The Olympic flag arrived under bright skies Monday in Los Angeles, where officials now have four short years to organize a Games capable of rivaling the widely praised Paris edition in a notoriously traffic-clogged metropolis. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass landed in a plane emblazoned with palm trees and the logo "LA 2028," and crossed the tarmac holding the five-ringed banner, accompanied by several US athletes. "We feel the pressure to make sure that our city and our region is prepared and ready," she told reporters.
"We have the flag now. It's on us. We got a lot of work to do Los Angeles," Bass added.
A timely reminder of potential unique challenges came moments before her plane landed, as a 4.6-magnitude earthquake shook Los Angeles. "Making sure that we are prepared for events like an earthquake" will be key to infrastructure plans, she said.
"But also now we have climate events that we never thought about impacting our region, that we have to be prepared for as well." Still, the biggest challenge will inevitably be transport. In Paris for the closing ceremony last weekend, Bass outlined plans for Los Angeles to deliver a "no-car Games.
" In a city addicted to private vehicles, where gigantic freeways criss-cross the urban sprawl and traffic jams are a daily inevitability, that pledge is ambitious. "I'm skeptical we'll actually achieve that, but I know we're going to try," said James Moore, an industrial and systems engineering professor at University of Southern California . - 'Out of town' - Los Angeles does have a subway network, but at just five-and-a-half lines and relatively infrequent service, it is tiny for the region's 10 million residents.
Authorities plan to bring in 3,000 buses, borrowed from all over the country, and to create dedicated road lanes for them. Public transport will receive priority over private cars, which will not be banned. Not all Olympic sites are expected to have parking.
The last time Los Angeles hosted the Olympics , in 1984, many residents left the city, averting a traffic nightmare. "If we see residents following the same strategy in 2028 and basically getting out of town for a few days, that may free up enough road space that we're able to move everybody with buses," said Moore. The city's giant main airport, infamous for its accessibility issues, will -- at least -- finally be connected to the metro train network.
An automated shuttle, long in the works, is due to open by 2026, when Los Angeles will host the opening match of the soccer World Cup. - Hollywood, homelessness - Los Angeles is counting heavily on its reputation as the world's movies and entertainment capital. In a "handover" segment of the Paris closing ceremony, Tom Cruise parachuted with the Olympic flag into Los Angeles near the famous Hollywood sign, which he then redecorated with the Olympic logo.
Los Angeles is also a US sporting powerhouse, with numerous major teams and state-of-the-art stadiums. "What's not in our DNA? We're creative, we're storytellers. We've got sport, we've got diversity.
It's LA," Reynold Hoover, CEO of the 2028 organizing committee, told AFP. But beneath the Hollywood glitz, Los Angeles has an enormous homelessness crisis. Some 75,000 people lack housing, in a city where real estate is eye-wateringly expensive.
Since arriving at City Hall, Bass has made this long standing issue a priority. A vast shelter program has recently shown signs of progress. The total number of homeless people fell slightly in 2024, for the first time in six years.
"The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart issued a searing takedown of recent comments from former President Donald Trump , even dropping a profanity as he recounted the MAGA leader's helicopter tale. The comedian kicked off his Monday night show by slamming the highly-anticipated — and widely panned — interview between tech billionaire Elon Musk and a slurring former President Donald Trump , sarcastically calling it an "amazing and surprisingly life-affirming conversation." Stewart jabbed Trump and Musk's rambling conversation — which already started 40 minutes late due to technical issues — joking that his favorite part was when the two traded their favorite Maya Angelou passages.
"My interpretation of the Caged Burd is singing for Bitcoin," he joked, referencing the poet's famous autobiography "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings." After slamming Trump's "smart choice" of a running mate, Stewart poked the MAGA leader for essentially having to "start all over" with his attacks, now that President Joe Biden is out of the race. ALSO READ: Trump's insatiable ego is destroying the former president "The audience literally has to sit through him getting up to speed," chided Stewart.
The show played a montage of Trump mispronouncing — and deliberately mistyping — "Kamala," as Stewart retorted: "I get 'Kuh-mala.' I get 'Kah-mala.' But 'Kamabla?'" "Judges: are we taking 'Kamabla?'" he asks, answered by a buzzer noise.
