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    Late Night Revels in Trump and Musk’s Public Feud

    Stephen Colbert indulged in schadenfreude as he described the back-and-forth as a “full-scale flame war” between “the world’s most famous besties.”Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.Up in FlamesPresident Donald Trump addressed Elon Musk’s comments about his policy bill on Thursday while appearing alongside the chancellor of Germany. Trump expressed disappointment in the Tesla chief, stating that Musk was upset about the absence of a mandate for electric vehicles.Stephen Colbert described the back-and-forth as a “full-scale flame war” between “the world’s most famous besties.”“So now Donald Trump is a Tesla owner who hates Elon Musk? He’s never been more relatable.” — STEPHEN COLBERTTrump stoked the flames on social media, writing that Musk “went crazy” when he was asked to leave the White House.“Just so we’re clear, Trump thinks everything Elon did before this was not crazy?” — JIMMY FALLON“I can’t believe their relationship fell apart this fast. I mean, a week ago they were all over each other like Timothée Chalamet and Kylie Jenner at a Knicks game.” — JIMMY FALLON“But Trump didn’t stop there. He also said that the easiest way for the country to save money would be to terminate all of Elon Musk’s government contracts. Smart, now the future of space exploration rests on Katy Perry.” — JIMMY FALLON“Elon’s government contracts can’t be worth that much. Oh, it’s $6.3 billion last year? Elon, you idiot. This is why you always sign a prenup.” — MICHAEL KOSTA“Meanwhile, Elon’s, like, ‘Come on, man, don’t do this. I have 100 kids to feed.’” — JIMMY FALLON“Trump said he’s very disappointed in Elon because he has ‘helped him a lot.’ Trump was, like, ‘[imitating Trump] Just last year, I let him give me $300 million, and he didn’t even say thank you.’” — JIMMY FALLONOn X, Musk dropped what he called “the really big bomb,” alleging that the president has not released the Jeffrey Epstein files because he is named in them.“I feel bad for Donald Trump. I mean, first, he lost Jeffrey Epstein, now, Elon. He’s running out of friends.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Trump’s going to have to get one of those bumper stickers for his Tesla that says ‘I bought this before Elon told everyone I was on Epstein’s plane.’” — STEPHEN COLBERTWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘And Just Like That …’ Season 3, Episode 2 Recap: Textual Relations

    Carrie’s long-distance “situationship” with Aidan becomes frustrating in ways she didn’t anticipate.Season 3, Episode 2: ‘The Rat Race’Here in the real world, it’s a common refrain from single people that dating apps are as tired as the tiramisu Seema’s date orders for her without asking. Everyone is sick of the swiping, the ghosting and the serial situationships. The virtual-first connections that seem essential to dating in 2025 have never played a major role in the “Sex and the City” franchise, mostly because the majority of this decades-spanning story has predated all that.But Carrie’s former neighbor Lisette (Katerina Tannenbaum) shows up at the beginning of Episode 2 to reflect that cultural shift, lamenting to Carrie that, as a single woman of today, she is mostly in a relationship with her phone. Turns out, throwing it across a room may be a more effective way of it helping you meet someone.Some of the characters, though, regardless of age, are no better than Lisette when it comes to phone addiction.Starting with our star, Carrie is in something of a love-hate relationship with texting Aidan. Now that Aidan has cracked the communication door ajar, Carrie feels slightly more empowered to reach out to her “boyfriend.” (I insist on putting that in quotes because while Carrie may use that word to refer to Aidan, at this point, I simply refuse.)First, Carrie drafts a long, meandering voice text to Aidan about a newly-discovered rat infestation in her garden, but she deletes it before sending. Considering Aidan’s request for no contact (or at least very limited contact), she determines it is best to leave him alone.But without any such regard for the rules he set himself, Aidan lights his no-contact contract on fire with a surprise appearance at Carrie’s Gramercy townhouse, to her delight.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Philippe Labro Dies at 88; Restless Chronicler of the French Condition

