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After a montage of headlines about the sparring siblings was capped with the words “the guns have fallen silent,” Oasis appeared on stage to a deafening roar, opening with the apt “Hello” and its refrain of “it’s good to be back.”

The brothers had a brief hand-in-hand moment but largely kept their distance onstage. Noel, 58, focused on his guitar while a parka-clad Liam, 52, snarled into the microphone with a swagger that has not dimmed in the three decades since the band released its first album, “Definitely Maybe.”

A crowd of more than 60,000 in the Principality Stadium was treated to a well-paced two-hour set that drew heavily on the first album and its 1995 follow-up, “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory,” alongside a smattering of later tracks and fan-favorite B-sides.

Song like “Supersonic,” “Roll With It” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Star” sounded as thunderous as ever and sparked mass sing-alongs.

“Turn around,” a tambourine-clutching Liam exhorted the crowd before launching into “Cigarettes and Alcohol,” another classic. “Put your arms over each other like you love each other.”

There was poignancy on “Live Forever” when an image of Liverpool Football Club player Diogo Jota, who was killed in a car crash on Thursday, was projected above the band.

Noel took his turn on lead vocals for several songs, including the touching “Half the World Away,” and the show ended with encores featuring some of Oasis’ most enduring tracks: “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” “Wonderwall” and “Champagne Supernova.”

Multicolored, sometimes faintly psychedelic projections formed the main technological accoutrement to a show where the focus was squarely on the songs. There was little banter, though Liam paused between songs to check the audience was having a good time.

“Was it worth the 40,000 pounds you paid for the ticket?” he asked at one point, referring to the scramble for seats that saw some fans pay hundreds to see a show.

‘Very, very special’

The show in Cardiff kicked off a 19-date Live ’25 tour in the U.K. and Ireland. Then come stops in North America, South America, Asia and Australia, ending in Sao Paulo on Nov. 23.

Before the show, the streets around the stadium filled with fans who gathered in groups to sing along to the band’s hits and snapped up Oasis-branded bucket hats at 35 pounds ($48) each.

“It’s very, very special — emotional,” said 44-year old Rob Maule from Edinburgh, Scotland. “I’m here with three of my friends, childhood friends, and we used to see Oasis across the country.

“For us, it’s a generational thing. It’s a chapter of our lives,” he said. “And then the second generation, as people are taking their kids. It’s really special.”

Vicki Moynehan came from Dorchester, in southwest England. She said her life has changed since she bought her ticket almost a year ago.

“Seven months pregnant — ain’t gonna stop me,” she said.

Sing-along rock choruses

Founded in the working-class streets of Manchester, England, in 1991, Oasis was one of the dominant British acts of the 1990s, releasing eight U.K. No. 1 albums.

The band’s sound was fueled by sing-along rock choruses and the combustible chemistry between guitarist-songwriter Noel Gallagher — a Beatles and glam rock-loving musician with a knack for memorable tunes — and younger brother Liam.

Then and since, the brothers have often traded barbs — onstage, in the studio and in interviews. Liam once called Noel “tofu boy,” while Noel branded his brother “the angriest man you’ll ever meet. He’s like a man with a fork in a world of soup.”

‘An absolute unbelievable blast’

The announcement of the U.K. tour in August sparked a ticket-buying frenzy, complete with error messages, hourslong online queues, dashed hopes and anger at prices that surged at the last minute.

Some fans who waited online for hours at the Ticketmaster site complained that they ended up paying 355 pounds ($485) for regular standing tickets instead of the expected 148 pounds ($202).

The ticketing troubles sparked questions in U.K. Parliament, where Arts Minister Chris Bryant criticized “practices that see fans of live events blindsided by price hikes.” Britain’s competition regulator has since threatened Ticketmaster — which sold around 900,000 Oasis tickets — with legal action.

No plans have been announced for Oasis to record any new music, and the tour is being presented as a one-off.

Music writer John Aizlewood said that it’s an opportunity for Oasis to “tend the legacy” of the band, and remind people of the power of the Oasis brand.

“There should be a sense of huge joy and life affirmation about these shows. And I think if they can just play it right, then that can be a massive burnishing of their legacy,” he said. “(There is) this enduring love for Oasis — and love means money.”

Fans were determined to enjoy the moment.

