Activists attend the ‘Stop Alligator Alcatraz’ protest in front of the entrance of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Fla., on June 28. Photo by Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA
July 5 (UPI) — Five Florida state Democrat lawmakers on Thursday were denied access to the state’s newly opened “migrant” detention facility that has been dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.”
State Representatives Michele Rayner, Anna Eskamani and Angie Nixon and Senators Carlos Guillermo Smith and Shevrin Jones were turned away while attempting to tour the facility, The Hill reported.
State law enforcement officers from several agencies stopped the lawmakers from entering the facility after showing up for an unannounced inspection of the facility that President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis toured on Tuesday and before detainees arrived there.
Safety concerns cited
Eskamani said they were told they could not tour the facility due to “safety concerns,” CNN reported.
“If it’s unsafe for us, how is it safe for the detainees?” Eskamani said she asked the general counsel for the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
The Florida lawmakers said they have the legal authority to inspect the detention facility.
“Florida law gives legislators the authority to make unannounced visits to state-run facilities,” Jones said in a post on X made on Thursday afternoon.
Jones said the group went to the detention facility “to inspect conditions and check on the well-being of the people inside.”
A group statement issued on Thursday accuses state officials of a “blatant abuse of power and an attempt to conceal human rights violations from the public eye.”
The facility received its first 500 detainees midweek and eventually will be capable of holding up to 3,000 detainees while undergoing deportation proceedings.
Not a federal facility
The detention facility is located in the Everglades along U.S. 41, about 70 miles west of Miami.
A local airport previously occupied the site, which Florida officials converted into a detention facility in eight days, DeSantis said while touring it with Trump on Tuesday.
Although Trump toured it, the facility is not a federal operation.
“The Department of Homeland Security has not implemented, authorized, directed or funded Florida’s temporary detention center,” DHS attorneys said in a court filing made on Thursday, the Miami Herald reported.
The filing is in response to a lawsuit challenging the detention facility’s purpose, which prompted the Department of Justice to defend its existence.
The DOJ “has defended President Trump’s immigration agenda in court since day one and we are proud to protect ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ from baseless, politically motivated legal schemes,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement issued on Thursday.
Florida officials are considering adding two more such facilities to help hold and process detainees who are undergoing deportation proceedings.
The Department of Defense is deploying 200 Marines to Florida to assist with logistical and administrative support.
Watch: People arrested after protest in support of Palestine Action
More than 20 people have been arrested in London after police said they were responding to a protest in support of the banned group Palestine Action.
The Metropolitan Police said those arrested were being held on suspicion of offences under the Terrorism Act 2000 and had been taken into custody.
Pictures from the Westminster demonstration showed a small group holding placards reading “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”.
As of Saturday, the group is proscribed under the Terrorism Act 2000, after lawyers acting on its behalf failed with a court bid to block the ban on Friday.
The designation means being a member of, or showing support for Palestine Action, is a criminal offence and could lead to up to 14 years in prison.
In an earlier statement, the Met said: “Officers are responding to a protest in support of Palestine Action in Parliament Square.
“The group is now proscribed and expressing support for them is a criminal offence.”
PA Media
Police made arrests on Saturday at protests in support of the proscribed group
Protesters holding home-made, cardboard placards gathered near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament Square on Saturday.
Pictures emerged showing police surrounding the group and detaining people, with one woman seen being taken away in handcuffs by officers.
The protest group Defend Our Juries wrote to Met Police commissioner Mark Rowley on Friday to inform the force a demonstration where placards expressing support of Palestine Action would be displayed was to go ahead on Saturday.
In a statement released after the arrests, the group said: “It’s a relief to know that Counter Terrorism police have nothing better to do.”
The government moved to ban Palestine Action after an estimated £7m of damage was caused to planes at RAF Brize Norton last month during a protest the group said it was behind.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced plans to proscribe the group last month, calling damage to two military aircraft “disgraceful” and claiming the group had a “long history of unacceptable criminal damage”.
PA Media
Defend Our Juries warned the Met police of protests taking place on Saturday
Palestine Action has engaged in activities that have predominantly targeted arms companies since the start of the current war in Gaza.
The group’s ban came into effect on Saturday after High Court judge Mr Justice Chamberlain refused its request to temporarily block the move, saying the claim was “insufficient to outweigh the strong public interest in maintaining the order in force”.
Raza Husain KC, barrister for Palestine Action’s co-founder Huda Ammori, who brought the complaint, told the court banning the group would be “ill-considered” and an “authoritarian abuse” of power.