Stewart took a moment to mock Trump's comments during an interview with the National Association of Black Journalists, in which he questioned Harris' racial identity . "'What am I going to do with all the Indian ethnic slurs I was going to use?'" Stewart asks, imitating Trump's speech and hand gestures. "It mostly involved turmeric and cumin.
And she made a turn into Black.'" The comedian then laid into Trump's story that he nearly died in a helicopter crash with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. After mocking the former president for claiming that as the chopper was going down — in 1990 — Brown turned to him and started bashing Harris, Stewart and his show delivered a haymaker, playing a clip of Brown suggesting its possible Trump was actually with another Black man — and made a mistake.
"That is so f---ed up! I'm sure that is not what happened," Stewart shouted. "What are the chances Trump is just mixing up his Black people?" He then played a clip of an MSNBC host confirming it was former Los Angeles area lawmaker Nate Holden, who is also Black, confirming it was he who was actually in the helicopter. "Oh my god!" Stewart says in disbelief.
"Do you know what this means? Nate Holden, former Los Angeles city council member, told Donald Trump as their helicopter was going down bad things about Kamala Harris ! That I guess Willie Brown had told him — if they knew each other!" "That is the only explanation, right?" jabbed Stewart. Watch the clip below or at this link. Donald Trump is using suits with heavily padded shoulders to hide his weight — but it isn’t working, according to a menswear expert.
Derek Guy , who analyzes men's fashion for national media outlets, wrote in a thread on X that Trump’s “tailoring is done in a way to conceal his weight,” and the padded shoulders are meant to turn his rectangular figure into more of a classical V-shape. “However, you can only extend the shoulder so much before it starts to collapse,” Guy writes. “Think of what would happen if you extended the shoulder line on a t-shirt or dress shirt—it would just flop on you.
” ALSO READ: Trump's insatiable ego is destroying the former president Guy shared a photo of Trump’s shoulder pads caving in on itself when the Republican presidential nominee sits down. “The downside of a heavily padded, extended shoulder is that artifice is revealed when you sit like this. Not much you can do about this,” Guy writes.
“Padded coats look great when you're standing still, but they can look artificial when you move or sit when your shoulders pitched forward.” Trump would be better suited in a softer sloping shoulder, Guy suggests, comparing the former president’s body type to a bottle of Palmolive. Former President Donald Trump's rambling interview with Elon Musk touched on climate change, border security, foreign dictators and inflation.
But it was his apparent appreciation of "beautiful" Kamala Harris — and his comparison to his wife, Melania Trump — that left the internet with raised eyebrows. During Trump's interview on X with tech billionaire Musk , the MAGA leader said his Democratic rival has received a "free ride" from the media so far. "But I saw a picture of her on Time magazine today, she looks like the most beautiful actress ever to live," Trump said.
"It was a drawing. And actually she looked very much like a great first lady: Melania. She didn't look like Camilla.
That's right. But of course she's a beautiful woman. So we'll leave it at that.
" The comment left the internet collectively cringed at the comment, including journalist Aaron Rupar, who called the recording " weird stuff !" "I KNEW IT. His brain is short-circuiting because she is attractive AND formidable. lol he is toast," chided former FBI special agent and legal contributer Asha Rangappa.
ALSO READ: Trump’s smear job climaxed prematurely — and now he’s stuck She added that Trump "recognizes and is slightly scared of — and in a weird way, craves the approval of — strong, intelligent women," such as his former Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi . "Some Mommy issues going on there," she added, noting that Trump equates attractive women with "' dumb' or weak ," so he can "sexualize and exploit and dismiss." "This is the point of the call where I say, 'Well, it's been great catching up grandpa , but I've got to go,' quipped Kelsie Taggart, digital media director at the left-leaning American Bridge PAC.
"Donald Trump mentions this Time magazine cover, says Kamala Harris looks like an actress in the illustration and then says she looks like ...
his wife, Melania Trump . ???" questioned Christopher Cadelago, Politico's California bureau chief, wrote on X, attaching a photo of the image. " What?? " questioned the Never-Trump account Republicans against Trump.
"Trump basically just said the drawing of Kamala on time magazine was hot and compared it to his wife Melania lol," laughed Jessica Burbank, of the More Perfect Union podcast..