“I’m the oldest sibling of four brothers, so I know they’ll fall out,” said Stephen Truscott, from Middlesbrough in northeast England. “(But) the first night, they’re going to have an absolute unbelievable blast. It’s going to be the best.”

Six years after her son was killed by a Seattle police officer involved in multiple deadly encounters, a federal judge cleared the way for Rose Johnson’s excessive force lawsuit to move forward.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly set a tentative trial date of Sept. 15 after an appeals court this year rejected the officer’s claim of qualified immunity, the much-debated legal doctrine that can shield police officers from civil rights claims.

The ruling on March 3 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a sign of the incremental change unfolding in courts and statehouses across the country as legislative efforts to reform qualified immunity in Congress have stalled.

To Johnson, who filed the Seattle lawsuit after police fatally shot her son seconds after they kicked down his door on May 8, 2019, the panel’s decision was an important victory on a long and arduous road of trying to heal.

“Trying to move on and heal from the trauma of losing Ryan hasn’t been easier because six years have passed by,” she said of her son, Ryan Smith, 31. “He was — and is —my heart and soul.”

Johnson’s lawsuit, filed in 2022 after an NBC News investigation detailed her son’s case, alleges that the “willful and reckless” conduct of Officer Christopher Myers violated Smith’s constitutional rights and caused his death.

The suit names a second officer as a defendant and accuses the Seattle Police Department of demonstrating “deliberate indifference” by not getting Myers — who fired his gun in four separate encounters from 2010 to 2019, three of which were fatal — “professional, mental, or other help to assure he stops shooting people.”

Myers has not been disciplined or charged with any crimes in connection with those shootings, though an appeals panel ruled in 2014 that there was little evidence to corroborate his account of the allegedly suspicious behavior that prompted one of them. Myers did not respond to a request for comment. He previously defended his use of lethal force, telling NBC News in 2021 that he never expects an encounter to escalate into a shooting.

“Unfortunately, some people don’t yield and sometimes force the situation,” he said.

Lawyers representing the officers and the police department did not respond to a request for comment. The attorneys previously sought to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming in a 2023 filing that city officials could not be held liable because they had not violated Smith’s constitutional rights. Smith posed an imminent and deadly threat when he was fatally shot, they wrote, and the officers were entitled to qualified immunity.

The qualified immunity legal defense, first adopted by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967, allows law enforcement officers to argue that claims of constitutional violations should be dismissed because the violations were not “clearly established” at the time they occurred.

“There was no (and is no) case that would put every reasonable officer on notice that shooting Mr. Smith would violate clearly established law,” the lawyers wrote.

Smith was fatally shot after his girlfriend dialed 911 and described a terrifying situation: Smith had a knife, and he was threatening to assault her and take his own life, according to a dispatcher’s log of the call included in the filing. She was barricaded in the bathroom, according to the call log, and Smith was scratching at the door. “There is blood all over the bathroom,” a dispatcher told responding officers.

City officials later acknowledged that that final grim detail was based on inaccurate information that the 911 call taker misinterpreted. The girlfriend actually told the operator that she did not need a medic but feared Smith had hurt himself and needed help, according to Johnson’s lawsuit.

But when Myers responded to the 911 call, he believed Smith’s girlfriend might be bleeding out, he told investigators. In the 2023 filing, the officers’ attorneys wrote that “any objectively reasonable officer would have believed this was a domestic violence emergency.”

Body camera video of what followed showed officers ordering Smith to open the door. Seconds later, after he did not comply, they kicked it down. In the video, Smith can be seen walking slowly toward the threshold with what appears to be a knife in his hand as the officers order him to put his hands up, to get on the ground and to drop the knife.

Within six seconds, Myers fired eight shots, according to the lawsuit. The second officer, Ryan Beecroft, fired twice. Smith was hit seven times, the lawsuit says.

According to the filing, the officers opened fire only after Smith refused to comply with their orders and advanced toward them with his knife in an “attack position.”

Smith’s mother has said her son struggled for years with depression, anxiety and alcoholism, and she believes he was having a mental health crisis the night he was fatally shot. In her family’s lawsuit, Johnson’s attorneys wrote that police did not follow de-escalation and crisis intervention techniques even though Beecroft had been to Smith’s apartment weeks before and was aware of his mental health issues.