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. The death toll in Gaza has since risen to more than 57,000, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israel has strongly denied allegations of genocide, claims which are also being examined by the International Court of Justice.
BERLIN — In a country that saw its democracy die in 1933, the more than 170,000 people crowding into three of Germany’s biggest soccer stadiums for Bruce Springsteen’s rock concerts in recent weeks have been especially receptive to his message and dire warnings about a politically perilous moment in the United States, one that has reminded some of Adolf Hitler’s power grab in the ’30s.
At these gigantic open-air concerts in Berlin, Frankfurt and Gelsenkirchen, which have been among the largest concerts to date in Springsteen’s two-month-long, 16-show Land of Hope & Dreams tour across Europe, the 75-year-old rock star from New Jersey has interspersed short but poignant political speeches into his exhausting, sweat-drenched performances to describe the dangers he sees in the United States under the Trump administration.
“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ’n’ roll in dangerous times,” Springsteen says to cheers at the start of each concert. “In my home — the America I love, the America I have written about — the America that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration. Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experience to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism and let freedom ring.”
Springsteen’s words have had special resonance in Germany, where memories of the Nazi past are never far from the surface and the cataclysmic demise of the Weimar Republic, which led directly to Hitler’s takeover, is studied in great detail in schools and universities. With that Nazi past embedded in their DNA, German fears of President Trump’s tactics probably run higher than anywhere else.
“Germans tend to have angst about a lot of things and they are really afraid of Trump,” said Michael Pilz, a music critic for the Welt newspaper, who agrees that the death of German democracy in 1933 is a contributing factor to the popularity of Springsteen’s anti-Trump concerts this summer. “A lot of Germans think Trump is a fool. It’s not only his politics but the way he is, just so completely over the top. Germans love to see Trump getting hit. And they admire Springsteen for standing up and taking it to him.”
“The mighty E Street Band is here tonight to call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock ’n’ roll in dangerous times,” Springsteen says to cheers at the start of each concert.
(Markus Schreiber / Associated Press)
The crowds in Germany have been as large as they are enthusiastic. More than 75,000 filled Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on June 11; 44,500 were in Frankfurt on June 18; and another 51,000 watched his concert in the faded Ruhr River industrial town of Gelsenkirchen on June 27. All told, more than 700,000 tickets have been sold for the 16 shows in Springsteen’s tour (for concerts that last three or more hours), which concludes on July 3 in Milan, Italy.
“The German aversion to Trump has now become more extreme in his second term — Germans just don’t understand how the Americans could elect someone like Trump,” said Jochen Staadt, a political science professor at the Free University in Berlin who is also a drummer in an amateur Berlin rock band. Staadt believes Springsteen’s 1988 concert may well have helped pave the way for the Berlin Wall to fall a little over a year later in 1989. “Germans are drawn to Springsteen as someone who played an important role in our history when Germany was still divided and as someone who may have helped overcome that division with rock music.”
Springsteen has been filling stadiums across Europe in the warm summertime evenings with his high-energy shows that not only entertain the tremendous crowds but also take on Trump’s policies on civil liberties, free speech, immigrants and universities in thoughtfully constructed messages. To ensure nothing is lost in translation, Springsteen’s brief forays into politics of about two to three minutes each are translated for local audiences in German, French, Spanish, Basque and Italian subtitles on the giant video walls onstage.
To ram the message home to more people, Springsteen also released a 30-minute recording from the first stop of the tour in Manchester, England, that contains three songs and three of his speeches onstage.
“I’ve always tried to be a good ambassador for America,” said Springsteen while introducing “My City of Ruins,” a song he wrote after the 9/11 terror attacks that has taken on a new meaning this summer. “I’ve spent my life singing about where we have succeeded and where we’ve come up short in living up to our civic ideals and our dreams. I always just thought that was my job. Things are happening right now in my home that are altering the very nature of our country’s democracy and they’re simply too important to ignore.”
Springsteen’s first speech during the tour’s Manchester show on May 17 prompted a sharp rebuke from Trump on his Truth Social platform. “Springsteen is ‘dumb as a rock’… and this dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!) ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country, that’s just ‘standard fare’. Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
Springsteen did not respond directly. Instead, he repeated his messages at every concert across Europe. He delivered more political commentary in introducing his song “House of a Thousand Guitars” by saying: “The last check on power, after the checks and balances of government have failed, are the people. You and me. It’s the union of people around a common set of values. That’s all that stands between democracy and authoritarianism. So at the end of the day, all we’ve really got is each other.” In the song, Springsteen sings about “the criminal clown has stolen the throne / He steals what he can never own.”
