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  • Ro Khanna is the left’s busiest midterm surrogate. Can he raise his own profile, too?

    Ro Khanna is the left’s busiest midterm surrogate. Can he raise his own profile, too?

    Rep. Ro Khanna of California leaned forward in a patterned armchair as a rooster crowed outside, listening as a group of farmers in rural Sharpsville, Pa., told him that Democrats came across as inauthentic and insincere.

    “Don’t promise the farm and not come up with it,” said Joe McCann, who grows hay and raises pigs. “And don’t lie to people. I can take anything, but if someone’s standing there physically lying to me and blowing smoke up my butt, that’s not going to cut it.”

    Khanna agreed, fretting that his party had for too long “looked down” on blue-collar voters. Then he quipped: “How do you think I’m doing? Lying?” McCann, 78, said he didn’t think so.

    Khanna (D., Calif.) has emerged as one of the most prolific surrogates of the 2026 cycle. He has endorsed more than 70 candidates for seats in the House, Senate, and state legislatures, positioning himself on the front lines of a burgeoning progressive movement as discontent with the status quo has propelled a series of left-wing candidates to primary victories.

    But there was another reason for his vigorous political itinerary this campaign season: a possible presidential run in 2028. He wants to see the left’s power grow within the Democratic Party. He wants its policy prescriptions, such as universal healthcare and taxing the rich, to shape the conversation about who the party’s nominee for president should be.

    And he knows that none of that is likely to happen if the left bombs in November.

    A little 2026, and a little 2028

    Despite their major wins in primaries this season, progressives’ ability to sway the general electorate in competitive races remains untested. A new poll released by the New York Times and Siena University on Sept. 15 found that a slight majority of voters disliked socialism.

    In Khanna’s view, the only way the movement can change that perception is if it figures out how to talk to the working class.

    Khanna, born outside Philadelphia to immigrants from India, has been preparing for his political future out in the open. In the past two months, he has taken many of the steps of an early presidential candidate.

    He held a town hall with Latino voters in Nevada. He told the Democratic National Committee in a searing speech that the party needed to turn its back on corporate interests and military aid to Israel. He also ventured abroad, leading a congressional trip to the Vatican to discuss safeguards against artificial intelligence with Pope Leo XIV and visiting the West Bank, where he was detained by armed Israeli settlers.

    Icons of the progressive movement, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have been choosier with their high-profile endorsements this year. Khanna is lesser known, and has work to do to change that. The eagerness can occasionally backfire; he has expressed regret for his endorsement of Graham Platner, the Maine Democrat who withdrew his Senate bid in July after a woman accused him of rape.

    “He’s hustling,” said Bill Hyers, a progressive strategist who worked with two House candidates — Kat Abughazaleh in Illinois and Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania — whom Khanna endorsed in primaries this spring. Rabb won. Abughazaleh lost.

    Added Hyers: “He’s just been out there really working hard and he’s the only person on the left I have seen where there’s no doubt he’s running.”

    Over five days in Pennsylvania in July, Khanna, who grew up outside Philadelphia in suburban Bucks County, rallied for two House candidates whose primary victories in May stood out as early triumphs for the progressive movement. Their very different districts illustrated both the advantages and challenges facing the progressive left this fall.

    In Philadelphia, Khanna talked about liberal priorities like “Medicare for All” with Rabb, a democratic socialist who is virtually assured of victory in November in his deep-blue district. In a battleground district in Allentown, Khanna discussed tariffs and job losses with union factory workers to help the candidacy of Bob Brooks, a firefighter and labor leader who faces a more difficult path to victory in November against Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, a Republican.

    On behalf of both candidates, Khanna offered a similar pitch: The wealth and technological innovation of his high-income Silicon Valley district should be shared more widely. His agenda of “new economic patriotism,” he said, would spread technology jobs among Midwestern states and redistribute profits through a wealth tax.

    “If we just are running on centrist mush that is put out by ChatGPT, bland and inoffensive, we’re not going to win,” Khanna told a reporter in the SUV he was riding in for the Pennsylvania swing. “It has to be a transformative vision.”

    Khanna was generally well-received by an electorate in Pennsylvania that has soured on Republicans and seems increasingly willing to give Democrats another chance. But he also encountered the enduring skepticism of voters who see their leaders as having failed them.

    “He comes across very progressive with his plans, but I don’t know that he’ll be able to carry them through,” said McCann, after Khanna’s conversation in Sharpsville. “This area that I live in right now is a depressed area — and anybody that gives anybody around here a vision of hope is the person they’re leaning toward. They just have that vision of hope that this might happen, and it never does.”

    In an interview, Khanna said he planned to decide about 2028 between Thanksgiving and Christmas, after talking to his family and determining how viable he could be in battleground states.

    His trip across Pennsylvania was intended in part to assess that. A progressive contender for president, Khanna said, would have to “do well in the Black South” and “do well in states like Pennsylvania.”

    He said he was also forging bonds in southern states, including in South Carolina, where his partnership with Rep. Jim Clyburn and his daughter Jennifer Clyburn connects students at historically Black colleges and universities with scholarships from tech companies.

    Khanna has recruited alumni of both progressive and establishment campaigns. He is being advised by Ron Klain, the chief of staff to former President Joe Biden, and has enlisted longtime advisers to Sanders such as Julian Mulvey and Jeff Weaver, according to a person familiar with the partnerships who requested anonymity to describe internal staffing issues.

    The road ahead, plus AOC

    A dismal progressive showing in November could instantly set back Khanna’s fortunes. So could something else: Ocasio-Cortez. If Ocasio-Cortez, the breakout star of the left, runs for president, she would appeal to the same liberal constituency as Khanna but with an enormous head start in popularity.

    Khanna called Ocasio-Cortez an “extraordinary talent,” and dismissed the idea that she is a rival.

    “I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for her,” he said, adding, “I have genuinely never discussed what she wants to do in the future.”