In the March ruling, 9th Circuit Judge William Fletcher disputed the officers’ claims, writing that a reasonable juror could conclude that Smith did not pose an immediate threat and was not actively resisting arrest. He may not have comprehended the officers’ commands, “which were shouted at the same time and inconsistent,” Fletcher wrote.

“The officers gave no warnings and the use of a Taser might have been available,” he wrote. “Given this circuit’s case law, a reasonable officer should have been on notice that it was unreasonable to use deadly force solely because Smith was holding a knife in his right hand and raised that hand across his chest.”

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for July 18. The officers’ attorneys have sought to delay the September trial, which is scheduled to last five to 10 days.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said on Saturday that two American aid workers had suffered non-life-threatening injuries in a targeted attack at a food distribution site in Gaza.

The U.S.- and Israeli-backed GHF said in a statement that the injured Americans were receiving medical treatment and were in a stable condition.

“The attack — which preliminary information indicates was carried out by two assailants who threw two grenades at the Americans — occurred at the conclusion of an otherwise successful distribution in which thousands of Gazans safely received food,” the GHF said.

In addition to aid workers, the GHF employs private U.S. military contractors tasked with providing security at their sites.It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.

The Israeli military had no immediate comment when contacted by Reuters.

Gazan authorities separately reported dozens of Palestinians had been killed by the Israeli military in the past 24 hours, including near aid distribution sites.

The Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza on Thursday had warned residents of the coastal enclave not to assist the GHF, saying deadly incidents near its food distribution sites endangered hungry Gazans.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, bypassing traditional aid channels, including the United Nations which says the U.S.-based organization is neither impartial nor neutral.

The GHF has said it has delivered more than 52 million meals to Palestinians in five weeks, while other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted.”

Since Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade on Gaza on May 19, the U.N. says more than 400 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid handouts. A senior U.N. official said last week that the majority of people killed were trying to reach aid distribution sites of the GHF.

Footage released by GHF has shown at least one aid site to be overrun with no clear distribution process. Palestinians have described the sites as chaotic.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 70 people have been killed in the territory by the Israeli military in the last 24 hours, including 23 near aid distribution sites.

The ministry did not specify where or how exactly they had been killed.

Over 57,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in Israel’s war against Hamas, according to the Gaza health ministry, launched after the militant group’s surprise attack on Israel in October 7, 2023.

Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people in that attack and took another 251 hostages into Gaza. There are 50 hostages still held in Gaza, of which 20 are believed to be alive.

Actor Julian McMahon, who was known for playing Dr. Doom in the early 2000s “Fantastic Four” movies and starring in fan favorite shows including “Nip/Tuck” and “Charmed,” has died. He was 56.

McMahon “died peacefully this week after a valiant effort to overcome cancer,” his wife, Kelly McMahon, said in a statement.

“Julian loved life. He loved his family. He loved his friends. He loved his work, and he loved his fans,” she said. “His deepest wish was to bring joy into as many lives as possible.

“We ask for support during this time to allow our family to grieve in privacy,” she added. “And we wish for all of those to whom Julian brought joy, to continue to find joy in life. We are grateful for the memories.”

McMahon’s death was also confirmed in a Facebook post by the “Nip/Tuck” series, which was created by renowned television writer Ryan Murphy.

“Warner Bros. Television mourns the loss of our friend Julian McMahon,” the series said in a post accompanied by a photo of McMahon. “Our thoughts are with his family, friends, colleagues, and fans.”

McMahon’s role as Dr. Christian Troy in “Nip/Tuck” earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Television Drama Series. The series aired on FX from 2003 to 2010, while McMahon also starred in two of the “Fantastic Four” movies, “Fantastic Four” and “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.” McMahon’s career took off in the supernatural TV series “Charmed,” which he co-starred with Shannon Doherty and Alyssa Milano from 2000 to 2005.

The Hollywood star was born in Sydney, Australia on July 27, 1968 and hailed from a famous pair of parents.

His father, Sir William McMahon, was the prime minister of Australia from 1971 to 1972, and his mother was Sonia McMahon, an Australian socialite and fashion icon.

In an interview with Jimmy Kimmel in 2007, McMahon said he didn’t remember much from his father’s days as Australia’s top politician because of his young age.

“It’s a little different there because Australia’s a smaller country, it was the 70s’, everything wasn’t so public.” he said. “It was a little easier. You weren’t growing up in the spotlight. Paparazzi wasn’t following you around.”

