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The US government shutdown entered its second week on Monday, with no sign of a deal between President Donald Trump’s Republicans and Democrats to end the crisis. Democrats are refusing to provide the handful of votes the ruling Republicans need to reopen federal departments unless the two sides can agree on extending expiring “Obamacare” health care subsidies.With the government out of money since Wednesday and grinding to a halt, Senate Democrats looked set to vote against a House-passed temporary funding bill for a fifth time.The hard line taken by Democrats marks a rare moment of leverage for the opposition party in a period when Trump and his ultra-loyal Republicans control every branch of government — and Trump himself is accused of seeking to amass authoritarian-like powers.With funding not renewed, non-critical services are being suspended.Salaries for hundreds of thousands of public sector employees are set to be withheld from Friday, while military personnel could miss their paychecks from October 15.And Trump has radically upped the ante by threatening to fire large numbers of government employees, rather than place them on temporary unpaid leave status as has been done in every other shutdown over the years.Republicans are digging in their heels, with House Speaker Mike Johnson telling his members not even to come to Congress unless the Democrats cave.”House Republicans think protecting the health care of everyday Americans is less important than their vacation,” Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement.”We strongly disagree.”- Red herring -But Johnson said health funding was a red herring Democrats had wielded to force a shutdown, claiming to have addressed the issue in a sprawling domestic policy bill signed into law by Trump in July.”Republicans are the party working around the clock every day to fix health care. It’s not talking points for us. We’ve done it,” Johnson told reporters at the US Capitol.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” would in fact strip 11 million Americans of health care coverage, mainly through cuts to the Medicaid program for low-income families. That figure would be in addition to the four million Americans Democrats say will lose health care next year if Obamacare health insurance subsidies are not extended — while another 24 million Americans will see their premiums double.Republicans argue the expiring health care subsidies are nothing to do with keeping the government open and can be dealt with separately before the end of the year.As the shutdown begins to bite, the Environmental Protection Agency, space agency NASA and the Education, Commerce and Labor departments have been the hardest hit by staff being furloughed — or placed on enforced leave — during the shutdown.  The Transport, Justice, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs Departments are among those that have seen the least effects so far, the contingency plans of each organization show.With members of Congress at home and no formal talks taking place in either chamber, a CBS News poll released Sunday showed the public blaming Republicans by a narrow margin for the gridlock. Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council, said Sunday layoffs would begin “if the president decides that the negotiations are absolutely going nowhere.” Trump has already sent a steamroller through government since taking office for his second term in January.Spearheaded by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, 200,000 jobs had already been cut from the federal workforce before the shutdown, according to the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service.

The United Nations refugee agency has shed nearly 5,000 jobs this year following swingeing cuts in international aid, its chief said Monday, decrying the “disastrous” political choices behind the crisis. The UNHCR is grappling with surging global displacement, while under President Donald Trump the United States — traditionally the world’s top donor — has heavily slashed foreign aid, causing havoc across the globe.The agency’s chief Filippo Grandi said the cuts constituted more than a quarter of the agency’s workforce, with more to come — and no country or sector left unscathed. “Critical programmes and lifesaving activities have to be stopped, gender-based violence prevention work, psychosocial support to survivors of torture, stopped,” Grandi said. “Schools were closed, food assistance decreased, cash grants cut, resettlement ground to a halt. This is what happens when you slash funding by over $1 billion in a matter of weeks.”The UN refugee chief said the humanitarian system was facing “political choices with disastrous financial implications”.Washington previously accounted for more than 40 percent of the UNHCR’s budget, and its pull-back, along with belt-tightening by other major donor countries, has left the agency facing “bleak” numbers, Grandi said.UNHCR had an approved budget for 2025 of $10.6 billion, Grandi said, stressing though that the agency in recent years had only received “approximately half of our budget requirements” — or around $5 billion.”As things stand, we projected we will end 2025 with $3.9 billion in funds available — a decrease of $1.3 billion compared to 2024,” he said.An agency spokesman told AFP that both full-time staff and people on temporary or consultancy contracts had lost their jobs.The United States has been paying a “disproportionate” share of UNHCR’s costs, Washington’s UN representative told the annual meeting of the agency’s executive committee on Monday.Calling for reform, Tressa Rae Finerty also blamed economic migration for the strain on asylum systems around the world.”Abuse of the asylum system by economic migrants seeking to undermine immigration law has reached epidemic proportions and now threatens support for the asylum principle itself,” she warned.A cornerstone of the right to seek asylum is the principle of non-refoulement, which guarantees that no one should be returned to a country where they would face torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.Grandi warned that putting that principle on the table “would be a catastrophic error”.Dismantling the system put in place after World War II would not rein in mass migration, but would instead make it more difficult to address, Grandi said.”By putting pressure on refugees, on refugee hosting countries and on the humanitarian system all at once, you risk creating a domino effect of instability, (worsening) the very displacement we are all working to resolve,” he said. 

An Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fight planned at the White House will take place on Donald Trump’s 80th birthday, the president said, despite the much-hyped event being previously announced for July 4.”On June 14 next year, we’re going to have a big UFC fight at the White House — right at the White House, on the grounds of the White House,” Trump told a crowd of Navy sailors at the huge naval base Norfolk in Virginia.He did not mention that June 14 is his birthday or that next year will be his 80th.On Trump’s 79th birthday this year, he held a military parade that was meant to commemorate the founding of the US Army.In August, UFC boss Dana White said the mixed martial arts bout at the White House would be held on July 4 next year, the day the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding.Trump has been a regular guest at the often-bloody UFC contests, where fighters punch, kick and grapple with their opponent in a no-holds-barred battle to submission or knockout.Bringing the brutal combat sport to the center of US political power will mark a historic first.At a press conference shared on UFC’s YouTube channel, White said that early next year “we’ll start looking at building the White House card, which I will right now tell you will be the greatest fight card ever assembled in the history of definitely this company.”Ultimate Fighting Championship is the largest and most successful organization in the burgeoning world of MMA, a blend of martial arts disciplines like jiu-jitsu, kickboxing, boxing and wrestling.Bouts take place in an eight-sided ring — dubbed “The Octagon” — bounded by a chainlink fence.With few exceptions — such as eye-gouging — male and female fighters are allowed to employ almost any technique to attack their opponent.The sport’s popularity with young men — a key demographic in the 2024 US election — and Trump’s long association with the UFC, have made the president a regular fixture at some of its more high-profile events, where he is greeted like a rock star.Its brutal nature and high injury rate mean the sport is controversial, with doctors decrying the potential for brain damage amongst fighters who are repeatedly hit in the head, though it has gained increasing mainstream acceptance in recent years.

The Trump administration branded Chicago a “war zone” Sunday as a justification for deploying soldiers against the will of local Democratic officials, while a judge blocked the White House from sending troops to another Democrat-run city.An escalating political crisis across the country pits President Donald Trump’s anti-crime and migration crackdown against opposition Democrats who accuse him of an authoritarian power grab.In the newest flashpoint, Trump late Saturday authorized deployment of 300 National Guard soldiers to Chicago, the third-largest city in the United States, despite the opposition of elected leaders including the mayor and state Governor JB Pritzker.Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended the move on Sunday, claiming on Fox News that Chicago is “a war zone.”But Pritzker, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” show, accused Republicans of aiming to sow “mayhem on the ground. They want to create the war zone, so that they can send in even more troops.”In a statement, the governor called the proposed deployment “Trump’s invasion,” saying “there is no reason” to send troops into Illinois or any other state without the “knowledge, consent, or cooperation” of local officials.A CBS poll released Sunday found that 58 percent of Americans oppose deploying the National Guard to cities.Trump — who last Tuesday spoke of using the military for a “war from within” — shows no sign of backing off his hardline campaign.On Sunday, he claimed falsely that “Portland is burning to the ground. It’s insurrectionists all over the place.”Key ally Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, echoed the president’s rhetoric Sunday, telling NBC that National Guard troops deployed in the US capital Washington had responded to a “literal war zone” — a characterization at odds with reality.- No to ‘martial law’ -Trump’s campaign to use the military on home soil hit a roadblock late Saturday in Portland, Oregon, when a court ruled the deployment was unlawful.Trump has repeatedly called Portland “war-ravaged,” but US District Judge Karin Immergut issued a temporary block, saying “the president’s determination was simply untethered to the facts.””This is a nation of Constitutional law, not martial law,” Immergut wrote in her ruling.Although Portland has seen scattered attacks on federal officers and property, the Trump administration failed to demonstrate “that those episodes of violence were part of an organized attempt to overthrow the government as a whole” — thereby justifying military force, she said.One of Trump’s key advisors, Stephen Miller, called the judge’s order “legal insurrection.”Another court order issued late Sunday blocked the deployment of National Guard soldiers from other states, according to Oregon’s attorney general and California Governor Gavin Newsom, who earlier announced he was suing to stop the mobilization.”A federal judge BLOCKED Donald Trump’s unlawful attempt to DEPLOY 300 OF OUR NATIONAL GUARD TROOPS TO PORTLAND,” said Newsom, whose press office has deliberately copied the president’s abrasive, all-capitals style.”Trump’s abuse of power won’t stand,” Newsom added.- Chicago shooting -The Trump crackdown is being spearheaded by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). The department is being rapidly expanded both in personnel and duties.ICE raids around the country — primarily in cities run by Democrats — have seen groups of masked, armed men in unmarked cars and armored vehicles target residential neighborhoods and businesses, sparking protests.Days of tense scenes in Chicago turned violent Saturday when a federal officer shot a motorist that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said had been armed and rammed one of their patrol vehicles.DHS officials have said that ICE officers also shot and killed 38-year-old immigrant Silverio Villegas Gonzalez during a traffic stop on September 12, accusing him of allegedly trying to flee the scene and dragging an ICE officer with the vehicle.

