Topline:
For the first time, the World Cup final will include a halftime show – featuring celebrities from six continents to celebrate the "beautiful game."
Why now: With the artists selected by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, it's a powerhouse lineup with big mass appeal including Justin Bieber and Madonna.
Read on ... to learn about the entire musical lineup ...
For the first time, the World Cup final will include a halftime show – featuring celebrities from six continents to celebrate the "beautiful game." The show, which will begin somewhere around 3:45 PM ET, will air in the U.S. on Fox, Fox One and in Spanish on Telemundo, as well as on the Fox Sports app and streaming in Spanish on Peacock. It's expected to run for about 11 minutes.
With the artists selected by Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, it's a powerhouse lineup with big mass appeal: Justin Bieber, Madonna (whose new album just debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200), Shakira (the undisputed World Cup queen), Burna Boy (who duetted with Shakira on this year's official World Cup song – and who is one of the most popular African artists of all time), the global sensation BTS, Coldplay (who brought an inspiring backup choir to their Tiny Desk), the eternally lovable Muppets Kermit and Miss Piggy, conductor Gustavo Dudamel with musicians from the New York Philharmonic and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, the viral dance troupe Ghetto Kids from Kampala, Uganda, the Iraq-born Australian singer Emmanuel Kelly, and – whew! – the kids from Staten Island's PS22 Chorus. (How will they all be crammed into an 11-minute spectacle? A fair guess would be lots of arm-in-arm singalongs and Grammy Awards-style mashups aspiring to virality.)
In its press materials, FIFA says that the halftime show will support its charity arm, the FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund, whose goal is to raise $100 million to expand education and soccer access to children worldwide. FIFA says that it's already raised half that money, including $1 from every ticket sold by FIFA for this Cup – not much of a percentage, considering that FIFA originally put final game tickets on sale for nearly $3,000 for the cheapest seat, and prices have only skyrocketed since.
Soccer is, of course, already the most popular sport in the world; according to the Library of Congress, "estimates suggest that there are over 240 million registered players worldwide with fan participation in the billions." FIFA has already been boasting about record viewership during the 2026 World Cup. Earlier this month – even before the quarter-final matches had taken place – FIFA had already logged an eye-popping 20 billion video views worldwide across all digital platforms. By contrast, the last Super Bowl attracted some 125.6 million viewers. And it's worth noting that soccer is gaining in popularity in the U.S.: per a recent survey published by The Economist, Americans now rank it as their third favorite sport, having edged out the all-American pastime of baseball.
Still, FIFA may well have taken a (literally) very valuable page out of the NFL playbook, whether or not they specifically have a U.S. audience in mind: Don't like or care about (real) football? Here's an unmissable diversion midway through the match to keep you buzzing about – and your eyeballs focused on – what's happening on the pitch.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Topline:
Some Orthodox Jewish organizations are fighting to prevent a bill that would make daylight saving time permanent from becoming law.
Why now: The measure, called the Sunshine Protection Act, moved a step closer to reality this week, when the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass a measure to eliminate the annual clock-changing ritual.
Why the opposition: If passed, the bill would give Americans an extra hour of sunshine in the evenings during the winter. But it would also push winter sunrises one hour later. That's of concern to Orthodox Jews, who pray three times a day, beginning with the Shacharit morning prayer service, which by tradition cannot begin in the dark.
What's next: It now heads to the Senate, where its passage is uncertain. President Donald Trump has championed the effort, describing on his Truth Social account moving the clocks forward and back as a "ridiculous, twice yearly production."
Making daylight saving time permanent moved a step closer to reality this week, when the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass a measure to eliminate the annual clock-changing ritual.
But some Orthodox Jewish organizations are fighting to prevent the bill from becoming law.
The measure, called the Sunshine Protection Act, passed in a 308-117 vote in the House on Tuesday (July 14). It now heads to the Senate, where its passage is uncertain. President Donald Trump has championed the effort, describing on his Truth Social account moving the clocks forward and back as a "ridiculous, twice yearly production."
If passed, the bill would give Americans an extra hour of sunshine in the evenings during the winter. But it would also push winter sunrises one hour later. That's of concern to Orthodox Jews, who pray three times a day, beginning with the Shacharit morning prayer service, which by tradition cannot begin in the dark.
