Red carpet standouts

Arts & Entertainment

We have some of the best looks from the Oscars

By Meredith Nierman | NPR

Published March 16, 2026 7:13 AM

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Kevork Djansezian

WWD

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Topline:

The Academy Awards were last night in Hollywood, hosted by Conan O'Brien. The stars walked the red carpet in a wide range of styles.

Keep reading... to check out the gowns, suits and jewels chosen by stars.

The Academy Awards were Sunday night in Hollywood, hosted by Conan O'Brien.

One Battle After Another took home best picture, in addition to awards for Paul Thomas Anderson for best director and best adapted screenplay. Sinners star Michael B. Jordan won best actor, and Hamnet's Jessie Buckley won best actress.

Michael B. Jordan stands on red carpet wearing black suit with silver chain and watch, posing in front of white 'Oscars' backdrop.

Amy Madigan wears a black and gold sequined jacket and black pants stands on the red carpet in front of a white 'Oscars' backdrop.

Kate Hudson

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Angela Weiss

AFP via Getty Images

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Wunmi Mosaku wears a long, teal, sequined gown poses with hands on hips on the red carpet at the Oscars.

Ethan Hawke wears a black tuxedo coat with satin lapels and points with both hands on the red carpet at the Oscars.

Chloé Zhao wears a dramatic black gown with layered ruffles and a sheer veil covering her face, standing on the red carpet at the Oscars.

Climate & Environment

Dangerous heat

CA restricts utility shutoffs, here's why

By Alejandro Lazo | CalMatters

Published July 17, 2026 11:30 AM

The sun sets behind mountains and transmission towers, giving the sky a dark red color.

The sun sets behind a row of transmission towers as temperatures rise to a scorching 114 degrees in Fresno County on Sept. 6, 2022.

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Larry Valenzuela

CalMatters/CatchLight Local

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Topline:

State regulators rejected utilities' proposal and ordered broader protections against power shutoffs during dangerous heat. Here's why regulators decided the utilities' proposal wasn't enough.

Why now: As another stretch of dangerous heat gripped the state, the California Public Utilities Commission wrote stronger rules itself. In a 4-0 vote, the commission lowered the temperature at which utilities must stop shutting off power to delinquent customers, from 100 to 90 degrees, and ordered utilities to adopt a more protective, region-specific heat standard within six months.

A battle to define extreme heat: During a record heat wave two years ago — the hottest July in California history — The Utility Reform Network, a consumer group, asked the utilities commission to revisit its definition of extreme heat. The group’s emergency request argued that “heat kills more people directly than any other weather-related hazard.”

Read on... for more on the proposal.

California bars utilities from cutting off power to customers who fall behind on their bills when it’s dangerously hot outside — a basic safety protection. Losing power in some rural areas can also mean losing water, and in cities, having no way to cool down can be dangerous, even deadly, when hot weather spans several days.

California regulators concluded more than a year ago that rules protecting delinquent customers from power shutoffs during heat waves weren’t strong enough. They ordered the state’s largest utilities to come up with better safeguards.

When the utilities unveiled their plan in December, their proposals barely changed anything, the commission concluded on Thursday, finding their proposal “does not offer sufficient health protections for ratepayers.”

The commission had set a May 1 deadline for the new rules. Utilities missed it, and consumer advocates filed emergency motions to force action.

As another stretch of dangerous heat gripped the state, the California Public Utilities Commission wrote stronger rules itself. In a 4-0 vote, the commission lowered the temperature at which utilities must stop shutting off power to delinquent customers, from 100 to 90 degrees, and ordered utilities to adopt a more protective, region-specific heat standard within six months.

A battle to define extreme heat

During a record heat wave two years ago — the hottest July in California history — The Utility Reform Network, a consumer group, asked the utilities commission to revisit its definition of extreme heat. The group’s emergency request argued that “heat kills more people directly than any other weather-related hazard.”

The rules already barred electric utilities from disconnecting residential customers for nonpayment if forecasted temperatures soared above 100 degrees within 72 hours.

But a single statewide threshold, the group argued, didn’t account for how differently Californians experience heat depending on where they live.

Regulators declined to treat the request as an emergency, but ordered the utilities to come up with a plan for changing the 100-degree threshold by working with advocates and others.

The utilities proposed using CalHeatScore, a newly created state tool that scores heat by ZIP code – from Level 0 to 4 – using local health data and historical impacts, taking into account data on nearby cooling centers, as well as the number of children and seniors, who can be more susceptible to extreme heat.

The problem: the utilities proposed setting the cutoff threshold at Level 3 — a higher bar than advocates wanted — and keeping 100 degrees as the backstop when the index wasn’t available.

Advocates filed protests seeking a wider safety net, arguing for a lower Level 2 index score and a 90-degree backup threshold.

Utilities said they could not meet the deadline because CalHeatScore’s own data system, run by the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, was not yet ready to support them. Advocates countered that the utilities offered little evidence for sticking with the higher 100-degree threshold.