    Khanna said he talked with Ocasio-Cortez occasionally in the halls of the Capitol. He communicates more frequently with Sanders, speaking with him on the phone about AI and answering the senator’s queries about the chances of California voters passing a tax on billionaires this fall.

    Khanna readily acknowledged that he lacked the political “star power” of his left-wing compatriots. “I’m not delusional,” he said.

    His speeches are also a little heavy on policy and light on the kind of soaring rhetoric that voters often look for in a president.

    That was the case in Pennsylvania, but he also tested catchphrases such as “economic patriotism,” and retail politicking seemed to come easily enough for him. One particular line, when he argued that President Donald Trump had not followed through on a simple promise — to replenish sand that had washed away along Lake Erie — got a good response from voters.

    “I’ve seen a lot of clips of him online — I thought he was much more charismatic in person,” said Gideon Tsoutsouris, a college student in Pittsburgh.

    Khanna portrayed his low profile as an asset, noting that other successful candidates — including former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton — began their bids as long shots. It’s an advantage, he said, “to go meet people and interact without the entourage.”

    Khanna, a multimillionaire, likewise dismissed potential criticism of his wealth, which largely stems from his wife’s father, the founder of an automotive company.

    “I tell people my own story of growing up middle-class in Bucks County, taking out loans for law school in my 20s, having forbearance and massive credit card debt,” Khanna said. “I think people will see that I had a middle-class life and even economic challenges.”

    Hyers, the progressive strategist, said Khanna would likely face criticism for his long-standing relationships with the tech industry.

    “The perception in a lot of the circles that I run in is, ‘How much money has he taken from the bad guys?’” Hyers said. (Khanna has since broken ties with many wealthy tech executives and called for taxing them more heavily.)

    When Khanna’s tour rolled into Pittsburgh, he hopped around town, chatting wi,th union leaders who are faculty members at a local university, nurses fighting for a labor contract and a group of college students.

    Before addressing the students, he spoke with two groups protesting his visit on nearby street corners: the pro-Israel Beacon Coalition and the pro-business Americans for Prosperity, a creation of the conservative Koch family. One of the AFP protesters urged him to reject socialism.

    The moment illustrated another challenge that Khanna would face in a presidential primary. He may be too progressive for moderates, and not progressive enough for some on the fractious left.

    “I don’t believe the government should take over the means of production,” Khanna told the protesters. But, he added, many young people were turning to socialism “because they can’t afford rent, they don’t have a good job. They lost the American dream.”

    This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

  • Philadelphia, where John Coltrane learned his craft, is celebrating the jazz giant’s centenary this week

    Philadelphia, where John Coltrane learned his craft, is celebrating the jazz giant’s centenary this week

    John Coltrane, the fearlessly adventurous saxophonist whose music continues to transport and inspire spiritually seeking artists and audiences in jazz and beyond nearly six decades after his death, would have turned 100 tomorrow.

    The Coltrane centenary is being celebrated around the U.S. and the world, and especially in Philadelphia, his adopted hometown. Here, a Coltrane 100 celebration that has been ongoing all year has picked up steam this month and kicks into high gear this week with concerts, movies screenings, and various events.

    Coltrane moved to Philadelphia from High Point, N.C., in 1943, following his mother north. After a stint in the Navy, he bought the house at 1511 N. 33rd St. in Strawberry Mansion, where he would later famously kick his heroin addiction and develop the groundbreaking “sheets of sound” method of playing on his landmark 1960 album Giant Steps.

    “John Coltrane learned his craft in Philadelphia,” says Ravi Coltrane, his saxophonist son, speaking to The Inquirer this week from California, where he was set to play in Los Angeles on the night of the 100th anniversary of his father’s birth.

    “He played countless gigs there, and he became a saxophonist like no other in that town, where he bought his first home, where he lived with his first wife, Naima. He lived there with his mother, my grandmother, and that home still exists as a kind of symbol of John and his legacy.”

    “Everything he was able to do, he did in the city of Philadelphia, and I’m grateful that the town is recognizing him more and more.”

    Celebrations for a Philly master

    The surge of Philadelphia pride in Coltrane’s deep connections to the city are evident. City Council has declared Sept. 23 John Coltrane Day. Temple University’s WRTI-FM (90.1) will play nothing but ‘Trane, all day long, and the radio station is also presenting a free A Love Supreme concert with Jaleel Shaw, Alexander Claffy, and Jeff “Tain” Watts in LOVE Park.

    Ars Nova Workshop’s Coltrane 100 five-day concert series at the Mandell Theater at Drexel University kicks off Wednesday with Sun Ra Arkestra and includes performances through the weekend by Terri Lyne Carrington, Marilyn Crispell, Tyshawn Sorey, and the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet, among others.

    Immanuel Wilkins will perform with his quartet and special guests at the Mandell Theater at the Drexel University as part of the Ars Nova Workshop’s Coltrane 100 Festival. Wilkins will also speak on an “Impressions of Coltrane” panel with Teri Lyne Carrington and Angelika Beener at the Study at University City at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.Courtesy of ALMA Communications

    On Wednesday at noon, the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz will present a free screening of the 2016 documentary Chasing Trane. On Friday, Chicago sax player Isaiah Collier will perform in a free concert at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

    From Friday through Sunday, Scribe Video Center will present North Philadelphia History Festival: The John Coltrane Edition, a multisite series of film screening, video exhibitions, and performances.

    And on Sunday, you can ride the Chasing Trane: A Tour of John Coltrane’s North Philadelphia bus with All That Philly Jazz historian Faye Anderson. All these events and more are compiled at jazzphiladelphia.org/coltrane.

    Ravi Coltrane has no memories of his father, who died of liver cancer at 40 in 1967, when his son was 2 years old. As an adult, Ravi has forged his own identity as a musician while also honoring his mother, Alice Coltrane, and his father, whose music he performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Highmark Mann in July.