"The bottom line is, if prayers have to start an hour later that will have a direct effect on people getting to work and on when schools can start," said Rabbi A.D. Motzen, national director of government affairs for Agudath Israel of America, an organization representing U.S. Orthodox Jews.
A constellation of other Orthodox Jewish groups also opposes the measure, including the Orthodox Union and the Coalition for Jewish Values.
In Jewish law, some prayers, such as those in the morning service, can only be said communally, in a quorum of 10 Jewish adults, called a minyan. That requirement means going to synagogue every morning before heading out for work or school and saying prayers, such as the Shema, the central prayer of Jewish life, collectively. The morning service typically lasts 35 minutes but on some occasions can last close to an hour.
"It becomes a communal issue when, for example, a synagogue that has had a morning prayer service for 100 years suddenly does not have a quorum of 10 men who can show up at the prayer time close to 9 o'clock because they have jobs," Motzen said.
Motzen, who works in the Washington, D.C., office of Agudath Israel, said the organization already has the support of Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who last year objected to fast-tracking the bill.
Orthodox Jews make up only 9% of the estimated 5.8 million Jewish adults in the U.S., according to Pew Research Center. Larger Jewish groups have not publicly taken a position.
Congress has grappled with turning back the clocks many times. In 1974, it tried to abandon clock-switching, but repealed the law a few months later following public outcry. In 2022, the Senate unanimously passed a measure making daylight savings time permanent, but the bill died in the House.
Orthodox Jews are not the only constituencies opposed to the change. Some medical and health advocates argue that the human body's internal clock is better aligned with the sun during standard time rather than daylight saving time. School boards and parents are also concerned about children walking to school in pitch-black conditions during winter mornings.
That latter concern, which Motzen described as a safety issue, is one Orthodox Jews share as well.
Making daylight saving time permanent would make sunrise after 8 a.m. in most parts of the country, and after 9 a.m. in a few select places. For example, according to a list compiled by Agudath Israel, sunrise would take place after 9 a.m., (and as late as 9:13 a.m.) for 55 days a year in South Bend, Indiana. In Detroit, Michigan, sunrise would take place after 9 a.m. for 23 days a year.
Hawaii and most of Arizona abide by standard time year round, as do Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.
This story was produced through a collaboration between NPR and Religion News Service.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Topline:
After Medicaid officials improperly shared data about millions of people in January with immigration officials, ICE then shared that data with the data analytics firm Palantir, according to new court filings.
Why it matters: Palantir operates an app called ELITE that is used by ICE agents to show the addresses of noncitizens who may be subject to deportation.
Why now: That revelation was made public in a motion filed Thursday by more than 20 Democratic attorneys general who sued the Trump administration last year over its data-sharing agreement between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and ICE.
After Medicaid officials improperly shared data about millions of people in January with immigration officials, ICE then shared that data with the data analytics firm Palantir, according to new court filings. Palantir operates an app called ELITE that is used by ICE agents to show the addresses of noncitizens who may be subject to deportation.
That revelation was made public in a motion filed Thursday by more than 20 Democratic attorneys general who sued the Trump administration last year over its data-sharing agreement between the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and ICE.
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in California ruled in December that health officials could share with ICE certain details from Medicaid data about immigrants without lawful status from the states that had sued, such as home addresses, dates of birth and immigration status.
Chhabria, who was appointed by former President Obama, then temporarily paused data sharing between CMS and ICE for immigration enforcement purposes in late May after federal officials admitted CMS had shared data with ICE in January that went beyond what the court order allowed. One dataset of refugees in Minnesota included U.S. citizens, and another that was transferred on Jan. 7 contained data of millions of people, including those in the country legally.
ICE was supposed to delete the improperly shared data. Chhabria set a hearing for August to further clarify his order and clear up ambiguity regarding which categories of noncitizens' data could be lawfully shared with ICE.
But in recent days, federal officials have admitted to additional instances of improper data sharing.
In a court filing last week, the Justice Department said that CMS again inadvertently reshared with ICE the dataset with millions of names that CMS had first improperly shared with ICE in January. The government said the error occurred during an effort to share data from states not involved in the lawsuit.