In 2018, McMahon returned to Australia to star in a comedy-drama film, “Swinging Safari,” alongside Australian star Kylie Minogue. Minogue was McMahon’s former sister in law from McMahon’s first marriage to Minogue’s younger sister, Dannii Minogue in the 1990s.

McMahon might have drawn on his scant memories of his father’s role as Australia’s leading politician in recent years. He starred in the murder mystery series “The Residence,” playing the role of an Australian prime minister, which premiered on Netflix this year.

In addition to his wife, Kelly McMahon, who he married in 2014, McMahon leaves behind a daughter Madison from his previous marriage to model Brook Burns.

SEWARD, Neb. — Treasures from 1975, sealed inside what the World Record Academy once called the “world’s largest time capsule,” went on display Friday, drawing hundreds from across the country to catch a glimpse of relics from the past.

Thousands of letters, pet rocks, artwork, a groovy teal suit and even a yellow Chevy Vega had been preserved inside the capsule — a portal to another era — for half a century.

“This is the culmination of 50 years of planning on the part of my father,” Trish Davisson Fisher said.

“My father, Harold Davisson, wanted to wait for his grandchildren to remember life in 1975. He was a big proponent of life. He did everything big,” she told NBC News.

Back then, sealing the items was a logistical feat. Fisher said her father created a ventilation system in an attempt to keep moisture out.

In 1983, after learning they had lost the world record from the World Record Academy, the family added a pyramid atop the capsule to recapture the title.

“There were packages from, I’m going to say, 3,000 people, letters and packages, letters to themselves, letters to the grandchildren, letters to their heirs,” Davisson said.

But inside, some items fared better than others.

“A lot of the other packages that were wrapped in plastic have come out very, very well, but we have a layer of mold-type items on the outside of all the paper and cardboard. But again, I would say about 80% of the people are going to be able to get their items back, and 20% are going to be disappointed,” Davisson said.

Stephanie Fisher, who is not related to Trish, traveled from Colorado with her parents to retrieve their artifact, a cassette tape that contains voice messages from members of her family.

“My parents didn’t think that they would be here 50 years later to retrieve it with us. So it’s pretty special to know that their voices [are] in there that I haven’t heard in a long time,” Fisher said, filled with emotion.

Chris Galen made the journey from Virginia.

“I made a mental note that in 50 years if I was still alive — because I’d be in my 60s then — I would want to come back here and be part of the opening,” he told NBC News.

Despite the thousands of letters that need to be sorted, Galen was able to find one from his mother.

“I hope you had a good education, a happy and successful life, rich in many ways,” he read from the letter.

“I’m hoping as she’s looking down on us from somewhere that I can report back to her that a lot of the things she wanted for me and for my brother came true,” Galen said.

Clark Kolterman, who was there in 1975, put his wedding invitation in the capsule.

“I can’t believe they found it,” he said, surrounded by his children.

“I have to thank Mr. Davisson for his insight. And you know, his idea wasn’t perfect, but it worked, and as a result it’s been very successful,” Kolternman said.

Trish said she believes her father would be very proud of Friday’s celebration and that she’s learned a lot in the 50 years since the capsule was sealed.

“Life is too short. You’re going to hit an age where you want more time and you know you don’t have it,” she said.

She said she plans on creating a permanent display for the capsule to help future generations remember the year 1975.

Galen said the message goes deeper than artifacts.

“It’s not about what’s inside of it. It’s about what’s inside of us and who we were back in ’75, and who we are today,” he said.

Chinese chain Luckin Coffee opened its first two U.S. locations this week, betting that mobile-only ordering and creative flavors can lure customers away from Starbucks.

Both new Luckin stores are based in Manhattan, and at the midtown location on Wednesday, Sam Liu took a sip of her jasmine cold brew.

“I’ve never tried anything like it,” she said.

Liu said she’d hoped for more seating — the small shop has only three tables — and was initially confused by Luckin’s in-app ordering system, which means customers can’t order directly from a barista.

“I thought I just order at the counter, but I realized everyone was standing around looking at their phone,” Liu said.

Luckin is China’s largest coffee chain, with more than twice as many locations as Starbucks there. Its two New York City stores are its first foray outside Asia, where it has over 24,000 locations across the region. By comparison, there are over 17,000 Starbucks in the United States.

Its CEO, Guo Jinyi, called the U.S. “a strategically important market” for the company’s expansion in a press release heralding the two new locations Wednesday. “We are excited to introduce a diverse and unique coffee experience to American consumers.”

The company, which didn’t respond to a request for comment, has touted its ambitions to expand globally but hasn’t publicly detailed its next moves in the U.S. or other markets.

The chain has gained success overseas through creative drinks like alcohol-infused coffees and fruit lattes, along with its smartphone-centric ordering model. The app-based approach makes it easier to track inventory, send personalized appeals to consumers and serve drinks quickly, said John Zolidis, an analyst who tracks Luckin and Starbucks at the brokerage firm he founded, Quo Vadis Capital.

“Luckin was able to develop an incredible muscle with regard to product innovation, and they have been very creative in China,” he said.

Zolidis said how Luckin fares on Starbucks’ home turf will depend on its ability to differentiate its menu from other major U.S. coffee chains and smaller, independent cafes. Its American lineup already includes distinctive drinks like blood orange cold brew and coconut lattes.

“These orange drinks, or one of their most successful, a coconut cloud latte — that’s how you get trial [customers] from the U.S.,” Zolidis said.

Luckin faced financial troubles during the pandemic. It was delisted from Nasdaq in 2020 after its stock plunged following an internal investigation that found an executive had falsified revenue reports. The company filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. the following year but emerged from proceedings in 2022 and its sales have soared since, reaching $4.7 billion worldwide in fiscal year 2024, a 38.4% increase from 2023.

Starbucks, by contrast, is struggling in both the U.S. and China. Its same-store sales in the U.S. declined 2% and its sales in China 8% in fiscal year 2024, and it reported in April that its quarterly profit was half of what it pulled in for the same period last year. The Seattle-based chain is reportedly looking to partially sell its business in China while revamping its U.S. strategy to focus on customer experience and human connection, in contrast with Luckin’s model.

“We veered away from, I think, owning the idea of the ‘third place,’ the coffeehouse experience, making sure that the customer was front and center,” Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol told NBC News in June.

A Starbucks spokesperson declined to comment.

Zolidis said that whereas Starbucks aims in both the U.S. and China to appeal to customers looking for higher-end coffee served in an inviting setting, Luckin has successfully positioned itself as the “everyman’s coffee” in China, with low prices and small, grab-and-go storefronts.

After taking the train in from Hoboken, New Jersey, to check out the new one in midtown, Samantha Coy said the trip was worth it. She had enjoyed Luckin in China previously and was eager to order one of its fruit drinks.

“I’m surprised Starbucks hasn’t tried to bring that over to the U.S.,” Coy said. “I hope they stay open.”

Zolidis said he thinks Luckin is well-positioned to gain a foothold in America.

“They’ve been able to operate and grow incredibly quickly in the Chinese market, much faster than I would have thought possible, and they’ve been able to sustain it and develop a strong financial model so they can fund their expansion in the U.S.,” Zolidis said. “They wouldn’t be coming here to try it if they didn’t think they had a shot of owning part of the market.”

Two weeks into Tesla’s robotaxi prototype rollout on the streets of Austin, Texas, a string of viral videos showing apparent mishaps and the severely limited access to the service have caused a cloud of confusion and concern around the vehicles and their safety.

Tesla launched its Austin service on June 22. People who’ve gotten an invitation, a group that appears to be composed largely of influencers adjacent to and acolytes of CEO Elon Musk, use an app to call for a ride, similar to ride-hailing apps Uber and Lyft. Each ride costs $4.20, a cannabis-associated number that Musk frequently uses.

The service is somewhat of a prototype. Although no human is in the driver’s seat, each car has a company employee in the front passenger seat who can stop the car with a button if there are safety concerns. Tesla says its experimental software is driving the vehicles.

Experts in the field of autonomous driving say it’s too early to judge the success or failure of the venture. Federal regulators and some local and state politicians say they’re concerned about several incidents — documented on camera and shared on social media — where the cars appeared to break traffic laws or put people in danger. Some people who’ve used competing robotaxi services, such as Google spinoff Waymo, yawned at what they considered old technology. Even the stock market shrugged off the launch, with no lasting imprint on Tesla’s share price.

Tesla did not respond to requests for comment on how the service is going. Several key metrics, such as how many miles it has driven and how often Tesla employees need to intervene with the driving software, remain mysteries. Because the service operates only in Texas, where there are currently minimal rules surrounding autonomous vehicles, the company is not required to report such information to regulators at any level of government.

In the first days of the rollout, videos of Tesla robotaxis appearing to violate traffic laws or behave oddly proliferated online. In one, a Tesla dropping off a passenger did so in the middle of an intersection. In another, a Tesla drives on the wrong side of a double yellow line. In at least two videos, its robotaxis are traveling faster than the posted speed limit. And in several examples, the Tesla cars brake suddenly and passengers say they were confused as to why.

In all, NBC News found 13 instances in videos online where a Tesla appeared to break the rules or otherwise make a mistake. In each case, NBC News contacted the people who made the videos but did not hear back.

Some elected officials in Austin said they’re worried about the incidents.

“There are just a lot of errors,” said Vanessa Fuentes, a member of the Austin City Council and the mayor pro tempore, meaning she runs council meetings when the mayor is absent, in a phone interview. “They have proven that the technology they have is unsafe for Austinites.”

And while other autonomous vehicle companies such as Waymo or former General Motors unit Cruise have been documented on camera making embarrassing or illegal maneuvers, Fuentes said that she doesn’t believe Tesla has coordinated enough with the city government — which Tesla is not legally required to do, but she said would build trust.

“Tesla has had no regard for public input or working with our city, and unfortunately, I’m not OK having this done at the expense of Austinites’ safety,” she said. She said she embraces autonomous vehicles in the city as a general matter but would like to see Tesla’s service halted for now.

Zo Qadri, an Austin City Council member whose district overlaps with the Tesla robotaxi service area, said he is hearing from people in his district who are worried.

“We’ve been seeing chaos unfold. We have a lot of constituents who are very angry,” he said.

He said the situation reminded him of problems associated with Cruise robotaxis in Austin in 2023, when residents complained that Cruise cars were making unsafe turns and being a nuisance. Cruise shuttered last year. Qadri said he has not heard similar complaints from constituents about Waymo, which also operates there.

It’s not clear whether Tesla could face local consequences for such incidents, such as traffic tickets, for breaking any laws. Fuentes said the process in Austin for ticketing a robotaxi is more complicated than simply writing a ticket for a driver: A police officer must draft a complaint affidavit, send it to a lieutenant, and then have the affidavit witnessed and sent to a municipal court.

The Austin Police Department said in a statement:

“As with any company operating autonomous technology on public roadways, when a potential legal or safety concern is brought to our attention, we promptly share it with the company. These concerns are then addressed through our regular meetings, where we follow up on the issue and review the steps taken to resolve it. Our priority is to maintain public safety while supporting innovation in transportation,” the department said.

Federal regulators at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also took notice of the safety incidents, saying in a statement June 23 that the agency “is aware of the referenced incidents and is in contact with the manufacturer to gather additional information.”

Texas state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, a Democrat whose district includes part of Austin, said she wants Tesla to proceed cautiously.

“I think that it’s in their interest to make sure safety is top of mind and that nothing goes wrong. Otherwise, that could really derail their plans for launching it fully,” she said.

Goodwin was one of seven Texas lawmakers who sent a letter to Tesla on June 18 asking for the company to delay the launch of its robotaxis until Sept. 1 — the day a new law regarding autonomous vehicles is set to go into effect. Tesla did not delay its launch, but Goodwin said the company did respond to their letter, saying it would update its policies to ensure that it would be compliant with the new law.

Goodwin said part of her desire for caution comes from owning a Tesla herself and experiencing unexpected maneuvers while using the company’s driver-assistance software.

“I’ve had personal experience with using cruise control and having the car brake for me, which can be very disturbing,” she said. “I’ve had that experience on a number of occasions, and it just leads me to believe that it really is important to have a person in the vehicle.”

Tesla is aiming to compete with Waymo, which says it has about 1,500 robotaxis on the road in several cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix. Musk said Tesla’s service would start small with 10-20 vehicles and try to grow over the next several months, although how quickly it could expand is not clear.

Tesla’s stock price soared the day after its service launched on a Sunday, jumping more than 9% on the following Monday. But the stock, which is often volatile, retreated over the following days as it became clear how many hurdles Tesla faces in trying to scale up the service.

