cob County — “Shucked” is a “folksy farcical riot, wholesome enough for widespread appeal but with just enough flamboyant oddity to tickle the funny bone of urban sophisticates.” The actors are also top-notch, including Danielle Wade, who plays the female lead Maizy. Wade, writes McNulty, “sounds like an ingenue Dolly Parton, exquisite to listen to, especially when her heart is in play.”

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s annual Art+Film Gala returns for its 14th year. This year’s honorees are filmmaker Ryan Coogler and Light and Space artist Mary Corse. The elaborate dinner — which always attracts a high-powered Hollywood crowd — is co-chaired by LACMA trustee Eva Chow and Leonardo DiCaprio. It’s scheduled to take place on Nov. 1 and will be the last such event to occur before the museum opens its new Peter Zumthor-designed building next spring.

Tyrone Huntley, an usher at the Hollywood Bowl.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Remember the fabulous actor who played Simon in the Hollywood Bowl’s unforgettable “Jesus Christ Superstar”? The one who also served as an understudy for Cynthia Erivo’s Jesus? His name is Tyrone Huntley, and his story is similar to those of countless working actors in L.A. Namely that he also has a day job. Only in Huntley’s case, his day job is working as an usher at the Hollywood Bowl. One day he was onstage in one of the season’s hottest shows, and the next he was showing people to their seats at the very same venue. Read all about it here.

A scene from the 2022 documentary “¡Viva Maestro!”: Gustavo Dudamel smiles as he wraps up Encuentros performance in Palacio de Bellas Artes.

(Gerardo Nava / The Gustavo Dudamel Foundation)

Gustavo Dudamel is still the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, but he’s already got one foot in New York City, where he is scheduled to become the music director of the New York Philharmonic in September 2026. This week the N.Y. Phil issued a news release highlighting Dudamel’s presence in its 2025-26 season. As the orchestra’s music and artistic director designate, Dudamel will lead six weeks of subscription programs, as well as the season-opening concerts. Next month he will conduct the world premiere of Leilehua Lanzilotti’s “of light and stone.”

Almost two years ago, Holocaust Museum LA broke ground on a $65-million expansion. It is now a less than a year out from opening at its new Jona Goldrich campus, which includes a 200-seat multipurpose theater, a 3,000-square-foot gallery, two classrooms, an interactive theater featuring a virtual Holocaust survivor, a pavilion with an authentic boxcar, a gift shop and a coffee shop, as well as a variety of outdoor community spaces. Designed by architect Hagy Belzberg, it will double the museum’s footprint in Pan Pacific Park.

The Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists issued a news release voicing concern “over the recent and evolving casting decisions in the Broadway production of ‘Maybe Happy Ending’,” created and written by Hue Park, with music by Will Aronson. The Michael Arden-directed Broadway adaptation won six Tony Awards this year, including for best musical, direction of a musical and lead actor in a musical (Darren Criss). However, after the award wins, Criss, who is of Filipino descent, took a leave of absence from the show and was replaced by a white actor, Andrew Barth Feldman. “This is not just about one casting decision, even if only momentary. It reflects a longstanding pattern of exclusion, whitewashing, and inequity that AAPINH and global majority artists have confronted for decades in U.S. theater,” the news release said.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Ojai’s Hotel El Roblar, which first welcomed guests in 1919, has officially reopened. The newest hotel in Ojai is now also its oldest, writes Times Travel writer Christopher Reynolds. See you there!

The week started full of optimism and zeal.

Celtic were facing a decidedly inferior team and overwhelming favourites to progress, Rangers were down but determined not to be out, Aberdeen had fought back at Pittodrie to have even footing in their tie, and Hibs were ready to make some history.

Best-laid plans and all that…

Celtic huffed and puffed against Kazakh side Kairat Almaty, but they were unable to even come close to finding the back of the net in a blunt display.

Regulation time was stuffy, extra-time was turgid, and the penalties were remarkably unremarkable.

Adam Idah, Luke McCowan and Daizen Maeda all missed from the spot as they suffered one of the most ignominious defeats in their history.

Next up, Russell Martin’s Rangers.

Trailing 3-1 to Club Brugge after an almighty shambles from the first leg at Ibrox, they were outsiders but retained a fighter’s chance if they could find their footing.

Brugge, instead, found the back of the net six times without reply as many of the travelling punters decided it was time for the head coach to vacate his position.

It was 9-1 of an aggregate scoreline for the tie as fans branded Martin a “coward” with some hastily fashioned banners.

A humbling and a hammering so far.