Alberto Briseno, a section chief for ICE's Homeland Security Investigations, wrote in a declaration that ICE personnel deleted the file after it was discovered and it was not used for law enforcement purposes.
Then Briseno revealed that a day later, the agency had done a broader search and discovered that half a dozen users still had a copy of the Jan. 7 dataset.
In that most recent declaration, Briseno said he was not aware of any additional copies of the dataset, but said the recent searches have "highlighted technological difficulties of making a representation that every possible variation of the file has been searched for and located." He added, "ICE will continue to make good faith efforts to delete any copies that may be found in the future."
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice is asking the judge to expand his order to allow ICE to receive data on a broader category of noncitizens – to potentially include all immigrants who are not legal permanent residents, citizens or have another form of permanent status.
"ICE's inability to identify Medicaid records in its possession undercuts any claim that the agency should be entitled to more access to that data," the Democratic attorneys generals wrote in their motion filed late Thursday.
Their motion continued, "Each successive revelation of a violation of the Order makes it more difficult for Plaintiff States to have confidence in Defendants' ability to maintain and secure this data in compliance with the Order, and more difficult for Plaintiff States to communicate assurances to Medicaid providers, enrollees (and their counsel), and the public at large about the privacy and confidentiality of their healthcare data."
Palantir did not immediately return a request for comment about whether the company had deleted the Jan. 7 dataset that ICE had shared after improperly receiving it from CMS. DHS also didn't immediately return a request for comment about its transfer of data to Palantir.
According to a declaration filed by California deputy attorney general Anna Rich, when plaintiffs asked what federal officials did to ensure Palantir and other contractors had purged the data, defendants responded that the data had been shared over a Microsoft Teams chat and the shared data was deleted from the chat. Rich shared in her declaration a document turned over in discovery from federal officials that shows a redacted transcript of what appears to be ICE personnel asking Palantir to delete the file.
In an April 30 hearing, Chhabria had warned the federal government would not be able to continue using Medicaid data for deportation efforts if it continued improperly sharing the data of citizens and legal immigrants.
"If the federal government cannot be sufficiently careful then it can't use the information, ok?" Chhabria had said.
Copyright 2026 NPR
Topline:
The inaugural Los Angeles Indie Book Crawl aims to take readers on a tour of thirteen independent stores across the region.
Why it matters: Independent bookstores, beloved fixtures across communities in Los Angeles, often struggle to stay afloat. This event, put on by sellers, wants to bring book-loving Angelenos to stores they may not already know about.
The backstory: The event is modeled after a popular San Diego book crawl.
What's next: Organizers hope to make this an annual event.
Go deeper: What Are The Best Books About LA? Indie Booksellers Share Their Recs
Books can take you to other worlds, times, and next weekend, all over Los Angeles.
That’s the goal of the inaugural Los Angeles Indie Book Crawl taking place from July 24 to 26. Book lovers can check out 13 brick-and-mortar stores across the L.A. region in celebration of the little bookstores that can.
The idea originated with Jennifer Caspar, founder and owner of Village Well Books & Coffee in Culver City. She says she was inspired by a similar event in San Diego that has grown in popularity since starting in 2017.
“They get thousands of people out every year to do it and the stores are mobbed. They say it's like a holiday weekend in their store with the level of activity,” Caspar said.
Participating bookstores range from Vroman’s in Pasadena to ones with more of a niche, like the Culver City romance bookstore, The Ripped Bodice.
“We’re all different. When you're working with independent businesses, you're really getting a lot of personality, and that's what I think people will experience on this,” Caspar said.
The crawl comes at a time when the business of bookselling has been completely upended.
“We are competing with a really hellacious online competitor who sells books oftentimes at a loss, none of us can afford to do that,” said Linda McLoughlin Figel, co-owner of Pages in Manhattan Beach.
But Caspar and Figel say there’s also been a resurgence of interest and appreciation for what bookstores have to offer.
“People have really reverted back to valuing the smell of a book, the touch of a book and that personal connection that you can have by walking into a bookstore,” said Figel.
Grace Lee of Montrose is one of those people who loves having a personal connection to bookstores.
“If I'm in a new neighborhood or an area of town I'm not usually in, I try to find out where the local bookstore is and stop by,” said Lee.
She frequents Once Upon A Time, a favorite place for her to find gifts and books for her kids and their friends.