    Alice Coltrane’s music will be celebrated on Saturday as part of the Ars Nova concert headlined by Wilkins and include a performance by Ravi’s stepsister, Sita Michelle Coltrane.

    Marshall Allen and the Sun Ra Arkestra will perform the music of John Coltrane at the Mandell Theater at Drexel University as part of the Ars Nova Workshop’s Coltrane 100 Festival on Wednesday, Sept. 23, which would have been Coltrane’s 100th birthday. Courtesy of ALMA Communications

    The renovation of the Strawberry Mansion home

    As executor and steward of the Coltrane Estate, Ravi Coltrane has overseen the restoration of the Coltrane house, where Mary Alexander, his father’s cousin who is immortalized as “Cousin Mary” on Giant Steps, lived until a few years before her death in 2019.

    With a working group that includes Ars Nova’s Mark Christman and Anthony Tidd, and many local partners, Ravi and the Coltrane Estate have overseen the restoration of the facade of the house, which had fallen into serious disrepair.

    Ravi Coltrane performs with The Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Edwin Outwater, during a concert celebrating the 100th anniversary of jazz legend John Coltrane’s birth at the TD Pavilion at the Mann in Philadelphia on Wednesday, July 22, 2026.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer

    “The whole building was crumbling,” Coltrane says. “We’ve done everything we can to shore up the foundation. But we really wanted the facade to be restored first to show the city that this landmark is a vibrant part of this town.”

    He hopes the house, which he frequently visited as a child, can become “a cultural center” and “a place that can inspire young people as a symbol of what’s creatively possible.”

    Coltrane history is Philadelphia history

    Among the many projects released in conjunction with the centenary is Coltrane: The Definitive Visual Celebration of the Legend, a gorgeous photo book of images by photographers Chuck Stewart, Francis Wolff, and others, that includes essays by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Carlos Santana, and Patti Smith.

    In Ravi Coltrane’s foreword, he writes of a lucid dream he had of hoping to see his father perform at Mitten Hall at Temple University in November 1966, just 8 months before his death. An album, Offering: Live at Temple University, was issued in 2014.

    In the dream, Ravi Coltrane woke before getting to see his father play.

    John Coltrane at Monterey Jazz Festival in 1960 as pictured in “Coltrane: the Definitive Visual Celebration of the Legend,” the new book edited by Ravi Coltrane and published by 10 Speed Press.Unknown Photographer (1960), Courtesy of RHINO/UMG

    “To Talk With God,” Smith’s essay in the Coltrane book, tells of trying to see the sax player at the Showboat, the basement venue on Lombard Street, as a teenager in 1963 but being refused admission because she was underage.

    “I have a vague memory of descending half-lit stairs, strains of McCoy Tyner, a glimpse of Coltrane … before being escorted back into the night. I left not disappointed but ecstatic, for those precious moments were the closest I ever came to seeing Coltrane live.”

    Coltrane’s appearances at the long-gone Showboat in the early 1960s as well as performances at the Jazz Gallery in New York are included in The Tiberi Tapes, a holy grail set of recordings by musician Frank Tiberi, due to be released Nov. 6 on the Impulse! label.

    Christman, who founded Ars Nova in 2000, says Coltrane history is Philadelphia history.

    Terri Lyne Carrington will perform John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” at the Mandell Theater at Drexel University as part of the Ars Nova Workshop’s Coltrane 100 Festival on Thursday, Sept. 24. She will also speak on an “Impressions of Coltrane” panel with Immanuel Wilkins and Angelika Beener at the Study at University City at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.Courtesy of ALMA Communications

    “He buys a house in Strawberry Mansion, thanks to the G.I. Bill. Philadelphia at this point is the workshop of the world, and he gets a job in manufacturing at a sugar refinery plant. He joins a union, Local 274, one of the first African American musicians’ unions.”

    Telling that story around Coltrane 100, “there is a unified force in Philadelphia right now that I have not experienced in 26 years of presenting and being part of the jazz ecosystem,” Christman says.

    “There’s a sense of unity about sharing the message that Coltrane and Philadelphia are talked about together for a very long time.”

    ‘Just the first taste’

    Along with Coltrane 100 concerts, Ars Nova is hosting talks in West Philly. On Thursday, “Remembering the Man and His Music” will feature Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille, and Odean Pope with Coltrane biographer Ashley Kahn at the Study at University City. The trio will then perform on a bill with Irreversible Entanglements that night.

    Christman also promises programming that illuminates Coltrane’s Philadelphia legacy will continue, thanks to Ars Nova — whose home base is Solar Myth in South Philly — for the next six months to a year, with Ravi Coltrane due back in town for multiple performances.

    “This is just the first taste,” he says.

    John Coltrane at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1960, as pictured in the book “Coltrane: The Definitive Visual Celebration of the Legend,” edited by Ravi Coltrane.William Claxton, courtesy of Demont Photo Management

    ‘He’s the North Star’

    Before he performs with his quartet on Saturday (with guests Will Parker and Jeff “Tain” Watts), Wilkins, who was raised in Upper Darby, will participate in an “Impressions of Coltrane” conversation with Carrington and Angelika Beener on Wednesday at the Study.

    Wilkins, the saxophonist who records for Blue Note Records and released three volumes of live recordings from the Village Vanguard this year, says “I feel like I’ve always known [Coltrane’s] music ever since I’ve known anything about the saxophone.”

    “Even though Trane wasn’t from Philadelphia,” he says, speaking this week from Brooklyn, where he splits his time with the Cobbs Creek neighborhood in West Philly. “I think his time in Philadelphia really has a profound impact on the city.

    “His ethos and how he conceptually approached his process of playing. What that means materially is people at jam sessions playing these long, like 30-minute modal compositions. Whereas if you go to New York, you’re hearing something from the Great American Songbook.”

