Headlines From The Times

Something unexpected is going on in traditionally conservative Saudi Arabia. Over the last few years, the kingdom has been announcing a loosening of social restrictions at a surprising rate. Movie theaters are reopening, new professional opportunities for women are popping up and the country is hosting Western-style music festivals. It’s all part of a plan by the country’s de facto leader, Crown P...

The Colorado River begins in the Rocky Mountain snowpack, which provides the water that starts off the river on its epic journey. But as the American West gets hotter, that snowpack keeps getting smaller and smaller. Today, the second in our six-part special on the future of this vital waterway. New episodes will publish every Friday through Feb. 10. Follow the project here . Read the full transcr...

This month’s record-setting rain and snow across California also comes with terms many of us know but can’t explain. Today, we do that with our Masters of Disasters. Read the full transcript here. Host: Gustavo Arellano Guests: L.A. Times earthquake reporter Ron Lin, L.A. Times Fast Break disasters reporter Hayley Smith, and L.A. Times water reporter Ian James More reading: California snowpack is...

The Golden Globes is going to air this week on NBC after a year-long hiatus in the wake of a scandal over its parent company, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Can its comeback stick? Read the full transcript here. Host: Gustavo Arellano Guests: L.A. Times Company Town reporter Stacy Perman, and L.A. Times film business reporter Josh Rottenberg More reading: ‘It took a crisis in order to ma...

The Colorado River is the water lifeline for tens of millions of people across the American Southwest, which couldn’t have developed the way it is today without it. But all the damming and diversion done to the Colorado has put it at a tipping point where a future with no water is no longer just fantasy but perilously possible. Today, “The Times” kicks off “a six-part special on the future of this...

The Supreme Court appears ready to abolish affirmative action later this year. The case seeking to declare it unconstitutional has schools that consider race in admissions worried about how they can continue to build diversity among their students without affirmative action. Here in California, though, we already know what happens when programs like affirmative action are banned. In 1996, voters p...

A new Republican-led House of Representatives convenes tomorrow, and after decades as a Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi is stepping away from the helm. Undoubtedly, her strength was in unifying her caucus — something that Kevin McCarthy, the G.O.P frontrunner for the speakership, has already struggled to do. Today, we look back on Pelosi's career — and what could be ahead for House leadership. Rea...

This year, Beyonce blessed fans with her album, “Renaissance,” the Daniels — Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — released the surreal trip of a movie “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and Bad Bunny released banger after banger after banger. And those were just some of the brightest cultural moments that we couldn’t stop talking about. 2022 had its dark side, too — who could forget Will Smith’s s...

Ukraine, abortion, midterms, racist tape leaks — 2022 was a lot, politically. We gather our newsroom experts to break down the year. Read the full transcript here. Host: Gustavo Arellano Guests: L.A. Times U.S. Supreme Court David G. Savage, California politics columnist Mark Barabak, and L.A. city politics reporter Julia Wick More reading: News Analysis: Supreme Court likes separation of powers,...

This year, we saw a pandemic that just won’t quit, a face-melting heatwave and an underwater volcano eruption that wreaked all kinds of havoc. 2022 brought with it plenty of doom and gloom when it comes to natural disasters. But we also saw an effective new earthquake early warning system, a toilet sink that’s great at reducing water and energy use and more good news for our changing climate. Toda...

Dr. Anthony Fauci is one of the most prominent public health officials in history due to his work during the HIV/AIDS crisis and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. He’s about to step down from his long-held roles as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor, but before he goes, we wanted to get some last bits of advice about how to stay safe th...

Cryptocurrency started the year strong. But as 2022 ends, what was supposed to be a revolutionary way to buy, save and invest has collapsed. The price of nearly every cryptocurrency has plunged. Multiple businesses built specifically around them have cratered. Now, members of Congress are calling for more stringent regulations around crypto. But would regulations change cryptocurrency so much that...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration authorized over a billion dollars in housing vouchers to help people stay off the streets. The program had problems, but one city — San Diego — succeeded in a big way. Today, we find out how they did it. Read the full transcript here. Host: Gustavo Arellano Guests: Former L.A. Times fellow Anumita Kaur More reading: How San Diego achieved surp...