His concerts also included the live debut of “Rainmaker,” about a con man, from his 2020 “Letter to You” album. At the concerts in Europe, Springsteen dedicates the song to “our dear leader,” with a line that goes: “Rainmaker says white’s black and black’s white / Says night’s day and day’s night.”
More than 75,000 filled Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on June 11, 44,500 were in Frankfurt on June 18, and another 51,000 watched his concert in the faded Ruhr River industrial town of Gelsenkirchen on June 27.
(Markus Schreiber / Associated Press)
He also changed one line in the song from “they don’t care or understand what it really takes for the sky to open up the land,” to “they don’t care or understand how easy it is to let freedom slip through your hands.”
Springsteen’s enormous popularity across Europe has long been on a different level than in the United States, and that gap could grow even wider in the future. Springsteen’s close friend and the band’s lead guitarist, Steve Van Zandt, recently observed in an interview with the German edition of Playboy magazine that the E Street Band may have lost half of its audience back home because of the group’s unabashed opposition to Trump. (The band’s concerts in the United States are often held in smaller indoor arenas.)
Bruce Springsteen, left, performs with Steven Van Zandt: at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, June 11, 2025.
(Markus Schreiber / Associated Press)
But in Europe, Springsteen and his band have been reliably filling cavernous stadiums during the long, daylight-filled summertime evenings for decades with improbably enthusiastic crowds that sing along to the lyrics of his songs and spent most of the concerts on their feet dancing and cheering. There are also large numbers of hearty Springsteen fans from scores of countries who use their entire yearly allotment of vacation to follow him from show to show across the continent. This summer, Springsteen’s message has been amplified even more, sending many in the boomer-dominated crowds into states of near-ecstasy and attracting considerable media attention in countries across Europe.
“The message of his music always touched a deep nerve in Europe and especially Germany, but ever since Trump was elected president, Springsteen’s voice has been incredibly important for us,” said Katrin Schlemmer, a 56-year-old IT analyst from Zwickau who saw five Springsteen concerts in June — from Berlin to Prague to Frankfurt and two in San Sebastián, Spain. All told, Schlemmer has seen 60 Springsteen concerts in 11 countries around the world since her first in East Berlin in 1988 — a record-breaking, history-changing concert with more than 300,000 spectators that some historians believe may have contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall just 16 months later.
“A lot of Germans can’t fathom why the Americans elected someone like Trump,” said Schlemmer, who had the chance to thank Springsteen for the 1988 East Berlin concert at a chance meeting after a 2014 concert in Cape Town, South Africa. “We saw for ourselves how quickly a democracy was destroyed by an authoritarian. The alarm bells are ringing about what a danger Trump is. People love [Springsteen] here because he tells it like it is and because he is standing up to Trump.”
Stephan Cyrus, a 56-year-old manager from Hamburg, said Germans view Springsteen as a trustworthy American voice during a period of uncertainty.
“When Germans hear Springsteen speaking about his worries about the United States, they listen, because so many of us have so much admiration and longing for the United States and are worried about the country’s direction too,” said Cyrus, who saw the June 11 concert in Berlin. “He definitely touched us with his words.”
In one of his concert speeches, Springsteen goes after Trump without mentioning his name.
Spectators watch Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band perform at the Olympic Stadium, in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, June 11, 2025.
(Markus Schreiber / Associated Press)
“There is some very weird, strange and dangerous s— going on out there right now. In America, they are persecuting people for using their right to free speech and voicing their dissent. This is happening now. In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death. This is happening now.”
Springsteen then adds: “In my country, they’re taking sadistic pleasure in the pain they are inflicting on loyal American workers. They’re rolling back historic civil rights legislation that led to a more just and plural society. They are abandoning our great allies and siding with dictators against those struggling for their freedom. They’re defunding American universities that won’t back down to their ideological demands. They’re removing residents off American streets and, without due process of law, are deporting them to foreign detention centers and prisons. This is all happening now. A majority of our elected representatives have failed to protect the American people from the abuses of an unfit president and a rogue government.”
He tells the audiences that those in the administration “have no concern or idea of what it means to be deeply American.”
But Springsteen ends on a hopeful note, promising his audiences: “We’ll survive this moment.”
Antonio Guterres raises alarm over ‘dangerous escalation’ after hours-long Russian drone and missile barrage this week.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has condemned a Russian drone and missile attack against Ukraine this week that has been described as the largest such assault in the three-year war.