    Coltrane, Wilkins says, “shows you that more work actually gets us closer to the divine. He’s the North Star, for sure.”

    “The thing that is really spectacular about John Coltrane is that though he takes these solos that are so long. Like 20-minute solos, that could read as egregious. But there’s this interiority that’s so profound. The music is imbued with humility. It doesn’t sound selfish at all.”

    Coltrane 100 continues this week, with many events throughout the fall. More information at jazzphiladelphia.org.

  • Netanyahu, before U.N. appearance, targets Mamdani in video

    Netanyahu, before U.N. appearance, targets Mamdani in video

    NEW YORK — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel released a video broadside against New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, one of his most high-profile critics in the United States, hours before CNN aired a new interview in which the mayor again called the prime minister a war criminal.

    Mamdani has called on the federal government to arrest Netanyahu, who is expected to arrive in New York this week to address the U.N. General Assembly. In the video posted Tuesday, the prime minister falsely accused the mayor of supporting Hamas and inciting riots against Jewish New Yorkers.

    Addressing the mayor directly, the prime minister said he was coming to the U.N. “to tell the truth about our heroic soldiers” and “to tell the truth about you.”

    Mamdani, New York’s first Muslim mayor and an outspoken supporter of Palestinian rights, has condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization and described the attack it led against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as “a horrific war crime.”

    And while New York has seen an increase in antisemitic hate crimes since the Oct. 7 attacks and Israel’s subsequent bombardment of the Gaza Strip, as well as widespread pro-Palestinian demonstrations, there have been no riots targeting Jewish New Yorkers in the city since Mamdani was elected mayor in November or during his time serving in the state Assembly.

    Netanyahu is the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, which has accused him of war crimes in Gaza; he vigorously denies the charges. After Mamdani’s previous comments calling Netanyahu a war criminal outraged many pro-Israel Jewish leaders, the mayor’s office convened a meeting at which prominent rabbis urged the mayor to tone down his rhetoric on Israel and its leaders.

    Asked about Netanyahu’s remarks at an unrelated news conference Tuesday morning, Mamdani said, “We all know that what the prime minister has said in that video is not true.”

    On Monday night, CNN released clips from a wide-ranging interview with Mamdani, which also touched on his working relationship with President Donald Trump and his desire to see the Democratic Party focus on policies to lift up the working class. The full interview aired Tuesday afternoon.

    In one part of the interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Mamdani was asked directly about his opinion of Netanyahu, and he said he owed it to New Yorkers to share his honest views.

    “When it comes to Benjamin Netanyahu,” the mayor said, “I have described him as I believe him to be: a war criminal and an architect of a horrific genocide of the Palestinian people.”

    Mamdani has described Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza as genocide, a claim that has upset many pro-Israel Jewish leaders. A United Nations commission and international and Israeli human rights groups have also said that Israel’s actions amounted to genocide.

    During the campaign, Mamdani pledged to have the Police Department execute the International Criminal Court warrant against Netanyahu if he were to come to New York. He repeated his desire to do so in an interview with the New York Times in July. But days later, the mayor released a video saying the city’s Law Department had told him the city did not have the authority to arrest the prime minister, and challenged the federal government to do so.

    Netanyahu, who is in the midst of a pivotal electoral campaign in Israel, has frequently condemned the mayor, calling him a danger to Jewish New Yorkers. On the second day of Mamdani’s term, the Israeli government accused him of antisemitism, citing his decision to cancel two executive orders signed by his predecessor, which had barred city agencies from boycotting Israel and defined some criticism of Israel as antisemitic.

    While Mamdani’s stance on Israel has caused deep unease among many Jews in New York, which has the largest Jewish population outside Israel, many others have supported the mayor, especially his fellow progressives. On Monday, Mamdani attended a meal marking the end of the Yom Kippur fast at the home of Ruth Messinger, a political ally who has served as Manhattan borough president and as the president and CEO of the American Jewish World Service.

    This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

  • ‘I was extremely terrified’: Center City jogger recounts ‘Chucky’ terror as masked man appears in court

    ‘I was extremely terrified’: Center City jogger recounts ‘Chucky’ terror as masked man appears in court

    For Blake Fleischer, an early morning jog in Center City last month began like any other.

    But it ended in terror, she said as she recalled running into traffic near City Hall, seeking help as a man wearing a Chucky-style horror mask followed close behind.

    “I was extremely terrified,” Fleischer, 40, testified Wednesday in Philadelphia Municipal Court.

    There, prosecutors presented evidence that they said outlined the way Zymire Hughes scared and harassed more than a dozen pedestrians early in the morning of Aug. 12.

    Fleischer, who entered the courtroom limping and using a crutch, tearfully recounted the pain of tearing her hamstring as she fled the man in the mask, who she feared was armed when he asked if she was “ready to die.”

    “I thought he was going to attack me,” Fleischer said.

    Hughes, 22, was arrested by U.S. marshals in Las Vegas two weeks after the incident. He sat across the courtroom wearing a blue prison jumpsuit and did not speak during the hearing, in which his defense attorney disagreed with many of the prosecution’s findings.

    Municipal Court Judge Karen Simmons held Hughes for trial on charges of aggravated assault, possessing an instrument of a crime, terroristic threats, simple assault, reckless endangerment, and harassment. Simmons dismissed charges of disorderly conduct by engaging in fighting, as well as flight to avoid apprehension.

    The hearing marked the first time that details about Hughes were heard in court after videos of the masked man’s antics went viral across local and national media outlets and social media feeds.

    Authorities said the Tioga resident had connections through an employer in Nevada and California as they sought his capture and told the public he had likely fled Philadelphia. Following Hughes’ Aug. 25 arrest, District Attorney Larry Krasner vowed to charge him with a host of crimes.

    Prosecutors said Tuesday that surveillance footage recovered from cameras throughout the city had tracked Hughes’ travels, capturing him taking a SEPTA bus from his apartment building near North 23rd and West Venango Streets to Center City after 2 a.m. Aug. 12.