The Biden administration is pushing electric vehicles as the future. So are major auto makers. But how will that play out in red states? We travel to small-town Indiana to find out. Read the full transcript here . Host: Gustavo Arellano Guests: L.A. Times White House reporter Noah Bierman More reading: Can California’s electric-vehicle push overcome the red-state backlash? Majority of voters favor...

After Ticketmaster botched sales for Taylor Swift’s upcoming concert tour, her die-hard fans, known as Swifties, did more than just whine on social media. They took political action, calling their representatives in Congress and flagging their concerns to other lawmakers across the country. Some Swifties even filed a lawsuit. This is far from the first time Ticketmaster and its parent company, Liv...

Jessica Roy was hanging with friends at a piano bar when her wallet was stolen — and became a victim of identity theft. Roy filed the necessary reports and thought she’d be able to handle everything pretty quickly. That didn’t happen. Today, she shares her ordeal and explains why fixing identity theft is a never-ending nightmare and why recovering from it is so much harder than you think. Read the...

Keke Palmer has already racked up two decades in show business. She acts, sings, hosts a TV show and is the face of numerous memes — and she has big plans for more.  Fresh off hosting "SNL" and starring in “Nope,” Palmer recently sat down with our sister podcast "The Envelope." She shares what it was like to work with Jordan Peele on his blockbuster sci-fi thriller, how she felt about being her fa...

The workload for graduate students, researchers and assistants who take on-campus jobs for their discipline is notoriously underpaid and endless. That’s why 48,000 of those workers throughout the University of California system have gone on strike, demanding better pay and conditions. The strike is happening even as finals loom. Today, we examine the background and what’s next. Read the full trans...

Mainland China is roiled by protests, the size of which have not been seen in a generation. People are calling for an end to the government’s strict “zero-COVID” restrictions. The moment has also brought rare public criticism of its architect, President Xi Jinping. Just months ago, he secured an unprecedented third term, but now is as vulnerable as he’s ever been. Today, we examine whether the zer...

This week, Congress passed a bill that effectively imposed an agreement between rail workers and their companies and prohibited a strike. Politicians feared that any work stoppage would cripple the U.S. economy for the holidays, costing the country billions of dollars. Today, we talk about the unique, violent history of rail workers trying to fight for better union contracts. Read the full transcr...

Few people associate urban and suburban Southern California with floods anymore, mostly because many of its rivers were dammed up or transformed into concrete gulches long ago. But scientists say a megaflood could hit the entire state and would submerge cities, hitting communities of color particularly hard. The state is nowhere near prepared for that. Today, our Masters of Disasters talk about th...

For the last decade, about 800,000 individuals who came to the United States as children but have no legal status have been protected from deportation by a program commonly referred to as DACA. It has allowed them to legally work, apply for driver's licenses and even travel abroad. But the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to strike DACA down, leaving the individuals enrolled with no clear step on ho...

Right now, the eyes of much of the world is on the FIFA World Cup in Qatar as 32 teams fight for national pride. One team is Mexico, whose unique fanbase sets it apart from the world. With loyalties to both Mexico and the United States, it’s a representation of resilience, controversy and so much more. Today, we examine the phenomenon. Read the full transcript here . Host: Gustavo Arellano Guests:...

Grasshopper hunting has been going on in Mexico for thousands of years, but lately eating them has gained wider acceptance. Consumption of the jumpy little protein-packed insects is booming, and more and more restaurants are putting them on the menu ... and not just in Mexico. Today, chapulines, the world of harvesting and eating grasshoppers in Mexico. Read the full transcript here . Host: Gustav...

The Inn Between in Salt Lake City offers a revolutionary program: hospice care for homeless individuals. We visit to see what resistance they have met — and what hope they've inspired. Read the full transcript here. Host: Gustavo Arellano Guests: L.A. Times California politics reporter Mackenzie Mays More reading:  The place where homeless people come to die with dignity  Column: He was homeless a...