Donald Trump’s unprecedented expansion of the powers of the US presidency will be put to the test when the Supreme Court returns for its fall term on Monday.”The crucial question will be whether it serves as a check on President Trump or just a rubber stamp approving his actions,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California Berkeley Law School.If past is prologue, the Republican leader is in line to notch up more legal victories from a conservative-dominated bench that includes three of his own appointees.On the docket are voting rights, state bans on the participation of transgender athletes in girls’ sports and a religious freedom case involving a Rastafarian who had his knee-length dreadlocks forcibly shorn while in prison.But the blockbuster case this term concerns Trump’s levying of hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs on imports and whether he had the statutory authority to do so.Lower courts have ruled he did not.But the Supreme Court has overwhelmingly sided with Trump since he returned to office, allowing, for example, mass firing of federal workers, the dismissal of members of independent agencies, the withholding of funds appropriated by Congress and racial profiling in his sweeping immigration crackdown.”You’ve seen the court go out of its way, really bend over backwards, in order to green-light Trump administration positions,” said Cecillia Wang, national legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).- ‘Legal equivalent of fast food’ -Many of those decisions have come on the controversial emergency or “shadow” docket, where the court hands down orders after little briefing, without oral arguments and with paltry explanation.Samuel Bray, a University of Chicago law professor, described it as the “legal equivalent of fast food” and the court’s three liberal justices have condemned the increasing use of the emergency docket.Chemerinsky noted in an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times that using the shadow docket, the six conservative justices have “repeatedly and without exception… voted to reverse lower court decisions that had initially found Trump’s actions to be unconstitutional.”The high-stakes tariffs case, on the other hand, will involve full briefing and oral arguments and will be heard on November 5.Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to unilaterally impose his extensive tariffs, bypassing Congress by claiming the country was facing an emergency due to the trade deficit.”At least hundreds of billions of dollars or more are at stake and they may need to refund those billions of dollars if they lose in the Supreme Court,” said Curtis Bradley, a University of Chicago law professor.Other high-profile cases involving the power of the president are to be heard in December and January when the court weighs in on Trump’s bid to fire members of the independent Federal Trade Commission and Lisa Cook, a governor of the interest-rate setting Federal Reserve Board.- Voting rights -On October 15, the Supreme Court will hear a voting rights case in which “non-African American” voters are contesting the creation of a second Black majority congressional district in Louisiana, claiming it is the result of unconstitutional racial gerrymandering.A victory for the plaintiffs in the case would deal a severe blow to a section of the Voting Rights Act that allows for creation of majority-minority districts to make up for racial discrimination.”The stakes are incredibly high,” said the ACLU’s Sophia Lin Lakin. “The outcome will not only determine the next steps for Louisiana’s congressional map, but may also shape the future of redistricting cases nationwide.”Another notable case on the docket concerns challenges to state laws in Idaho and West Virginia that ban transgender girls from taking part in girls’ sports.A religious freedom case to be heard on November 10 has unusually brought together legal advocates on both the left and the right.  Damon Landor is a devout Rastafarian whose hair was forcibly cut while he was in prison in Louisiana.He is seeking permission to sue individual officials of the Louisiana Department of Corrections for monetary damages for violating his religious rights.The Supreme Court is generally hostile to approving damages actions against individual government officials, Bray said.At the same time, he noted, the right-leaning court has tended to side with the plaintiffs in religious liberty cases.