    As an author (often blurring the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction), a film director, a lyricist and a host of TV and radio shows, he sought to capture his epoch.Philippe Labro, a prolific journalist, author, movie director and songwriter whose lyrical prose, boundless curiosity and oft-repeated determination to “forage in deep waters” offered France a sweeping image of itself over several decades, died on Monday in Paris. He was 88.His death, in the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital, was caused by lymphoma of the brain, which was diagnosed in April, said Anne Boy, his longtime assistant. Mr. Labro lived in Paris.A restless spirit, notebook always at his side, convinced that journalism was an exercise in unrelenting observation, Mr. Labro pursued a lifelong quest to capture his epoch by any means. “He wrote our popular, French, and universal history,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a tribute on X, “from Algeria to America” and from Herman Melville to Johnny Hallyday, the French rock ’n’ roll superstar.In 24 books, including novels and essays; seven movies; lyrics to popular songs; and several television and radio shows, Mr. Labro probed the enigma of existence. No one medium sufficed. Truth, he believed, lurked between fact and fiction, and so he refused to be confined by one or the other. Quoting Einstein, he called life a “dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.” That piper was his muse.Mr. Labro arrived as a guest for an official state dinner with President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the first lady, Jill Biden, at the Élysée Palace in Paris in June 2024.Christophe Petit Tesson/EPA, via ShutterstockMr. Labro also liked Victor Hugo’s observation that “nothing is more imminent than the impossible.” He had good reason. It was in the United States, on Nov. 22, 1963, that Mr. Labro, then 27, achieved fame as the first French newspaper correspondent on the scene in the immediate aftermath of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    ‘Màkari’ Is a Sun-Dappled Italian Mystery

    Set in Sicily, this sumptuous series, based on books by Gaetano Savatteri, is like a leisurely day at the beach, but with murders.Domenico Centamore, left, and Claudio Gioè, in a scene from Season 3 of “Màkari.”MHz ChoiceOne of TV’s most reliable food groups is the light mystery set in a sumptuous locale populated by eccentric townspeople. The Italian series “Màkari” (in Italian, with subtitles) is a hearty serving, with plenty of Sicilian vistas and pastas to go around. Season 1 is available on Amazon, MHz Choice and the Roku Channel; Season 2 and the recently released Season 3 are on only MHz Choice.Our hero here is Saverio (Claudio Gioè), a former government employee who slinks from Rome back to Sicily, where he hopes to find enough inspiration to write his novel. Boy, does he! Mishaps and misdeeds abound, as does town gossip. Murder, he wrote, as people divulge all kinds of secrets. They occasionally balk at Saverio’s interview requests only to be won over by his earnest curiosity — or by his persuasive flattery. A character in a novel based on little old me? Well, now that you mention it. …The show is based on a series of books by Gaetano Savatteri and comes from some of the same writers as “Detective Montalbano,” which is also set in Sicily and has a similar aesthetic. Technically, Saverio is not a detective and thus does not have a partner. Practically, he totally is, and his partner is the excitable Peppe Piccionello (Domenico Centamore), who ropes him into schemes and side gigs and frequently offers philosophical musings and sauce-making guidance. Saverio also immediately strikes up a romance with a local waitress (Ester Pantano), though his reputation as a womanizer precedes him.“Màkari” is not quite as snappy as the Caribbean-set British procedural “Death in Paradise,” but it follows in that show’s sandy footsteps. As in “Paradise,” it’s best for both the show and the viewer not to dwell too much on the loss of human life but instead to revel in those gem-blue waters and clever deductions. “Màkari” has all the requisite real estate porn and some jazzy cars, too; every rock is sun-dappled, every table set with stylish yet unfussy serving ware. Let’s brainstorm theories of the crime while bobbing romantically in the ocean, why don’t we.There’s a languid ease to everything here, a comfy absence of real tension, and even the pace of the installments is relaxed. Although there are only four per season, each is just under two hours long, which can feel leisurely, a way to unlearn one’s internal “Law & Order” clock of when suspects should be confessing. More

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    ‘Love Island’ Contestant Yulissa Escobar Leaves Show After Racist Comments Surface

    Yulissa Escobar, 27, was abruptly dropped during Episode 2 after clips of her using a slur in a podcast were resurfaced. The season’s debut week also saw tech issues.“Love Island USA,” the reality dating show that sends singles to an island villa to pair up in hopes of winning a cash prize, is known and often appreciated for its messy plots onscreen. But this week, as Season 7 of the show premiered, most of the chaos took place offscreen. Some offscreen drama also reached the show’s predecessor, “Love Island UK.”Contestant Dismissed for Racial SlursFor starters, one of the contestants, Yulissa Escobar, was summarily dropped from the show after video recordings of her repeatedly using a racial slur in a podcast interview were dug up by online sleuths and then reported by TMZ.The clips created an uproar among fans online before the premiere on Tuesday, but the series is aired with a one- or two-day delay, and Escobar, a 27-year-old Cuban American from Miami, still appeared in the first episode.Before the premiere, fans were vowing on X and TikTok to vote Escobar off the show as soon as they had the opportunity. On the first night of the show, Escobar was also criticized by some viewers for wearing an outfit that they deemed appropriative of Chinese culture and using chopsticks to pin up her hair. At about the 18-minute mark of the second episode, which was shown on Wednesday, the narrator, Iain Stirling, abruptly announced that “Yulissa has left the villa.” She had been paired with Ace Greene, and later in the episode Stirling noted that Greene was single.Escobar could not immediately be reached for comment. Ryan McCormick, a spokesman for Peacock, which streams the show, declined to comment on why the producers had removed her.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Another ‘Gomorrah’ TV Series About the Mob? Some in Naples Say, ‘Basta.’

    With another “Gomorrah” spinoff being filmed, some Neapolitans say they’re fed up with all the shows portraying the “malavita,” or the lawless life. “Why must only bad things be said about us?”A banner fluttered in March over a narrow alley in Naples crammed with tourist shops selling Nativity figurines. Naples, it proclaimed, “doesn’t support you anymore.”The “you” is the wildly successful Italian television crime drama “Gomorrah,” which days earlier had begun filming a prequel — “Gomorrah: Origins” — in the city’s gritty Spanish Quarter, tracing the 1970s roots of the show’s leading Camorra crime syndicate clan.Perhaps no modern pop culture reference has clung more stubbornly to Naples, Italy’s third-largest city, than “Gomorrah,” the title of Roberto Saviano’s 2006 nonfiction best seller about the Neapolitan mafia. A critically acclaimed movie followed in 2008, and the TV series premiered in 2014 and ran for five seasons. Two more movies debuted in 2019: “The Immortal,” a spinoff, and “Piranhas,” based on a Saviano novel about crime bosses as young as 15. And now there’s “Origins.”So excuse some Neapolitans if they say they’ve had enough.“They filmed the first one, they filmed the second one,” said Gennaro Di Virgilio, the fourth-generation owner of an artisanal Nativity shop. “Basta.”Once too dangerous and corrupt to attract many foreigners, Naples has been in the thrall of a tourism boom for years. Social media has lured visitors to the city’s history, food and sunshine, helping Naples shake off some of its seedy reputation, though youth unemployment and crime remain stubbornly high.But the city keeps getting typecast, some Neapolitans say, as Gomorrah, reducing its residents to those engaged in the “malavita,” the lawless life.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Stephen Colbert Wonders if Elon Musk’s Ketamine Has Worn Off

    It’s the only explanation the “Late Show” host can think of for the tech mogul’s apparent disenchantment with the Trump administration.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.‘I Have How Many Children?’The hosts got more monologue material on Wednesday from the presumed tensions between President Trump and Elon Musk, after the tech mogul and recently departed D.O.G.E. chief criticized Trump’s policy bill.“Apparently, the ketamine has worn off,” Stephen Colbert said.“That’s got to be a hell of a hangover. ‘[imitating Musk] Oh, my god. I spent $300 million to elect who? I have how many children? That can’t be their names.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT“I’m starting to worry that two narcissistic megalomaniacs with a total inability to see value in other humans might have a hard time making friends.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Musk was reportedly ‘butthurt’ — and yes, they did use that word, it is a quote — about some of the stuff that’s in the bill. Usually when Elon’s butt hurts, it’s because of all the drugs he is trying to smuggle through White House security.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“I keep waiting to see Musk on a one-way SpaceX to El Salvador.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“‘I hear he is furious’ is the safest bet anyone could make when describing Donald Trump’s reaction to criticism. Let me know when someone says, ‘Insiders reporting that Donald Trump looking inward; reflecting on what role he may have played in turning his friend against him.’” — SETH MEYERSThe Punchiest Punchlines (The Fine Print Edition)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Alf Clausen, Who Gave ‘The Simpsons’ Its Musical Identity, Dies at 84

    He created the music for hundreds of episodes over 27 seasons, spanning jazz, rock, blues and musicals. He won two Emmys and was nominated for 28 more.Alf Clausen, a composer and arranger whose songs, interludes and closing credits for hundreds of episodes of “The Simpsons” were so central to the animated sitcom’s success that its creator, Matt Groening, often called him the show’s “secret weapon,” died on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84.His daughter, Kaarin Clausen, said the cause was progressive supranuclear palsy, a brain disorder similar to Parkinson’s disease.Mr. Clausen worked on every episode of “The Simpsons” across 27 seasons, from 1990 to 2017.He did not compose the show’s memorable opening theme — that was Danny Elfman — but he was responsible for everything else, including classic musical numbers like “Who Needs the Kwik-E Mart,” “We Do (The Stonecutters’ Song),” “We Put the Spring in Springfield” and “You’re Checking In.”Mr. Clausen won Emmys for the last two songs, in 1997 and 1998. He was nominated for 19 more awards for “The Simpsons,” and was nominated nine other times for earlier work.When Mr. Groening first approached Mr. Clausen to work on the show, he demurred. He wanted to work on dramas; cartoons and comedy did not interest him.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More