In a statement on Saturday, Guterres’s spokesperson said the Russian strikes “disrupted the power supply to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, once again underlining the ongoing risks to nuclear safety”.
“The secretary-general is alarmed by this dangerous escalation and the growing number of civilian casualties,” the statement read.
Ukrainian officials said Moscow fired more than 500 drones and 11 missiles at the capital Kyiv overnight into Friday in an attack that killed one person, injured at least 23 others and damaged buildings across the city.
The sounds of air raid sirens, kamikaze drones and booming detonations reverberated until dawn.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack “deliberately massive and cynical”.
Russia has been stepping up its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities as United States-led efforts to reach a ceasefire to end the war have stalled.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, warned of a possible new Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region, a part of northeastern Ukraine that has seen heavy fighting since Russia invaded in 2022.
Moscow has been slowly grinding its way along several parts of the Ukrainian front line in recent months, throwing forth continuous waves of infantry as it seeks to press home its advantage in troops and munitions.
Russian forces have already pushed into northern Ukraine’s Sumy region over the past months, carving out a small foothold there.
Russia fired 322 drones and decoys into Ukraine overnight into Saturday, Ukraine’s air force said. Of these, 157 were shot down and 135 were lost, likely having been electronically jammed.
Ukraine has also ramped up its retaliatory strikes in Russia, with the Ministry of Defence saying it shot down 94 Ukrainian drones overnight into Saturday, along with 45 further drones in the morning and early afternoon.
Four Ukrainian drones also were shot down while approaching Moscow on Saturday, according to Mayor Sergei Sobyanin. Meanwhile, a woman was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Rostov region, the acting governor said.
Separately, the Ukrainian military said in a statement on social media on Saturday that its special forces struck Russia’s Borisoglebsk military airfield in the Voronezh region, hitting a glide bomb store and a trainer aircraft.
The military said that other aircraft were also likely hit, without giving details.
The governor of Voronezh, Alexander Gusev, wrote on Telegram that more than 25 drones were destroyed over the region overnight. He said a power line was temporarily damaged, but made no mention of a military airfield.
The attacks come as Ukraine’s Zelenskyy said on Friday that he had a “very important and fruitful” phone conversation with US President Donald Trump in his efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s air defences.
The US president also spoke to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a day earlier in a conversation that he said was disappointing.
“I’m very disappointed with the conversation I had today with President Putin, because I don’t think he’s there, and I’m very disappointed,” Trump said after the call on Thursday. “I’m just saying I don’t think he’s looking to stop, and that’s too bad.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that it was “preferable” to achieve the goals of Russia’s invasion through political and diplomatic means.
“But as long as that is not possible, we are continuing the special operation,” he said.
India’s lead was 244 when play resumed under cloudy skies with the floodlights on. Brydon Carse began with a good spell and, having seen one edge fly through the slips, eventually nicked off Karun Nair for 26.
But that only brought in Gill, who is in the form of his life.
Admittedly England were tired and the situation free of any pressure after he got himself in, but he batted in similarly controlled fashion to his epic 269 in the first innings.
When KL Rahul had his middle stump uprooted by Josh Tongue, Gill was joined by Pant who played extraordinary scoops and cuts with the ball, and his bat, flying to all parts.
Crawley dropped Pant when the left-hander drilled to mid-on on 11 but it may not have mattered. India were already 321 ahead.
On 31 he swung so hard the bat flew from his hand. The same happened on 65 and, while the bat landed at mid-wicket, the ball ended up in the hands of long-off.
Throughout it all, Gill remained serene, adding a further 175 with Jadeja. He hardly offered a chance, reached his third hundred of the tour in 129 deliveries and his 150 by hitting a towering leg-side six.
Gill has 585 across two matches in the series, his first two Tests as skipper. On Sunday he may well have his first victory as India’s Test captain.
1 of 2 | Tropical Storm Chantal became the third named storm in the Atlantic this season. Photo by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
July 5 (UPI) — Tropical Storm Chantal formed in the Atlantic on Saturday morning and is projected to reach South Carolina and North Carolina on Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said.
Chantal, the third named storm of the season, will be the first system to impact the United States this Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1.
“As tropical cyclones go, this storm will be relatively minor and short-lived,” Frank Strait, severe weather liaison with the South Carolina State Climate Office, told the Island Packet.
In the 2 p.m. EDT update, Chantal had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and was traveling northward at 3 mph. In the 11 a.m. update, the winds were 40 mph.