The public knows about the safety incidents involving Tesla robotaxis mainly because Tesla sent many of the initial invitations to use the service to online influencers, including people with YouTube channels or similar video platforms.

The invitations were so scarce that at least one Tesla influencer, a person named Omar who goes by the pseudonym Whole Mars Catalog, offered to share rides for $10. “Take a Tesla Robotaxi ride round trip with Omar. Includes two rides, there and back,” the person’s sponsorship page said. The $10 would be more than the combined cost of two $4.20 rides. The account did not respond to a request for comment.

Eliana Sheriff was among the early riders. A video creator with a YouTube channel focused on Musk’s rocket company SpaceX, she said she came away a fan of the robotaxi service.

“I was totally trusting of the technology,” she said in a YouTube video on her channel, “Ellie in Space.”

She did have one complaint. After she reached her destination in the robotaxi, a storm appeared overhead and she wanted to stay in the car to shelter. A Tesla customer service agent called into the car’s audio system to say that she couldn’t. She exited and called a second ride to take her back to where she started. (Some posts online said erroneously that Tesla kicked her out midride, but she said in an interview that she did reach her destination.)

Sheriff said that despite some concerns in the automotive and tech industries over whether Tesla’s technology is good enough to deploy robotaxis, she has faith in Musk to pursue the best approach.

“Elon must have a reason for why he believes in that,” she said.

She’s not alone. Since the robotaxi launch, the legions of Musk and Tesla fans have proclaimed their enthusiasm for the service across the internet: on X, the social media app that Musk owns, and on other apps such as Reddit and TikTok. And they’ve employed a wide variety of superlatives to describe the robotaxis: “flawless,” “seamless” and “history-making.”

But because the service is invite-only, with only a handful of cars on the road, almost no consumers who aren’t Tesla fans have gotten to use the service firsthand.

Musk and his fans have described the service as futuristic and groundbreaking, but the rollout has succeeded mainly in preaching to Tesla’s already-converted choir of supporters.

Brad Templeton, a consultant in the autonomous vehicle industry who worked for Google’s self-driving car project from 2010 to 2013 before it became Waymo, said Tesla’s most enthusiastic fans are “all fairly convinced that it’s just on the cusp of being ready, and they get really annoyed when other people don’t see it.”

Like other experts, Templeton said the only measure for robotaxis that counts is whether they’re safe over the very long term, measured in the tens of millions of miles driven.

“What matters is not individual demonstrations. It’s statistics,” he said.

Many of the Tesla and Waymo fans clash head-to-head on Reddit, where the message board r/SelfDrivingCars has been heating up with competition between the two sides. Waymo boosters regularly argue on the site that the company is years ahead of Tesla in experience: Waymo had paying customers in its first market, Phoenix, while still using safety drivers in December 2018 — six and a half years ago. Waymo began “rider only” rides in 2019.

Lately, some Tesla fans have been pushing back by highlighting videos of what they considered to be Waymo vehicles driving poorly, including stopping in standing water.

One Reddit user, in a popular recent post, vented that the r/SelfDrivingCars message board was being “flooded with Tesla apologist propaganda and disinformation. … The astroturf army is out in full display these past couple weeks.”

The top comment on the post asked for a truce.

“I want to see progress by both companies,” the Reddit user Juice805 wrote. “Waymo is doing great and is quite far ahead in their rollout and Tesla just made a huge first step in theirs.”

“I just want cars to drive themselves,” they wrote. They did not respond to a request for comment.

Unlike other kids in Massachusetts, students living in one Boston suburb won’t be able to go back to school next month unless they’ve had their chickenpox and measles shots, as well as other routine childhood vaccinations.

“Any student not fully vaccinated without exemption will be excluded from school,” Newton Public Schools Superintendent Anna Nolin wrote in a memo last month. The directive followed a chickenpox outbreak among students, as well as rising threats of measles, Nolin said.

But unvaccinated students without medical reasons to forgo the shots can still get a pass to attend class in Massachusetts: a religious exemption.

According to state immunization data, vaccination rates among kindergartners in Massachusetts have been falling — from 95.9% in 2020 to 94.3% this past school year — as the proportion of students with religious exemptions has risen: 0.93% in 2020 to 1.33% currently.