    They said Hughes donned the horror mask and began harassing pedestrians in the Suburban Station concourse. He ignored a SEPTA transit officer’s request to remove the mask, they said, briefly flashing his face before putting it back on and leaving the area.

    He encountered Fleischer around 5:30 a.m. as she jogged near the north side of City Hall, she testified to prosecutors.

    The masked man began to chase her, she said, eventually cutting her off as the two got within several feet of each other.

    In an image provided by the Philadelphia Police Department, a man dressed in dark clothing and wearing a mask styled after the character Chucky in “Child’s Play,” the 1988 horror film, chases a jogger in Philadelphia on Aug. 12, 2026. On Thursday, Aug. 20, the police identified a suspect, Zymire Hughes, 22, and said there was an arrest warrant for him. (Philadelphia Police Department via The New York Times) — NO SALES; FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. —PHILADELPHIA POLICE DEPARTMENT

    Fleischer said she found herself caught between the facade of City Hall and the man, who held a phone in his left hand while his right hand was concealed behind his back, and she fled.

    It was not until the next day — when she awoke in “extreme pain” and had trouble walking — that she went to the hospital for her hamstring injury, she said.

    Prosecutors also called on detectives from the Central Police Division to verify surveillance footage of Hughes’ activity. That included a clip in which it appears Hughes is filming himself and gesturing toward his phone before leaving his apartment to head to Center City.

    A SEPTA transit officer later testified that he was able to help detectives identify Hughes because he had interacted with him in 2023 and 2024 while on duty. Detectives added that widely circulated images of Hughes yielded a phone tip that aided their investigation.

    Lauren Zitsch, Hughes’ public defender, told Simmons she took issue with many of the prosecutors’ assertions, particularly the aggravated assault charge.

    “You have to show some form of malice” for that crime to stand, she said, noting that the confrontation between Fleischer and Hughes was not captured on video.

    But Simmons agreed with prosecutors, who argued that by frightening the woman enough for her to flee, Hughes would have understood the “legal and likely consequence” of his actions.

    Hughes is expected to appear in court for a formal arraignment in early October.

    He had not posted the required 10% of his $100,000 bail and remained in custody at the Philadelphia Detention Center.

  • Trump and Xi see tensions flare over AI, trade and Iran but still seek stability

    Trump and Xi see tensions flare over AI, trade and Iran but still seek stability

    WASHINGTON — State visits usually occur when two countries are on warm terms, but U.S. President Donald Trump is hosting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington this week as their economic and tech competition is only escalating, especially through an artificial intelligence race.

    Neither expects any grand bargain, but the leaders are expected to play nice in their third meeting since Trump returned to the White House to try to steady fragile ties. That is despite the world’s two largest economies seeking the upper hand on AI developments and trade, while pushing for leverage in persistent hot spots like Iran and Taiwan.

    “The fact that they are meeting, and there’s dialogue occurring and building that relationship, is probably as important as outcomes from the meeting,” said Sen. Steve Daines, a Montana Republican who advises Trump on China and recently traveled there to lay groundwork for the summit.

    Cui Tiankai, a former Chinese ambassador to the U.S., said at a recent forum in Beijing that there are “always problems, sometimes very big problems” between the two countries, but ”we’ll make our best efforts to maintain overall stability.”

    Trump and Xi shifted away from sky-high tariffs, but competition is still intense

    Xi’s visit to Washington, which begins Wednesday, is his first in 10 years. He and Trump are meeting after their countries climbed down from last year’s intense trade war, where they traded tit-for-tat sky-high tariffs that threatened the global economy. China also choked off its world-leading supplies of critical minerals needed in products from electric cars to fighter jets.

    The U.S. is not only trying to balance trade but also maintain its tech dominance to protect national security and global leadership. China, which has amassed tremendous economic, technological, and military power over the past several years to close gaps with the U.S., is seeking to solidify its place in the global order.

    The stability both sides are seeking is “for deeply competitive reasons,” said Evan Medeiros, a senior adviser at the Asia Group consultancy. “This is basically two geopolitical strongmen circling each other on the playground, trying to determine what their next move may be.”

    The countries appeared to be entering a “new normal” of “overall stability” despite blacklisting each other’s companies and restricting the flow of high-tech products, said Da Wei, director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

    The leaders now should produce deals that their governments can carry out, he said, noting that “we need to move fast.”

    The AI race could strain any cooperation on technology’s advance

    Developing AI technology has emerged as a key battleground, with both sides showing little interest in slowing down despite warnings from tech CEOs about threats that rogue AI could pose to humanity. “Whoever wins AI wins,” Trump has repeatedly said.

    He claimed on social media Monday that the U.S. is leading over China and that he was “not going to stifle Growth, of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution, or the Internet, itself.”

    China cannot afford to lose either. In a rare, blunt essay, Chen Yixin, head of China’s Ministry of State Security, warned that AI poses a direct threat to Communist Party rule if foreign and hostile forces achieve superior capabilities.

    The U.S. is already restricting exports of the most powerful AI chips to China and has accused Chinese developers of tapping into American AI models at an industrial scale to extract their capabilities.

    Beijing says the practice, known as distillation, is widely used, including by American companies, and has criticized the U.S. for trying to monopolize the industry.

    Beijing also is upset about U.S. efforts to build an alliance that excludes China, so it is seeking to craft new global AI guardrails by appealing to developing nations.

    However, the U.S. and China are taking a small step to cooperate on AI.

    Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Sunday after meeting with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in New York that the U.S. has proposed a new “notification mechanism” for AI incidents that could affect national security.

    “We think that just like any cross-border activity, that moving from opaque to more transparency between the No. 1 and the No. 2 AI powers in the world is very important,” Bessent said.