She says she’ll be attempting to do the crawl over the three days in between work and her family’s busy schedule.
“I am very ambitious, and so I do want to attempt the full crawl, but we'll have to see,” said Lee.
How does the crawl work?
When: Friday, July 24 to Sunday, July 26
Store entry is free.
A purchase of $10 or more gets you a passport and a stamp. Accrue additional stamps toward prizes with each $10 purchase.
Find details and participating bookstores at the event’s official website.
Topline:
Joe Rinaudo is the man behind Silent Movies in Two Strike Park, a special showcase of films from the era that usually takes place once a year.
The backstory: Rinaudo, nicknamed “Professor Rinaudo” for his vast silent film knowledge, has spent his life preserving and screening silent classics. His love of old films stretches back to when he was a kid in the 1950s.
The show tonight: Tonight’s program includes Buster Keaton’s One Week (1920), Charley Chase’s Crazy Like a Fox (1926), and Laurel and Hardy’s Do Detectives Think? (1927).
Read on ... to find screening details and more about Rinaudo.
The new Christopher Nolan epic The Odyssey opens this weekend. And purists will probably want to catch it in a theater to experience it in all of its 70mm glory.
But another film screening (albeit a little more old-fashioned) happens tonight at a park in La Crescenta.
“Oh yeah, Christopher Nolan ... In fact, he uses the same lab that I do to print my 35 [mm] — FotoKem,” said Joe Rinaudo, silent film historian and founder of the nonprofit SCAAT or Silent Cinema Art and Technology. “One time I was over there and Christopher Nolan was there and man they were hopping to it!”
Rinaudo is also the man behind Silent Movies in Two Strike Park, a special showcase of films from the era that usually takes place once a year. Tonight’s program includes Buster Keaton’s One Week (1920), Charley Chase’s Crazy Like a Fox (1926), and Laurel and Hardy’s Do Detectives Think? (1927).
Rinaudo, nicknamed “Professor Rinaudo” for his vast silent film knowledge, has spent his life preserving and screening silent classics. His love of old films stretches back to when he was a kid in the 1950s. He even bought 99-cent reels at Sears and would host screenings for neighborhood kids.
Tonight, he will follow in the tradition of the itinerant — or traveling — projectionists of the early 1900s, by cranking out this evening’s slate on a 1909 Power’s Motion Picture Machine Model 6, which started its life with an itinerant projectionist.
“I bought it from the great-grandchildren of the original owner. It was found in a chicken coop and [I] did a total restoration,” Rinaudo said.
I was lucky enough to see the hand-crank process in action at his home in La Crescenta earlier in the week.
“You have to crank at the camera man’s speed,” Rinaudo said. “You have to watch the action very closely … If it slows down, and it looks blurry then you need to speed up, because you’ll betray the camera man’s shutter.”
Rinaudo’s La Crescenta home isn’t just a showcase for his collection of antique film equipment. It also includes a 20-seat, 1910-style theater that he built. The silent movie palace is complete with an alluring red curtain and period-specific, ornate light fixtures that he manufactured himself.
It defies logic that this huge theater, complete with a second story balcony and projection room, fits in this residential space. But there’s more just below the theater, including an 800-pipe organ Rinaudo is working to restore so that music can accompany his film screenings.
Silent Movies in Two Strike Park
Where: Two Strike Park, 5107 Rosemont Ave., La Crescenta
When: Saturday, July 18 at 8 p.m.
Free
“The pipe organ will of course add a new dimension to the theater. It’s an 11-rank Wurlitzer built in 1920. It was saved from the Covell Theater in Modesto, California,” Rinaudo said.
The massive pipes of the Wurlitzer came to life thanks to a vintage air blower in the basement, their low tones enough to rattle your ribcage.
Rinaudo’s theater isn’t open to the public, but through his nonprofit, he’s thinking about how it can be preserved for all to enjoy. But you can catch his itinerant show at Two Strike Park in La Crescenta, usually once a year. And he's hoping to soon start screening films again at the Nethercutt Collection Museum in Sylmar.
"Eventually, all of this will go into the non-profit after my passing,” Rinaudo said. “I’m hoping to keep this as a private museum ... that will continue to educate and inspire younger people about our history.”