By May, with utilities still behind schedule, The Utility Reform Network joined with the San Diego-based Utility Consumers’ Action Network, the National Consumer Law Center and the Center for Accessible Technology, asking the commission to intervene.

The commission sides with advocates

This week the commission rejected the utilities’ proposal, siding with advocates. The path the utilities were proposing would be “no different” than prior practice. The resolution noted the extreme heat threshold is already below 100 degrees in 41 of California’s 58 counties.

A 90-degree day might be routine in dry, inland cities such as Bakersfield or Fresno, but such temperatures could be atypically dangerous in coastal or mountainous communities where fewer homes have air conditioning and people are less acclimated to the heat.

San Francisco, for instance, defines heat as extreme when temperatures climb above 85 degrees. In the far northwest county of Del Norte, extreme heat means anything above 76.8 degrees, the commission said.

“A single threshold temperature level needs to be more protective of residents in areas of the state that are not accustomed to high temperatures,” the commission wrote in its resolution.

Utilities move to comply

While the utilities had wanted a narrower safety net for customers, they are now stressing they will comply with the more protective standard.

Last December, the major investor-owned utilities had together argued that extending protections to consumers at lower heat scores would halt disconnections too often, deepen unpaid balances, and add costs without a comparable health benefit. In a January filing, according to a PG&E spokesperson, the utilities argued that the 90-degree threshold was “overbroad.”

The protections would apply only to shutoffs for unpaid bills. They would not prevent outages caused by equipment failures, wildfire-prevention shutoffs, or other emergencies. Nevertheless, advocates say the changes are important.

“When electricity is shut off to a home, it can have a sort of a cascading effect of problems on tenants,” said Jason Zeller, an attorney with the Utility Consumers Action Network. “If tenants don't have electric service, they can be subject to eviction; if they have children, they can lose child custody.”

Reached ahead of the vote, all three utilities said they were prepared to comply with the commission’s new rules. Edison said the resolution would strengthen protections during extreme heat and that it was ready to change its disconnection policies. SDG&E said it supported the added safeguards and would implement the commission’s final requirements.

“Disconnection is a last resort at PG&E, only after multiple attempts to contact customers and offer payment plans and assistance programs,” said PG&E spokesperson Adrienne Moore. The region-specific standard is expected to be implemented within six months.

The commission’s independent Public Advocates Office had pressed for stronger protections throughout the process, formally opposing the utilities’ plan. Director Linda Serizawa the vote would provide consumers with “protection that takes effect when they need it most.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

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News

'VAR' in the World Cup

Has it gone too far?

By Jasmine Garsd | NPR

Published July 17, 2026 9:30 AM

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Alex Grimm

Getty Images

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Topline:

It seems to have become part of the World Cup viewing experience: you're watching the game. Your team makes a goal. You celebrate, tentatively: because before you know it, VAR, the video assistant referee, is checking, and there's a chance the goal is getting annulled.

Why now: The ubiquitous use of VAR has been one of the great controversies at this year's World Cup. FIFA argues it's making the game fairer; many fans and teams say it's getting out of hand.

The backstory: The VAR was not always the villain of soccer. In fact, there was a time when fans and players clamored for it. It all goes back to the 2009 World Cup qualifiers, to a match between France and Ireland. Thierry Henry, a forward for France, assisted on a goal. To many, on the field and watching on TV at home, it was obvious that Henry had touched the ball with his hand. But the referee never called a foul.

Read on... for more on the use of VAR.

It seems to have become part of the World Cup viewing experience: you're watching the game. Your team makes a goal. You celebrate, tentatively: because before you know it, VAR, the video assistant referee, is checking, and there's a chance the goal is getting annulled.

The ubiquitous use of VAR has been one of the great controversies at this year's World Cup. FIFA argues it's making the game fairer; many fans and teams say it's getting out of hand.
The VAR was not always the villain of soccer.
In fact, there was a time when fans and players clamored for it. It all goes back to the 2009 World Cup qualifiers, to a match between France and Ireland. Thierry Henry, a forward for France, assisted on a goal. To many, on the field and watching on TV at home, it was obvious that Henry had touched the ball with his hand. But the referee never called a foul.

This was hardly the first time that it happened: fútbol lovers will point to the infamous Argentina-England game in the 1986 World Cup, featuring a hand goal by Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona (commonly referred to as "The Hand of God"). The difference was that by 2009, the technology was available to review the play right then and there, and make a better decision.
FIFA, soccer's ruling body, is incredibly reluctant to change its rules. Up until 1970, teams weren't allowed to make substitutions. That was the same year in which red and yellow cards were introduced (previously, a referee would simply issue a warning or send a player off for bad behavior).

A referee watches a monitor as players in a white and red jersey wait and react.