    U.S. and China turn to targeted ways to compete instead of tariffs

    While the U.S. and China have refrained from taking broad, punitive actions that would break their trade truce, they still are blacklisting individual companies and banning specific products.

    “What we’ve seen is kind of testing and probing by both sides to understand what can be done competitively, while still keeping that leader-level rapprochement on track,” said Mira Rapp-Hooper, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Asia Policy Studies.

    The U.S. has recently targeted Chinese telecommunications and surveillance equipment, companies accused of using forced labor in the ethnic region of Xinjiang, as well as China’s advanced robots and drones. The Pentagon also has barred Alibaba, BYD, Baidu, and other major Chinese businesses from receiving U.S. defense contracts.

    Beijing responded with export controls on drones and related technologies as well as blacklisting six U.S. companies over their support for the punitive measures tied to Xinjiang.

    Iran, Taiwan and tariffs are persistent issues

    After the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs on trade partners this year, the administration has been trying to impose them in other ways.

    The White House in July rolled out a 12.5% tariff on imports from 60 trading partners, including China, ostensibly for failing to do enough to prevent the import of goods produced by forced labor. The U.S. is planning an additional 7.5% tariff on China, accusing it of producing far more goods than it can reasonably consume.

    Analysts say the tariff levels are now acceptable to both sides, but any significant uptick could rekindle tensions.

    The Trump administration, however, has launched a campaign to isolate Iran from its remaining economic partners, but Beijing has insisted on its right to trade with Tehran.

    So far, the Trump administration has done little to punish China, partly to avoid jeopardizing the leaders’ summit. But Washington also is losing leverage because China — Iran’s biggest oil buyer and its largest trading partner — has been building up a way to make payments outside the U.S.-led financial system, said Alicia Garcia Herrero, an Asia-Pacific economist at the French investment bank Natixis.

    Taiwan, a self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own territory, also remains one of the thorniest issues in U.S.-China relations. Trump paused a large weapons package to Taiwan following his May trip to Beijing, but the U.S. is obligated by a domestic law to provide it with sufficient hardware and technology for self-defense.

    Analysts say Xi will most likely press Trump to further delay arms sales to sow doubts in Taiwan about Washington’s commitment.

  • Viral video of LeBron James missing jumpers in an open gym sparks debate online

    Viral video of LeBron James missing jumpers in an open gym sparks debate online

    All eyes are on LeBron James … at all times.

    On Tuesday morning, a minute-long video of James, who signed with the 76ers over the summer, missing jumpers at an open run in California started going viral on X.

    The original YouTube video the clips were taken from is over an hour long, sparking backlash from James’ loyal fans and other X users.

    One account responded to the post saying “The fact that people spend their time making a missed shot lowlight reel just confirms he’s the Greatest Ever.” Others pointed out that in the full video, James goes 11-for-19 and accused fellow users of “nitpicking” as a way to generate clicks and popularity for their posts.

    A user posted a second compilation with videos of James’ jumpers, most of which are from beyond the three-point line at Crespi Carmelite High School in Encino, Calif.

    In response to the highlight video, a user pointed out that the prevalence of smartphones with cameras has placed all athletes in a position to be recorded and painted in a certain light at any time.

    Others said it seems no athlete is more scrutinized than James, who one user said has workouts that are analyzed more than some players’ playoff performances.

    Most of the users who were defending James and not following for what they referred to as “clickbait,” agreed, that at 41 years old and as the current oldest player in the NBA, James is faring a lot better than many athletes his age, and fans are excited to see what his 24th season will hold.

    And one thing they know for certain is that more James scrutiny is soon to come.

  • A gated community of 140 townhouses is proposed near Packer Park

    A gated community of 140 townhouses is proposed near Packer Park

    A former Philadelphia Housing Authority warehouse site at 3100 Penrose Ferry Rd. is set to be transformed into a gated community with 140 townhouses, just to the northwest of FDR Park.

    The proposal comes from Philadelphia-based Trove Capital, which bought the site from the housing authority in June for $8.5 million.

    The townhomes will be built in 28 clusters of three to seven units across the site, with each home coming with two parking spaces. The site will have an additional 141 surface parking spaces.

    The developer, Justin Vesey, calls the development Southpointe. It will also have a playground, dog park, and pickleball and basketball courts.

    A development package presented to the city describes the project as “a cohesive contemporary neighborhood with a pedestrian-scaled character.”

    The development is similar to nearby auto-oriented townhouse developments, like Packer Park, the Reserve at Packer Park, and Siena Place.

    “It fits within the character and context” of neighboring developments, said Ron Patterson, a zoning attorney with Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg, who represents the developer. “It’s all in keeping with the rhythm.”

    The project does not need permission to move forward from the zoning board, but it will be presented to the advisory-only Civic Design Review board on Oct. 6.

    A rendering from within the heart of the new Packer Park-adjacent development.M ARCHITECTS

    Vesey’s development team, which includes Philadelphia-based M Architects, has the support of the Packer Park Civic Association.

    “It fits in well,” said Barbara Capozzi, head of the Packer Park group. “It’s a very tough crowd down here, but they were satisfied. They signed off on it. Everybody’s fine.”

    An earlier version of the project was slightly larger, at 152 townhouses, but the developer scaled it down to widen the sidewalks and add more open space in response to feedback from the city Planning Commission.

    Patterson says some site environmental cleanup is still required, along with the demolition of the former housing authority warehouses.

    “We would like to demolish the buildings while the weather is still good,” said Patterson, who hopes to begin right after the Civic Design Review meeting.

  • Neil Pierre could be on the cusp of his next star turn as he heads to his first USMNT camp

    Neil Pierre could be on the cusp of his next star turn as he heads to his first USMNT camp

    Most of Neil Pierre’s rapid rise this summer has been watched by a mix of Union fans who’ve enjoyed the team’s turnaround since the World Cup, and soccer savants intrigued by a new big-time prospect.