The bitter tribalism that drove the United States into a government shutdown is putting compromise out of reach, analysts say — and threatening to turn a staring contest between the Democrats and Donald Trump’s Republicans into a protracted crisis.As the nation enters its second week with federal agencies paralyzed, multiple strategists with vivid memories of previous standoffs told AFP the president and his foes could be in it for the long haul.”It’s possible this shutdown drags on for weeks, not just days,” said Andrew Koneschusky, a former press secretary for Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader at the center of the latest deadlock.”Right now, both sides are dug in and there’s very little talk of compromise.”At the heart of the showdown is a Democratic demand for an extension of health care subsidies that are due to expire — meaning sharply increased costs for millions of low-income Americans.On Sunday, Trump blamed minority Democrats for blocking his funding resolution, which needs a handful of their votes.”They’re causing it. We’re ready to go back,” Trump told reporters at the White House, sounding resigned to a shutdown dragging on.Trump also told reporters Sunday his administration has already started to permanently fire — not merely furlough — federal workers, again blaming his rivals for “causing the loss of a lot of jobs.”In March, when the threat of a shutdown last loomed, Democrats blinked first, voting for a six-month Republican resolution to keep the coffers stacked despite policy misgivings.But Schumer — the top Senate Democrat — was lambasted by the party’s base, and will be reluctant to cave this time around as he faces potential primary challenges from the left.- ‘Maximum pain’ -For now, Senate Republicans are banking on their Democratic opponents giving in as they repeatedly force votes.”I could see a temporary agreement coming from both parties by the end of October,” said Jeff Le, a former senior official in California state politics who negotiated with the first Trump administration.”Anything beyond two months would halt government operations seriously and potentially impact national and homeland security considerations, casting blame on both parties.”A shift in the strategy would likely depend on either side noticing public sentiment turning against them, analysts told AFP.Polling so far has been mixed, although Republicans have been taking more flak than Democrats overall. Trump presided over the longest shutdown in history in 2018 and 2019, when federal agencies stopped work for five weeks.This time around, the president has been ratcheting up pressure by threatening liberal policy priorities and mass layoffs of public sector workers.- The Trump factor -James Druckman, a politics professor at the University of Rochester, sees Trump’s intransigence as a reason to believe this standoff could rival the 2019 record.”The Trump administration views itself as having an unchecked mandate and thus generally does not compromise,” he told AFP.”Democrats have been critiqued for not standing strongly enough and the last compromise did not result in any positive outcome for Democrats. Thus, politically, they are inclined to stand firm.”The 2018‑2019 shutdown cost the economy $11 billion in the short term, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office — and $3 billion was never recovered.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that the latest shutdown could wreak its own havoc on GDP growth.For California-based financial analyst Michael Ashley Schulman, the economic realities of the shutdown may be what end up forcing compromise.”If Wall Street gets spooked and Treasury yields spike, even the most ideologically caffeinated will suddenly discover a deep commitment to bipartisan solutions,” he said. Not all analysts are gloomy about the prospects for a quick resolution.Aaron Cutler, head of the congressional oversight and investigations practice at global law firm Hogan Lovells, and a former staffer in the House, sees the shutdown lasting 12 days at most.”Senate Democrats will blink first… While the shutdown continues, there will be no congressional hearings and a lot of work at the agencies will be paused,” he said.”That’s a win for many Democrats in Congress but they don’t want the blame for it.”