Schools in Massachusetts loosened vaccination requirement rules during the pandemic, allowing unvaccinated students to attend class without exemptions. In some areas of the state, the proportion of students who are allowed to skip shots because of exemptions is as high as 12.8%, according to the state’s data.

There’s “a lot of concern about what’s happening with kids and keeping them safe from vaccine-preventable diseases,” said Northe Saunders, executive director of the SAFE Communities Coalition, an organization that supports pro-vaccination policies. “People are fed up.”

A bill working its way through the Massachusetts statehouse proposes removing nonmedical exemptions — including religious and philosophical beliefs — for vaccination requirements to attend public schools.

“Misuse of the current religious exemption loophole in Massachusetts policy has led to kindergarten classes across our state with terrifyingly low rates of vaccination,” Logan Beyer, a Harvard Medical School student, said at a hearing about the legislation last month.

Beyer, who studies child health and child health equity, testified that she had a conversation with a woman who confided that she would use the religious exemption loophole to delay vaccinating her child. “‘We don’t really go to church, but you don’t have to prove anything,’” the woman said, according to Beyer.

Massachusetts isn’t alone. Vaccination rates have been falling across the United States for years.

Clamping down on vaccination exemptions raises rates

In the past decade, California, Connecticut, Maine and New York have removed such exemptions in an effort to drive up vaccination rates.

It seems to be working. Maine, for example, had one of the country’s highest vaccination opt-out rates in 2017, at 5.3%. Two years later, in 2019, it passed a law that eliminated religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccinations.

Since then, Maine’s kindergarten MMR vaccination rate has climbed from less than 94% to nearly 98%.

When California passed a law in 2016 removing personal belief and religious exemptions after a measles outbreak that began at Disneyland, MMR coverage increased by 3% in 2019. It has remained high, at 96.2%, according to the California Department of Public Health.

The actions come at a critical time in America’s vaccination history. The country is on track to have the largest measles outbreak in decades, with 1,267 cases already logged this year.

While the majority of parents support vaccination, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly undermined the shots’ safety and effectiveness.

Childhood immunization rates fell during the pandemic for several reasons. Children were less likely to get their annual well-checks during lockdown. And misinformation about Covid shots stoked fears about vaccines in general.

The percentage of students with religious exemptions in Hawaii doubled during that time, from 2% before the pandemic to 4% last year, according to the state Health Department.

Hawaii legislators proposed a bill to end exemptions based on religion, but it stalled after a massive public backlash.

Meanwhile, Kennedy has doubled down on vaccine distrust. In June, he abruptly fired every member of the federal government’s group of nonpartisan, independent experts charged with advising the administration on vaccines, appointing instead several known anti-vaccine activists.

Religious concerns about vaccination?

Most states and Washington, D.C., allow parents to opt out of vaccination requirements based on religious or philosophical views.

Mississippi lawmakers added a religious vaccination exemption in 2023.

In Texas, where an ongoing outbreak of measles in southwest Texas has killed two children, legislation in front of state lawmakers would make it easier for parents to be notified about and obtain vaccination exemptions.

There is no indication, however, that any of the world’s major religions oppose vaccination.

Catholic popes, for example, have a long history of supporting immunizations. In a 2021 video message, Pope Francis urged people to get the Covid shot, calling it “an act of love.”

“Getting vaccinated is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable,” he said.

Jewish law supports vaccination. Islamic law does, too. The Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s highest spiritual leader, has personally given polio vaccinations to children.

One possible sticking point in some religions is a concern that vaccines contain fetal cells.

The concern is unfounded, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. “Some vaccines involve growing viruses in human cell cultures originally developed from two aborted fetuses in the 1960s. These cell lines are still going, so no new aborted fetuses are ever needed,” the group writes on its website. “Purification processes filter the vaccine during production, and no fetal tissue remains.”

Still, the number of kids whose caregivers are opting them out of routine childhood vaccines has reached an all-time high, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts said the findings reflect Americans’ growing unease about medicine in general.

Dr. Sean O’Leary, a pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Colorado and a spokesman for the pediatrics academy, said the group’s official policy “is that there should be no nonmedical exemptions for vaccines,” including religion. (Some children have weakened immune systems because of cancer treatments or organ transplantation and can’t be vaccinated.)

Otherwise, “there’s no legitimate reason not to be vaccinated,” he said. “The benefits of vaccines clearly outweigh the risks.”