The storm became a tropical depression Friday night off the coasts of Northeast Florida and Georgia.
Chantal was about 105 miles south-southeast of Charleston, S.C., and about 185 miles south-southwest of Wilmington, N.C.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for the South Santee River, S.C., to Surf City, N.C. A tropical storm watch goes from Edisto Beach to South Santee River.
Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 105 miles east of the center.
“Chantal has barely moved since last night, but a motion to the north-northwest is expected to begin soon,” NHC forecasters said. “The main steering features appear to be a mid- to upper-level low over the Gulf and a narrow mid-level ridge across the mid-Atlantic region.”
Some strengthening is expected before Chantal reaches the coast, NHC said.
A turn to the northeast is forecast by Sunday night, NHC said. On the forecast track, the center of Chantal is expected to move across South Carolina’s coast Sunday morning.
Chantal is expected to produce heavy rainfall in the Carolinas through Monday with 2 to 4 inches and local amounts of 6 inches. NHC said these rains could cause flash flooding
“The combination of storm surge and tide will cause normally dry areas near the coast to be flooded by rising waters moving inland from the shoreline,” NHC said.
Storm surge is forecast at 1-3 feet from South Santee River to Surf City and 1-2 feet from Edisto Beach to South Santee River.
Also, isolated tornadoes are possible Saturday night into Sunday along South Carolina’s eastern coast and much of North Carolina, NHC said.
“This was a classic example of homegrown development, by which a tropical storm formed close to the southeast Atlantic coast and in an area where it is typical for July,” AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Expert Alex DaSilva said.
Andrea and Barry, the first two named systems of the Atlantic hurricane season, have dissipated.
Ke uwa ce mai yara takwas, kina rainon ‘ya’yanki a sansanin ‘yan gudun hijira dake babban birnin tarayyar Najeriya bayan tserewa mummunan harin da kungiyar ta’addancin Boko Haram ke kaiwa.
Ta yaya zaki iya tinkarar barazanar rugujewar sansaninku, da kama danki, da kuma kwace baburan acabar da ki ka siya don samun abin rike rayuwa bayan duk kokarin ki na ganin kun samu rayuwa mai kyau na neman ya ci tura?
Love Island viewers threatened to contact Ofcom after they watched a tense conversation unfold on the recent episode of the ITV2 show
16:44, 05 Jul 2025Updated 16:44, 05 Jul 2025
Love Island viewers slam show after ‘horrible scene’ between two contestants(Image: ITV)
Love Island viewers hit out at the ITV2 dating show after they watched a tense conversation unfold between Dejon and newcomer Billykiss. The duo initially had a connection when the bombshell picked him for a date this week, but he chose to stay partnered up with Meg during the recoupling.
Animosity grew between them after the Islanders took part in a Superman-inspired game which saw Yasmin and Gio pick Dejon as the least dedicated male Islander. “I don’t feel like you’ve dedicated yourself fully to the whole experience,” Yasmin said. “I hope you’ve only dedicated to getting to know one person…”
They initially had a spark during their date(Image: ITV/Shutterstock)
Dejon responded: “I didn’t know when all of a sudden it’s become a problem wanting one woman,” to which Yasmin referred to his date with Billykiss.” The bombshell took the moment to point out how he claimed to be open with her but acts closed around Meg.
She told him: “You don’t want to hear the truth, which is why you’re feeling sour.” A day after the challenge, Billykiss and Dejon sat down to hash things out, with Dejon telling her: “The challenge yesterday, a lot of things were said that I don’t agree with at all.”
Billykiss said it wasn’t fair that he led her on despite knowing his “heart is with Meg” as she explained how she felt. However, he repeatedly shut her down and bluntly said: “You’re not someone that I would want to get to know in here, or on the outside, from the conversations that we’ve had.”
Things got tense between them in the recent episode(Image: ITV/Shutterstock)
She tried to share her thoughts but he stood up and added: “Alright Billykiss. I’m not going to keep begging to speak,” before waltzing off.
Fans were furious with how Dejon spoke to Billykiss and rushed to social media to threaten to filed a complaint with Ofcom.
One user said: “Complaining to @Ofcom Love Island. Allowing Dejon to speak to BillyKiss like that is not appropriate.
“You need to do better, that was so bloody awful to watch.”
Another fan commented: “That comment from Dejon! “That was HORRID and such a show of his character. I honestly rate Billykiss for standing her ground during that conversation,” while one posted: “That was a horrible scene to watch play out.”