When FIFA does intend to make a change, it often first tests it out in the U.S.
"A lot of innovations in soccer, just even putting names on the back of jerseys started in the United States," says Professor Chris Davis at Adelphi University. Davis, who studies soccer history, says American fans are typically not so caught up in soccer traditionalism and are more rapid adopters of technological change. This is how VAR came to be tested in 2014 and 2015 during Major League Soccer games.
It was officially introduced at the 2018 World Cup. Here's how it works: there's a referee crew on the field, and a separate crew watching the game on video with replays showing many angles. For the most part, Davis says, fans liked it when it was introduced. "Clear instances were being corrected, and I think that was the beauty of it: we had clear instances of protecting the integrity of the game."
Davis notes that although audiences appreciated the new technology, it wasn't used very often. Fast forward to 2026, and referees checking VAR has become ubiquitous — from reviewing potential missed fouls in the penalty area to offside.

The offside rule is over 150 years old, has 45 clauses and is around a thousand words long. It's one of soccer's most complex and misunderstood laws. It's hard to explain succinctly, but here is a shot: the law states that a player is offside when in the opponent's half of the field, and closer to the opponent's goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent. It matters where the player is when the ball is struck, and whether they're involved in active play. It's designed to prevent lingering around the opponent's goal to make an easy score.

In this World Cup, referees have often stopped the match on multiple occasions to check VAR for offside, sometimes issuing rulings that fans and teams consider ludicrous.

Soccer players in white jerseys speak to a referee in a yellow shirt as he gestures with his hands.

Consider the Iran match against Belgium, in which an Iranian goal was taken away because VAR determined an Iranian player's butt was offside. A few days later, a Colombian goal was annulled when an attacker's toe was offside.
"It is completely interrupting what the game state is", says Felipe Cardenas, senior writer with The Athletic. "One of the best and most special moments in a football match is a goal and the goal celebration. Now there are times when the players have to wait until the referee gets the right decision and he hears from the VAR."
VAR is at the center of one of the most controversial games in this Cup: Egypt vs. Argentina.
A recap: for most of the game, Egypt dominated. They scored a second goal in the 67th minute. The VAR pointed to a questionable foul that had happened in the lead-up to that goal, all the way across the field. The referee reviewed the video, and disqualified Egypt's goal. Argentina went on to win. Later, Egypt complained and said they were robbed during the World Cup. The whole incident led to further questioning of so much technology in the tournament, and whether it's being deployed properly.
At the end of the day, the debate over the use of VAR and technology in soccer echoes many conversations happening in society today: where is the line between tech helping and going too far? If the technology is being handled by humans, is there not an inherent bias?
Cardenas says he thinks the answer lies somewhere in the middle. "As fútbol fans, you should live with human error at times. It's OK for a referee to make a mistake. We're getting to the point where it is taboo if a referee makes a mistake."
In other words, sometimes you just have to accept the referee's decision. No ands, butts… or toes.
Copyright 2026 NPR

Arts & Entertainment

Christopher Nolan

He talked to LAist about making 'The Odyssey'

FilmWeek Staff

Published July 17, 2026 9:26 AM

A male-presenting person with light skin, short, gray hair, and a gray goatee stands wearing a dark jacket in a cobblestone room. A male-presenting person with light skin, long, gray hair, a gray beard, and a dark jacket stands to his right. The person on the left has his left hand on the monitor of a large film camera that reads "IMAX" in black and white. There are several other people, both male- and female-presenting, in the room.

Director Christopher Nolan with Cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema on the set of "The Odyssey."

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Courtesy Universal Studios

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The topic:

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is turning out to be the event of the summer, with screenings selling out at theaters a year in advance. Nolan talked with LAist host Larry Mantle about how he adapted the Greek epic for a modern audience. Here's what he said.

Listen 20:00

The Odyssey: Christopher Nolan talked to us about making a 2,800-year-old story feel new

On what makes a successful adaptation: “If somebody watching the film who read the poem in high school or something, who doesn’t know it that well but knows it pretty well — if that person feels that my additions or my allusions actually were from the poem, then I think I've succeeded.”

The dialogue: “I’m not having the actors speak with mid-Atlantic or some British accents the way Hollywood in the 50s or 60s often did… We want it to be more accessible than that.”

The sound and score: “[Ludwig Göransson] is trying to create a soundscape that is as much a part of the sense of place as the sound effects. So in a way we’re trying to blur the boundaries completely between music and sound effects.”

New technology: “This blimping system — it’s essentially a high-tech box you put the [70mm IMAX] camera in and it silences it. And so for the first time ever, we could do the entire film that way.”

Does the format matter? “They’re all drawn from this massive negative, so they can be as sharp and clear as possible. We’re able to fill the screen with the brightest and clearest image no matter what format you see it in."

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The Brief

A battle to define extreme heat

The commission sides with advocates

Utilities move to comply

What are the eligibility requirements?

How much funding can my small business receive?

For more information about the loan program, contact one of the following:

Keep up with LAist.

The topic: