Democrat Nithya Raman has overtaken Republican Spencer Pratt to secure second place in the primary race for Los Angeles’ next mayor.

After the latest round of ballots were counted on the evening of Sunday, June 7, the Los Angeles City Council member, 44, leapfrogged Pratt, 42, to sit just behind incumbent Karen Bass. Prior to Sunday’s count, Raman had been trailing behind the Hills alum by a considerable margin.

Raman currently holds 27.12% of the vote at the time of publication, compared to Pratt who holds 26.69%. Bass, 72, is meanwhile holding strong with 34.68% of the vote. (The results have already cemented Bass’ place in the November runoff for L.A. mayor.)

While Pratt looked likely to advance his bid, finishing in third place would knock him out of November’s showdown.

Spencer Pratt Claps Back at L.A. Mayoral Race Opponent Over Divisive Ad

Raman exclusively told Us Weekly on April 30, via a “Nithya for Mayor” spokesperson, that she condemned Pratt for filming part of his own campaign outside her home.

“Filming outside my home, where I live with my young children, feels unnecessary and reckless,” the spokesperson said at the time. Pratt’s campaign included an advertisement that saw him visit the homes of both Raman and Bass to provide insight into each candidate’s unique living situations. (Pratt and his wife, Heidi Montag, have lived in a trailer with their two children since losing their home in the 2025 Palisades wildfires.)

Pratt had declared in the controversial ad, “This is where Mayor Bass lives. Notice something? Or here, where Nithya Raman’s $3 million mansion sits? They don’t have to live in the mess they’ve created.”

In a June 2 primary, Bass advanced to November’s general election. While Bass has refrained from publicly commenting too much on Pratt, she did comment on Raman during a Politico event in May. “I question her ability to lead the city when she struggles being a member of the city council,” Bass said at the time.

Pratt announced his candidacy one year after his family lost their home in the wildfires.

“The system in Los Angeles isn’t struggling; it’s fundamentally broken,” Pratt declared during the “They Let Us Burn” public demonstration that announced the campaign. “It is a machine designed to protect the people at the top and the friends they exchange favors with while the rest of us drown in toxic smoke and ash. Business as usual is a death sentence for Los Angeles, and I’m done waiting for someone to take real action.”

He exclusively told Us Weekly in a May 27 cover story that he had never predicted he would be running for mayor.

“I truly never imagined I would actually, probably [become] the mayor,” he said. “I just wanted somebody to [tell] the truth, and I wanted to have that platform as a candidate against [Bass] to get the truth,” he said at the time.

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Jacobs will remain in his role as creative director.

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President Trump's $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund established by the Department of Justice has hit a setback. The DOJ said Monday they will abide by a court ruling temporarily pausing payouts that could have gone to Jan. 6 defendants and other Trump supporters. This comes amid political pressure from Republicans who are upset about the fund. Liz Landers joins Geoff Bennett to discuss.

Homing in on stocks at the heart of Europe’s electrification push has helped a Jupiter Asset Management fund team outperform 92% of its peers this year.

Magnetic fields are a fundamental part of the universe. They govern how small particles – the building blocks of planets, stars, and ultimately galaxies – move through space.

We still don’t know how magnetic fields came to exist in the universe, but we do know they’re everywhere. Earth itself has a magnetic field that compasses and migrating birds respond to.

With radio telescopes, astronomers can use the light from distant galaxies to illuminate these otherwise invisible areas in space.

In our study, published today in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, we’ve used Australia’s most powerful radio telescope to create the largest and most detailed map of cosmic magnetic fields ever made.

Giant batteries that control galaxies

Magnetic fields greatly vary across the universe. Extremely dense objects, such as neutron stars and black holes, have magnetic fields thousands of billions times stronger than Earth’s own.

In the space between stars we’ve also measured magnetic fields a million times weaker than Earth’s. Despite their weakness, we know these fields are incredibly important for controlling how galaxies evolve. They act like giant batteries and store huge amounts of energy, slowing down or even preventing the formation of new stars.

But to us, magnetic fields are invisible. To find them in space, astronomers are limited to using light from distant stars and galaxies. That’s because light is a wave of electric and magnetic fields (that’s where the “electromagnetic spectrum” gets its name).

As light travels across the universe, it interacts with any magnetic fields it passes through. This will twist the direction the light is waving – we call this “polarisation”. So, light waving up and down has a different polarisation to light waving side to side.

Astronomers can catch this polarisation, especially when looking at the sky in radio waves, which are part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Seeing the invisible

Australian telescopes have been at the forefront of both radio astronomy and detecting magnetic fields since their first detection. Murriyang, CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope, was the first to detect the twisting polarisation of light from magnetic fields beyond Earth in 1962.

Ever since, astronomers have been pushing to find more and more sources that show us this twisting light. With enough measurements, we can create a map of magnetic fields in the universe.

Each point in the map is an object detected by our telescope, and the object’s light has illuminated the magnetic fields between us and that distant source. The more sources we detect, the more detailed our map becomes.

The last large map of magnetic fields was made in 2009. It has not seen a true successor in the intervening 17 years, limiting the depth and scope of the inquiries astronomers have sought to answer.

Across different areas of the universe, including our own Milky Way galaxy, we’re yet to understand the full strength and structure of cosmic magnetic fields. Not only do we not know how they came to exist, we don’t know how they’ve changed across time since the Big Bang.

To begin solving these problems, we need a new class of radio telescope.

A telescope built for speed

Radio astronomy is currently undergoing a revolution as the SKA Observatory is being built in South Africa and Australia. In preparation, a generation of telescopes, known as SKA precursors and pathfinders, are already operating around the world.

The ASKAP radio telescope is one of these precursors. Located at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory on Wajarri Yamaji Country in Western Australia, it’s made up of 36 12-metre dishes. These dishes can each see a huge section of the sky at once, giving astronomers an ultrawide view of the universe.

The flagship project to make a map of the universe’s magnetic fields is known as the Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe’s Magnetism (POSSUM).

In preparation for it, the telescope’s team produced the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Surveys (RACS). It’s like making an atlas of the universe. The most recent versions of these surveys have identified nearly 4 million distant galaxies, with about 2 million having never been seen before.

The magnetic sky

Our new map, called SPICE-RACS, has come from a collaboration between the two survey teams.

Our goal was to look towards every galaxy found by RACS, and observe the signs of changing polarisation caused by magnetic fields. Using the latest release of the survey, we found 350,000 galaxies of the original 4 million we could use for this.

Our collection of sources is nearly ten times larger than the previous largest, and five times larger than all observations ever combined together. As a result, we’ve obtained the largest and most detailed map to date.

The map has red colours showing magnetic fields pointing towards us, and blue pointing away, like the North and South of a compass. Most of the swirling and bubbly structure we can see is from our own Milky Way galaxy. In the fine details of the map are the signatures from even more distant parts of the universe.

The new map is already enabling new science around the world, and the data is publicly available to the research community online. In the future, we plan to combine all versions of RACS to create an even larger and more detailed map.

Meanwhile, the POSSUM project is expected to finish observations by 2030. The sharper magnetic map from this survey will open up a new window on distant cosmic magnetic fields, allowing us to see further back into the history of the universe.

Alec Thomson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth urged European leaders on Saturday to remain vigilant against the threat of what he described as “dangerous ideologies” coming to the continent, invoking the lessons of D-Day to warn about modern-day immigration.    “In the years since these beaches, much of the West, in some places, in some quarters, and in...

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is seemingly weighing in on the controversy surrounding the firing of 60 Minutes veteran Scott Pelley.

“One of the reasons why trust in media is so low is because many legacy journalists are completely out of touch,” Carr, who has served as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission since 2025, wrote via X on Sunday, June 7. The post was shared one day after Pelley, 68, conducted his first sit-down interview since he was let go from the CBS news program.

“You could not get away with that behavior at any run of the mill job. It is revealing to see how blind some are to that,” Carr, 47, concluded.

On Saturday, June 6, The New York Times published video footage and an article stemming from Pelley’s interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro. The interview deep-dived into Pelley’s recent termination from 60 Minutes at the hands of its new executive producer, Nick Bilton, after Pelley was critical of Bilton, 49, and CBS News’ editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, who joined the network in October.

‘60 Minutes’ Correspondents Confirm Their Future After Scott Pelley Firing

The Times’ interview saw Pelley, who had worked across the network in various roles for the past 37 years, discuss his perspective on the state of operations at the network and its parent company, Paramount.

“My hope is that the leadership at Paramount will say to themselves, ‘OK, this isn’t working. We have respected journalists saying that there is a thumb on the scale of one political party over another,” Pelley told Garcia-Navarro, 56. “There’s a subtle political bias that I’ve never seen.”

Us Weekly confirmed on Tuesday, June 2, that Pelley’s contract with the network had been terminated. The shock exit came on the back of a verbal confrontation that involved additional staff and Bilton. In a memo to Pelley following the confrontation, Bilton labeled Pelley’s words as an “ambush.”

In response to his firing, Pelley released a statement that reflected on his time with the network.

“I depart after 37 years at CBS with one emotion — a heart brimming with gratitude for the men and women of CBS News who encouraged and enriched my work, very often at the risk of their own lives,” the statement read. “I pray for a day when those people and their ideals are honored again — a day when sanity, competence and courage return.”

In the days that followed, a source exclusively told Us Weekly that “morale is terrible” at CBS following the heated behind-the-scenes clash and Pelley’s dismissal.

“No one knows what to believe or who is working against them. It has never been like this before,” the insider told Us. “The staff in the newsroom all feel like they cannot trust anyone. How can you work like that?”

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The Trump administration’s nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is effectively dead, the Justice Department (DOJ) told a federal court on Friday, while also asking it to reject a challenge brought by a former federal prosecutor and several others. Two DOJ attorneys wrote in a filing in the Eastern District of Virginia that the compensation fund...

The U.S. House on Wednesday voted to limit President Trump from further military action in Iran. One of the Republicans who voted for that resolution is Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania. He joins Amna Nawaz to discuss his vote and a recent proposal to spend nearly $2 billion for a so-called "anti-weaponization" fund.

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The Broadway revival of Chess will close earlier than scheduled.

According to a report by Variety, published on Tuesday, May 26, the show will see curtains fall for good on June 21 when its star, Lea Michele, was already confirmed to be departing the production.

The news comes after the Cold War musical, which debuted in London’s West End in May 1986, failed to garner a 2026 Tony Award nomination in the category of Best Performance by an Actress in Leading Role in a Musical despite widespread acclaim directed at Michele, 39.

The snub came amid the production attracting five 2026 Tony Award nominations in other categories: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for Michele’s costar Nicholas Christopher’s work, Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role for Bryce Pinkham’s work, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role for Hannah Cruz’s work, Best Orchestrations and Best Lighting Design of a Musical.

Lea Michele's Son Ever, 2, Hospitalized for 'Scary Health Issue'

The original plan for Chess was for Michele to be replaced by Joanna “Jojo” Levesque in the role of Florence Vassy as the production ran until “at least September,” per the outlet.

It also noted that Chess has “struggled to maintain momentum, with attendance dropping to roughly 70% capacity in recent weeks.” Michele’s leading costar Aaron Tveit was also snubbed in May when the 2026 Tony Awards nominations were announced.

Chess producers Tom Hulce and Robert Ahrens, as well as The Shubert Organization, Broadway’s oldest professional theatre company, shared a statement on the show’s closing with the outlet. “To see longtime fans and first-time audiences alike embrace this production so wholeheartedly has been incredibly rewarding for everyone involved and a powerful reminder of why Chess has endured for so many years,” the statement read. “Bringing Chess back to Broadway for the first time in nearly 40 years has been an enormous privilege, and we are extremely proud of everything this production accomplished during its historic Broadway run.”

Lea Michele Through the Years: From ‘Glee’ Star to 'Funny Girl' Lead

Michele spoke to Us Weekly in July 2025 about starring in Chess, her sixth Broadway show, while raising a young family. The actress shares two children with husband Zandy Reich: son Ever, 5, and daughter Emery, 21 months.

“I’m constantly learning and growing and asking advice from moms around me, working mothers, like, ‘How do you do this?’ and, ‘How do you balance it all?’” the Glee alum told Us at the time. “[I’m] really trying to prepare my family as best I can for me approaching my work and keep myself as present as possible when I’m home with my family, and then as present as I can be when I’m at work.”

She continued, “It’s not about perfection, it’s about being present. That’s what I just try to remember as much as I can.”

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Fast food chain Steak 'n Shake is touting its political prowess after the Republican candidate it endorsed for Iowa governor defeated a challenger backed by President Trump. The restaurant posted on social platform X that it is "100% in political predictions, just like we are serving 100% grass-fed Steakburgers and 100% beef tallow fries. We...