    However, that is about to change, potentially forever. Such is the power of being part of the senior U.S. national team for the first time.

    “The biggest thing is, just, you’re representing the whole country,” Pierre said in a meeting with the media from U.S. Soccer’s national training center in suburban Atlanta on Tuesday. “It’s definitely another level from representing Philadelphia to everyone in the States. … You’re representing everyone that doesn’t get seen, and trying to represent the good and not the bad.”

    Before Auston Trusty scored a World Cup goal, he ‘put the work in’ at Penncrest High and Nether United

    Understandably, Cavan Sullivan is getting the most hype of the trio of young Union stars on the latest roster. But that doesn’t mean the other two aren’t getting any. Pierre and Frankie Westfield will get their due over the course of the FIFA window that runs from this week through Oct. 6.

    He admitted to being “a little nervous coming in here — these players, I’ve watched growing up a little bit, and in the World Cup.”

    But as so often happens when the national team has a new generation, there was a warm welcome for a player who has featured for U.S. youth teams since 2022.

    For ‘brothers’ Cavan Sullivan, Frankie Westfield, and Neil Pierre, getting called up to the USMNT together is ‘another level’

    “The expectation they gave me was, enjoy, compete, and obviously it’s an honor to represent the crest,” Pierre said. “So do everything and show everything that was the reason why you’re coming here.”

    Or, as he put it more bluntly a moment later: “They tell me, like, ‘Yeah, great to meet you, but hey, you better show it on the field.’”

    Neil Pierre (left) on the ball during a Union game in July.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer

    Pierre has reached this point because of his strong play for the Union in recent months. He has featured in all 11 games of the club’s unbeaten run in regular-season play since the World Cup, with 10 starts, and is the squad’s top centerback in clearances, tackles, and blocked shots per 90 minutes.

    Along with that, he has shown the passing skills that had scouts raving when he was in the academy, and chipped in four goals on top of it all.

    Mauricio Pochettino’s opinion of Neil Pierre and Cavan Sullivan’s success this year

    But he reached that point because of what he did before the summer: a six-month loan to Danish club Lyngby, of which the Union own a piece.

    Going there was a key step in proving Pierre was ready for the physicality of MLS, which is a big step up from the reserve team level where the 6-foot-7 defender had been.

    “My loan in Denmark, I would say that was a very, very big part of my success this year, I think,” Pierre said. “Being away from home for the first time, seeing a whole different world, it was a good thing — it was kind of like, I would say, my college experience away from college, growing as a person. I think that also translated to [helping] on the field.”

    It’s a measure of Pierre’s maturity that he knew the significance of the “college experience” line, and that he’ll never have the real thing. That’s the way it is in the soccer world, as it has already been for so many Union players.

    The Union are changing the narrative around the fate of their season in real time

    There’s more symbolism in the fact that this squad also includes Auston Trusty, the first centerback to rise through the Union academy ranks to the pros. It would be quite a sight for Union fans if the Media native and Pierre share the field in one of the Americans’ four upcoming games.

    Trusty didn’t arrive in camp until Tuesday afternoon because of some personal commitments, so Pierre hadn’t gotten to meet him yet when he spoke. But Trusty needs no introduction to anyone who comes through the Union ranks. There are photos of him around the campus — no doubt a few more since this year’s World Cup — and he is on the board of the Union’s academy.

    Media native Auston Trusty (center) made his first World Cup squad this summer, and scored his first World Cup goal in the U.S.-Turkey group stage game.Mark J. Terrill

    “It will definitely be good meeting him,” Pierre said. “On the field, we’ll see how we play together and connect, and then obviously off the field, we’re going to have some banter and jokes about it.”

    In the meantime, Pierre was joined on the podium by another centerback from the World Cup team, Miles Robinson. The FC Cincinnati veteran has liked what he has seen.

    “Obviously, he’s a great player just to be here in the first place,” Robinson said while seated next to Pierre on the podium. “What I’ve seen so far, he’s obviously strong, a big force, he’s calm on the ball, technical. Just to see him at 18 years old in this game, in this camp, really proving himself day by day, is something to definitely admire and appreciate.”

    Follow the Inquirer’s complete coverage of Union soccer right here!
  • Clavicular, ‘looksmaxxing’ influencer, charged with raping a 17-year-old

    Clavicular, ‘looksmaxxing’ influencer, charged with raping a 17-year-old

    Clavicular, a male beauty influencer known for “looksmaxxing,” has been charged with giving a 17-year-old girl vodka on a livestream and then raping her, according to Massachusetts court records.

    Clavicular, whose legal name is Braden Peters, is scheduled for an Oct. 14 arraignment in Orleans District Court, on Cape Cod. The charges, filed Sept. 8, were first reported by the Bulwark.

    One of his lawyers, Jeff Neiman, said his client was innocent but declined to comment further. Mitchell Jackson, a spokesperson for Peters, said Peters had not been arrested. Efforts to reach Peters by call and text were unsuccessful.

    Peters, 20, who is known for his livestreams, is the face of an online subculture dedicated to improving male attractiveness. He compares himself with other men and assesses women’s looks on livestreams.

    The girl accused Peters of attacking her at a family home in Chatham, Mass., after he had streamed live on the internet, according to a police report filed in court. (The New York Times generally does not name people who report sexual assaults.)

    In May 2025, Peters served the girl “cups” of alcohol as he broadcast to the internet, the girl told investigators. He told her to lie on camera by saying that she was 18, according to the police report. After the livestream ended, Peters had sex with her several times, she told the police.

    She lacked the ability to consent, an investigator wrote. Peters was charged with rape, drugging for sex, and serving liquor to a minor.

    The police report, made in June, noted that the teenager “did not tell anyone the full extent of what occurred” for some time after the incident. In April, however, she sued Peters in Miami, making allegations similar to those in the police report.