After a series of interviews, Nicole Becker was ecstatic to receive a job offer from a sportswear brand. But like many Americans navigating a tough job market, she was soon confronted with a sobering reality — the recruiter was a scammer.From fake job listings to fraudsters posing as real recruiters, employment scams are exploding online — fueled by a cooling labor market and a boom in generative AI that experts say has made these schemes more sophisticated than ever.In July, a purported Chinese brand offered Becker — a 37-year-old based in Oregon — a coveted role to lead global communications after an elaborate and legitimate-looking recruitment process that stretched over two weeks.There were no red flags after an initial online interview with a supposed human resources official was followed by a call with someone calling himself the head of marketing and sales.Then came the offer letter, accompanied by a detailed PowerPoint deck outlining her assigned role, budget, and performance targets for the first six months. Both parties promptly signed the agreement.But a week later, during an onboarding meeting, Becker picked up the first hint that something was amiss.She was told that the company’s servers had been destroyed in California’s wildfires. As a result, she would have to purchase a laptop and cellphone from a designated retailer herself, with the promise of reimbursement in her first paycheck.”That’s when my heart sank and I was like, ‘oh no, I fell for a fake job,'” Becker told AFP, requesting that her real name be withheld.”It is so scary because I consider myself to be a smart and clued-in person, especially with what’s going on with AI and scams in general. If I can get scammed, I feel this can happen to anybody.”- ‘Perfect storm’ -Employment-related scams jumped by over 1,000 percent from May through July, a period when new graduates typically search for jobs, according to the US firm McAfee.Nearly 1 in 3 Americans report receiving job offer scams via text message, highlighting how “these schemes have moved beyond email into our daily conversations,” McAfee said.The firm’s research shows victims lost an average of $1,471 per scam, with $12 billion reported lost to fraud last year, a 21 percent increase compared to the previous year. “We’re seeing a perfect storm of factors — a tight labor market, where more people are urgently competing for fewer opportunities, is creating pressure that scammers exploit,” Lisa Plaggemier, executive director of the nonprofit National Cybersecurity Alliance, told AFP.”At the same time, generative AI has made it easier for bad actors to craft convincing fake postings, recruiter profiles, and even interview scripts.”The combination means scams are harder to spot, and job seekers, especially first-time applicants, are more vulnerable than ever.”Becker’s experience — who immediately ceased all communication with the scammers — illustrates a common scam tactic: fraudsters run a long con, counting on job seekers to let their guard down after clearing a few hurdles in the interview process.- ‘Candidate fraud’ -The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently warned consumers about “fake check scams,” in which fraudsters pose as employers and send counterfeit checks, instructing victims to purchase equipment from selected vendors.”If you get an offer that includes depositing a check and then using some of the money for any reason, that’s a scam. Walk away,” the FTC said.Employers are also frequently targeted by scams.In July, the FBI warned about North Korean scammers posing as Americans to “gain fraudulent employment and access to US company networks.”Further complicating the hiring landscape is the rapid advancement of AI tools, which have made virtual interviews increasingly prone to deception.A recent survey of 3,000 job candidates conducted by the American firm Gartner found that six percent admitted to engaging in interview fraud -– either by impersonating someone else or having someone pose as them.The firm estimates that by 2028, one in four candidate profiles worldwide will be fake.In response, some companies that initially adopted AI tools to streamline hiring are now reintroducing face-to-face interviews at various stages of the recruitment process to safeguard against fraud.”It’s getting harder for employers to evaluate candidates’ true abilities, and in some cases, their identities. Employers are increasingly concerned about candidate fraud,” said Gartner’s Jamie Kohn.Such scams create “cybersecurity risks that can be far more serious than making a bad hire.”burs-ac/jgc

Trump administration officials and top Republicans warned Sunday that Americans will increasingly feel the pain of an ongoing US government shutdown as most federal operations remained shuttered.With Democrats refusing to give in over their demands for continued government health care subsidies in the budget, the White House says plans are being finalized for the firing of thousands of federal workers.Shutdowns are a periodic feature of gridlocked Washington when the two parties cannot agree on budget priorities. All non-essential workers are temporarily furloughed, or left without pay, while the parties work out their differences.This time, the stakes are higher, with President Donald Trump telling reporters Sunday that the administration had already started to permanently fire — not merely furlough — government employees.”It’s taking place right now. It’s all because of the Democrats. The Democrats are causing the loss of a lot of jobs,” Trump said, blaming his rivals as he has done since the start of the impasse.The shutdown, in its fifth day, has shown no signs of ending, with a top Democrat saying there had been no talks between congressional leaders since Monday.Kevin Hassett, who directs the White House’s National Economic Council, told CNN that there was hope for progress in talks in the coming week.Trump himself sounded resigned to the shutdown dragging on.Talks will center on addressing expiring Obamacare health subsidies. The Senate’s Republican majority leader acknowledged the two sides were currently “at a stalemate.””It’s going to get uncomfortable,” Senator John Thune told Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures,” adding that some behind-the-scenes discussions were addressing the potential extension of subsidies for Obamacare.- Democrats demand negotiations -How long could the shutdown last? “Just as long as the Democrats want it to,” Thune said.But Republicans control the levers of power in Washington, and Democrats have laid the failure to keep the lights on squarely at the feet of Trump’s party.The minority Democrats seek to force Republicans to address the health care subsidies issue by blocking a Trump-backed temporary funding resolution that needs a handful of their votes.In March, when the threat of a shutdown last loomed, Democrats blinked first, voting for a six-month Republican resolution to keep the coffers stacked despite policy misgivings.Now, Democrats are demanding negotiations.”If Republicans continue to refuse to extend the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) tax credits, tens of millions of American taxpayers are going to experience dramatically increased premiums, co-pays and deductibles,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”Shutdown concerns run across party lines, according to a CBS News poll released Sunday. It showed just 28 percent of Americans support congressional Republicans’ handling of the crisis, while congressional Democrats received 27 percent support.The shutdown’s effect on the economy is rattling Americans, with 49 percent of respondents saying they were very concerned and 31 percent somewhat concerned, compared to just 20 percent saying they are not concerned.The country’s last government shutdown, beginning in December 2018, occurred during Trump’s first presidential term and lasted a record 35 days. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that shutdown cost the US economy about $11 billion.