One fan added: “Why does Dejon think he can speak like that to Billykiss?” and another reminded people: “Mind you Billykiss was having a nap in the shade, Dejon brought himself to have this conversation and acted like he was forced to be there.”
Love Island continues on Sunday night at 9pm on ITV2 and ITVX*
Authorities in US state face questions about whether they issued proper warnings in advance of rain-fuelled flooding.
Rescuers in the US state of Texas are scrambling to locate more than two dozen children still missing from a Christian summer camp after a powerful storm caused flash floods that authorities say have killed at least 27 people.
Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha told reporters on Saturday that the death toll included nine children.
Leitha said around 800 people had been evacuated from the region, about 137km (85 miles) northwest of San Antonio, as flood waters receded on Saturday morning.
Torrential downpour on Friday caused the fast-flowing Guadalupe River to rise nearly nine metres (29 feet) near the Camp Mystic summer camp, where around 750 children were staying.
Twenty-seven attendees were still unaccounted for, according to Dalton Rice, city manager of the nearby town of Kerrville in Kerr County.
The Heart O’ The Hills summer camp, located about 1.6km (1 mile) from Camp Mystic, confirmed on Saturday that its director, Jane Ragsdale, was among the dead.
While the National Weather Service (NWS) said the flash-flood emergency had largely ended for Kerr County – the epicentre of the flooding – it warned of more heavy rain to come, maintaining its flood watch until 7pm local time (00:00 GMT on Sunday).
Rice said that more than 1,000 rescuers were on the ground to help with search-and-rescue efforts. Helicopters and drones were being used, with some people being plucked from trees. US Coast Guard helicopters had flown in to assist.
“They are looking in every possible location,” said Rice, adding that search crews were facing harsh conditions while scouring waterlogged rivers, culverts and rocks.
People are reunited at a reunification centre in the town of Ingram after flash flooding hit Texas, on July 4, 2025 [Eric Gay/AP Photo]
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro said that rescue workers had promised to “not give up until the very last person is found – either alive or their body is recovered”.
“That might be a tall order given just how catastrophic these floods were. We’re talking about a region that is dotted with hills and with canyons,” she said.
She added that children in the camps had been particularly vulnerable to the floodwaters, “which rose by eight metres [26 feet] in less than an hour, overnight as they slept”.
Authorities under scutiny
The flooding in the middle of the night on the Fourth of July holiday weekend caught many residents, campers and officials by surprise.
Authorities have come under increasing scrutiny over whether they issued proper warnings and whether enough preparations were made.
State emergency management officials had warned as late as Thursday that west and central Texas faced heavy rains and flash flood threats “over the next couple days”, citing NWS forecasts ahead of the holiday weekend.
The weather forecasts, however, “did not predict the amount of rain that we saw”, W Nim Kidd, director of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, said during a news conference on Friday night.
“A lot of questions are being asked about why there weren’t earlier evacuations,” said Al Jazeera’s Zhou-Castro. “They knew there might be rain, they just didn’t know where it would hit, and when it did, it indeed was catastrophic.”
On Saturday morning, US President Donald Trump said the federal government was working with state and local officials to respond to the flooding.
“Our Brave First Responders are on site doing what they do best,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, adding that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem would soon be on the ground.
The weekend disaster echoes a catastrophic flood almost 40 years ago along the Guadalupe River, where a bus and a van leaving a church camp encountered floodwaters and 10 teenagers drowned trying to escape, according to a NWS summary of the 1987 storm.
A drone view shows flooded houses following torrential rains that unleashed flash floods along the Guadalupe River in San Angelo, Texas, June 4, 2025 [Patrick Keely via Reuters]
LONDON — Defending Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova lost to No. 10 seed Emma Navarro 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the third round on Saturday, extending a recent run of one-and-done winners at the All England Club.
Krejcikova faded in the third set, getting her blood pressure checked at the changeover after Navarro broke her to lead 3-2 at No. 1 Court. Krejcikova ate a banana and drank liquids during the medical timeout, while Navarro walked to her guest box and spoke to her coach during the break in action.
When play resumed, Krejcikova showed clear signs of being in distress, often leaning over and placing her hands on her knees between points.
“Part of you is telling yourself, ‘Just put a bunch of balls in the court, and that’s all you have to do.’ But then, she’s an amazing player, injuries or no injuries. So that’s not good enough,” said Navarro, who was born in New York, grew up in South Carolina and won the 2021 NCAA championship for the University of Virginia. “And then you trick yourself into taking too much off the ball and not playing the way you want to play. Not an easy challenge, for sure.”