    Peters had previously paid the girl, who herself was an influencer, to film “looksmaxxing” videos, and she had accepted his offer of a cab ride to the house in Cape Cod because she thought meeting him would boost her online presence, the lawsuit said. Peters’ mother and grandmother were at the house during the attack, the lawsuit says, claiming that his mother knew that excessive amounts of alcohol were being served.

    In addition to sexual assault, the girl’s lawsuit also accuses Peters of improperly injecting her face with a fat-dissolving drug on a livestream in Miami, which she said caused her emotional distress, and of later publicly discrediting her, costing her sponsorships.

    Peters’ lawyers have asked a judge to throw out portions of the suit. They said the girl did not demand legal redress for a sexual assault until three months after the case was originally filed.

    Andrew Moss, the girl’s lawyer, said Monday night that Peters was scheduled for a deposition in the case next week.

    Peters posted several times on the social platform X about the girl on Monday, when the Bulwark’s article on the charges was published. “Trying to get my attention in anyway possible, a lawsuit?” he said in one post. “Seriously… really petty of you.”

    Peters has found himself in legal trouble several times this year. In February, he was arrested in Scottsdale, Ariz., and charged with having fake identification, an Adderall pill, and an oral steroid. The charges were later dropped.

    The next month, Peters was arrested in Florida on accusations that he had arranged a brawl between two women. Prosecutors dropped those charges, too.

    And in May, a Florida judge sentenced him to six months of probation after he pleaded no contest in a case involving the shooting of a dead alligator in the Florida Everglades. The shooting was captured on a livestream.

    This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

  • N.J. sues Trump administration over offshore wind cancellations, $1.4B for fossil fuel projects

    N.J. sues Trump administration over offshore wind cancellations, $1.4B for fossil fuel projects

    New Jersey joined a coalition of states suing the Trump administration over its attempts to cancel two big offshore wind leases and pay the companies $1.4 billion to develop fossil fuel projects instead.

    “This administration is paying developers to abandon building new sources of energy at a time when our grid needs more power to meet demand and residents need relief from high electricity prices,” New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said in announcing the suit.

    New Jersey joined New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont in two suits filed Tuesday in U.S. District Courts in Maine and New York.

    The suits were filed by the states’ attorneys general against the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S. Department of Justice. The states claim that the settlements attempting to cancel two leases for major wind power projects offshore of New Jersey are illegal.

    The Trump administration is using a taxpayer-funded account meant to settle legal claims to pay for fossil fuel developments outside the states that had offshore wind projects planned, the suits state.

    Davenport said that Trump cannot redirect those funds simply “because he favors the fossil fuel industry.”

    At issue are offshore wind projects that were supposed to be built in the New York Bight, a section of ocean between Long Island and New Jersey, and projects that spanned other states.

    Ending leases

    The New York Bight, despite its name, is mostly off the New Jersey coast, stretching from Long Island to the Cape May inlet.

    The companies purchased the wind power leases in federal auctions held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) during the Biden administration. The BOEM manages any energy production in the Outer Continental Shelf several miles off the coast.

    Chicago-based Invenergy won thousands of acres of offshore wind leases through BOEM auctions in 2022 and 2024 in the New York Bight and the Gulf of Maine.

    It was part of what the Biden administration called the “nation’s highest-grossing competitive offshore energy lease sale in history.”

    Six companies bid record $4.3 billion for N.J. and N.Y. offshore wind energy leases

    The Invenergy leases were designed to produce around 5 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power about 2 million homes in New York, New Jersey, Maine, and Massachusetts.

    In New Jersey, the project was known as Leading Light Wind.

    In addition, Bluepoint Winds won a lease in 2022 in a project expected to generate 2.4 gigawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 1.5 million homes in New York and New Jersey.

    However, earlier this year, the Trump administration reached a settlement with Invenergy to end its offshore wind leases in exchange for $765 million in lease fee reimbursements, with the money going toward natural gas and geothermal projects.

    And it reached a settlement with Bluepoint Winds Holdings to invest up to $765 million into a U.S.-based liquefied natural gas facility. In return, the Department of the Interior said it would cancel the company’s offshore wind lease. Bluepoint Winds Holdings is jointly owned by OW North America LLC and Seaway Energy Holdings LP.

    The Department of the Interior sent a statement to The Inquirer on Tuesday saying that it does not comment on pending litigation.

    However, the statement said in reference to the lease cancellations that the “Department of War identified serious national security risks that demanded immediate attention — which critics conveniently ignore.”

    The statement called the agreements with Invenergy and Bluepoint “voluntary” and said they had been “reviewed and approved by the Department of Justice, underscoring that they went through the appropriate channels.”

    Davenport disputes the Trump administration’s claim that the contracts were canceled over national security issues, which she said have never been specified.

    “Any legitimate national security issues were already accounted for in the government’s original decision to award the leases and are routinely addressed through the federal permitting process that every offshore wind project must complete,” she said.

    The suits filed Tuesday ask the courts to strike down the settlements and restore the leases.

    The suits contend that the administration ignored federal procedure for canceling the leases, that it never held public hearings, that its actions were arbitrary and illegal, that it failed to complete an environmental-impact statement, and that money from the judgment fund cannot be used to pay the companies for their fossil fuel ventures.

    Unwinding offshore wind

    Separately, New Jersey and other states sued the Trump administration in June over cancellation of a $795 million offshore wind lease with Attentive Energy that also would have brought power to the state.

    The unwinding of New Jersey’s nascent offshore wind industry began rapidly when Trump took office in 2025 and began issuing executive orders that made exploring or building the renewable energy source untenable.

    Those included other big offshore wind projects such as those planned by Danish-run Orsted and Atlantic Shores, a partnership between Shell and EDF Renewables.

    On his first day in office, Trump issued a temporary ban on offshore wind, and within days he personally attacked New Jersey’s quest to build wind farms, calling it “a disaster” and saying he wanted the projects “dead and gone.”