Taylor Swift is having a very good weekend: after the blockbuster release of her new album “The Life of a Showgirl,” she triumphed at the North American box office with her special movie theater event.”The Official Release Party of a Showgirl” raked in an estimated $33 million in the Friday to Sunday period in the United States and Canada, Exhibitor Relations said.The three-day-only event — which featured the debut of her first music video from the album, behind-the-scenes footage, and lyric videos — also was screened in cities around the world, but international totals were not immediately available.”No other musical artist on the planet can do this,” said analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research, noting that “Release Party” was only announced on September 19.”The picture would double its box office from here if it continued to play in theaters, but this is it — it’s finished now.”In a distant second place with $11.1 million in ticket sales was Paul Thomas Anderson’s action thriller “One Battle After Another,” in its second weekend out, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn, who are both already earning Oscars buzz.DiCaprio stars as a washed-up far-left revolutionary who is dragged back into action to help his daughter, while Penn plays his ruthless military nemesis.The film, loosely based on Thomas Pynchon’s novel “Vineland,” also stars Benicio del Toro, Teyana Taylor and Regina Hall.”The Smashing Machine” — the true story of mixed martial arts fighter Mark Kerr, played by a transformed Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson — debuted in third place with a disappointing $6 million.”Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are strong leads who have elevated bigger pictures. It’s not happening here,” said Gross.”Gabby’s Dollhouse: The Movie,” a live-action/animation hybrid based on a popular Netflix children’s series, came in fourth with $5.2 million in its second week.And in fifth place was horror franchise film “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” which earned $4 million. Overall, it has grossed $167.8 million in the US and Canada.Rounding out the top 10 are:”Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle” ($3.5 million)”Avatar: The Way of Water” – 3D reissue ($3.2 million)”The Strangers: Chapter 2″ ($2.8 million)”Good Boy” ($2.3 million)”Kantara: A Legend – Chapter 1″ ($1.8 million) 

Puerto Rican music superstar Bad Bunny clapped back at right-wing critics of his upcoming Super Bowl halftime show in a bilingual monologue on the season opener of “Saturday Night Live.”The enormously popular artist born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — whose music combines reggaeton, rap, Latin trap and pop — just completed a blockbuster residency on his home island, a US territory in the Caribbean.Bad Bunny had said his world tour would not feature shows on the US mainland as he feared his fans would fall victim to raids by immigration agents as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown, before being announced as the Super Bowl’s headliner.Conservative critics immediately complained that the Super Bowl should not feature an artist who sings primarily in Spanish and did not want to perform in the continental United States, criticizing the NFL for being too woke.Bad Bunny didn’t shy away from the topic on the first episode of season 51 of “Saturday Night Live,” America’s landmark comedy sketch show.”You might not know this, but I’m doing the Super Bowl halftime show,” he said to cheers from the audience at NBC studios in New York.”I’m very happy and I think everyone is happy about it, even Fox News,” he said, leading into a montage of one-word clips from network personalities and Republican politicians saying: “Bad Bunny is my favorite musician and he should be the next president.””I’m very excited to be doing the Super Bowl and I know that the people all around the world who love my music are also happy…” he said, changing to Spanish to explain how his appearance was a win for all Latinos in the United States.”Our footprints and our contribution in this country — no one will ever be able to take that away or erase it,” he added in Spanish.He then switched back to English to conclude: “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn.”The Super Bowl is set for February 8, 2026 in Santa Clara, California.The National Football League in 2019 entered into a multi-year partnership with entertainment company Roc Nation, founded by rap legend Jay-Z, to boost in-game presentations.Under the deal, Roc Nation advises the NFL on the selection of artists for the halftime show. Since then, the headliners have included Jennifer Lopez, Shakira, The Weeknd, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, Usher and Kendrick Lamar.