Still, she managed to break right back to 3-all, before Navarro broke yet again and then held to lead 5-3. Two games later, it was over.
“I was able to serve a bit better and gained a little bit of traction on my return games, and from the ground, just played a little bit stronger,” said Navarro, 24, who will meet No. 7 Mirra Andreeva, an 18-year-old Russian, on Monday for a quarterfinal berth. “I like to play scrappy, so I was able to play a few more scrappy points, get a few more balls back in the court.”
Most points were decided by what Krejcikova did. That’s how she ended up with 34 winners — 21 more than Navarro — and 53 unforced errors. Remarkably, Navarro finished with just 11 unforced errors.
Whoever ends up winning the women’s title on July 12 will be the ninth champion in the past nine editions of the grass-court Grand Slam tournament. Serena Williams was the last repeat champ in 2016.
The trophy-takers since then have been Garbiñe Muguruza in 2017, Angelique Kerber in 2018, Simona Halep in 2019, Ash Barty in 2021 — all of whom are now retired — Elena Rybakina in 2022, Marketa Vondrousova in 2023 and then Krejcikova. Rybakina also lost Saturday, while Vondrousova exited in the second round.
Last year’s triumph was the second at a major tournament for Krejcikova, who also won the 2021 French Open and was the No. 17 seed at Wimbledon this year.
This has been a fortnight filled with surprises, and Navarro is one of four top-10 seeds left in the women’s bracket. The others are No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, who won her third-round match Friday against Emma Raducanu, and No. 7 Mirra Andreeva and No. 8 Iga Swiatek, who both won Saturday.
On June 27, El Hidaya Mosque in Roussillon in Southern France was attacked and vandalised. Windows were smashed and furniture overturned; the walls were plastered with racist flyers. Earlier the same month, a burned Quran was placed at the entrance of a mosque in Villeurbanne of Lyon.
Unfortunately, virulent Islamophobia in France has not stopped at vandalism.
On May 31, Hichem Miraoui, a Tunisian national, was shot dead by his French neighbour in a village near the French Riviera; another Muslim man was also shot but survived. A month earlier, Aboubakar Cisse, a Malian national, was stabbed to death in a mosque in the town of La Grand-Combeby by a French citizen.
There has been a significant spike in Islamophobic acts in France – something the French authorities remain reluctant to publicly comment on. One report showed a 72 percent increase in such incidents between January and March 2025 compared with the same period in 2024.
There are various factors that have contributed to this, but central among them is the French state’s own Islamophobic rhetoric and anti-Muslim policies.
The most recent iteration of this was the release of a report titled “The Muslim Brotherhood and Political Islamism in France” by the French government. The document claims that the Muslim Brotherhood and “political Islamism” are infiltrating French institutions and threatening social cohesion and names organisations and mosques as having links to the group.
The report came out just days before Miraoui was shot dead and two weeks after the French authorities raided the homes of several founding members of the Brussels-based Collective Against Islamophobia in Europe (CCIE) living in France.
With the rise of anti-Muslim attacks and discrimination in France, it is increasingly hard to believe that the obsession of the French state and government with what they call “Islamist separatism” is not, in fact, inciting violence against the French Muslim population.
The idea that French Muslims are somehow threatening the French state through their identity expression has been championed by the French far right for decades. But it was in the late 2010s that it entered the mainstream by being embraced by centrist politicians and the media.
In 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron, who also embraced the term “separatism”, called for the creation of a “French Islam”, a euphemism for domesticating and controlling Muslim institutions to serve the interest of the French state. At the heart of this project stood the idea of preserving “social cohesion”, which effectively meant suppressing dissent.
In the following years, the French state started acting on its obsession with controlling Muslims with more and tougher policies. Between 2018 and 2020, it shut down 672 Muslim-run entities, including schools and mosques.
In November 2020, the French authorities forced the Collective Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF), a nonprofit organisation documenting Islamophobia, to dissolve; the organisation then reconstituted in Brussels. In December of that year, they targeted 76 mosques, accusing them of “Islamist separatism” and threatening them with closure.
In 2021, the French Parliament passed the so-called anti-separatism law, which included a variety of measures to supposedly combat “Islamist separatism”. Among them was an extension of the ban on religious symbols in the public sector, restrictions on home schooling and sports associations, new rules for organisations receiving state subsidies, more policing of places of worship, etc.
By January 2022, the French government reported that it had inspected more than 24,000 Muslim organisations and businesses, shut down more than 700 and seized 46 million euros ($54m) in assets.
The Muslim Brotherhood boogeyman
The report released in May, like many official statements and initiatives, was not aimed to clarify policy or ensure legal precision. It was supposed to politicise Muslim identity, delegitimise political dissent and facilitate a new wave of state attacks on the Muslim civil society.
The report names various Muslim organisations, accusing them of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood. It also argues that campaigning against Islamophobia is a tool of the organisation. According to the report, the Muslim Brotherhood uses anti-Islamophobia activism to discredit secular policies and portray the state as racist.
This framing is aimed to invalidate legitimate critiques of discriminatory laws and practices, and frames any public recognition of anti-Muslim racism as a covert Islamist agenda. The implication is clear: Muslim visibility and dissent are not just suspect — they are dangerous.
The report also dives into the Islamo-gauchisme or Islamo-leftism conspiracy theories – the idea that “Islamists” and leftists have a strategic alliance. It claims that decolonial movement is challenneling Islamism and references the March Against Islamophobia of November 10, 2019, a mass mobilisation that drew participants from across the political spectrum, including the left.
The report that was commissioned under the hardline former Interior Minister and now Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, who back in 2021 accused far-right leader Marine Le Pen of being “too soft” on Islam.
All of this – the report, the legislation, the police raids and rhetorical attacks against the French Muslim community – follows the long French colonial tradition of seeking to rule over and control Muslim populations. The French political centre has had to embrace Islamophobia to contain its falling popularity. It may help with narrow electoral victories over the rising far right, but those will be short-lived. The more lasting impact will be a sigmatised, alienated Muslim community which will increasingly face state-incited violence and hatred.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
Helen Schulman is not afraid to make you squirm. Across her long and distinguished career as a novelist and short story writer, she has fearlessly explored the awkward collisions between our private and public selves, between what we present to the world and what we conceal from even our closest companions. Her 2011 best-selling novel “This Beautiful Life” dared to plunge headfirst into the shark-infested waters of the internet while most of us were still basking in the glow of the web’s shiny benevolence. “Fools For Love,” her latest collection of stories, finds Schulman’s characters weighing the past against the present, looking for redemption in the wrong places and occasionally coming up roses.
My own artistic hope is to go as long as I can. I live to write!
— Helen Schulman
(Please note: The Times may earn a commission through links to Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.)
✍️ Author Chat
Helen Schulman’s new story collection, “Fools For Love,” hits bookshelves this July.
(Knopf)
When it comes to ideas, what becomes a short story and what becomes a novel?
A lot of my ideas spring forward from something Henry James called the “germ” — the bit of overheated gossip, the newspaper article, an eavesdropped conversation on a public bus, a story told by other parents when you are both pushing toddlers on the swings in a playground, which injects itself into the writerly imagination and grows — often over large swaths of time. Sometimes these obsessions entangle, too. That’s what happened in [my story] “The Revisionist.” My husband had a college buddy over for dinner who told us this story about a friend of his who was walking home from work when a strange man ran into his own house and slammed the door in his face. Why? What? Who? The reality was somewhat pedestrian — the intruder was a drunken next-door neighbor, who I guess had overshot. But the anecdote stuck with me.
For some of your characters, the past is ever-present — they are fated to live with the sum of their choices, and it engenders a lot of regret. Can you speak to that?
My all-time favorite writer is William Faulkner. You must be familiar with his quote from the novel “Requiem for a Nun”: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” I sometimes feel this way about existence in general, like each and every moment in a lifetime is somehow equal, and that as one ages the moments accrue and tag along wherever one goes. Certainly in my own life I don’t sweat my big choices; I’m happy about them. I think a person does the best they can with what they know at the time. But I’m infinitely curious about what could have happened instead.
There is a lot of status anxiety in your work— not just financial status, but marriage, career — the things you think will align pleasingly in middle age but often don’t.
My husband and I are both working writers. The marriage works; the financial status has gone in and out. I’m not sure I always looked to middle age as a time of “pleasing alignment,” but I also didn’t think the world would be as effed up as it is now. Some of my characters get older and wiser; some are just more wrinkled, taller kids. But there is a lot of endurance over time in these stories — love, friendship, workplace passions. I would venture to say that most of my characters have real lives, and some very real satisfactions within the stresses that inevitably go along with them.
There are also secrets in your stories. Are we as sick as our secrets, or are they simply unavoidable?
Everyone has secrets. In “The Revisionist,” the protagonist even keeps secrets from himself. One of my closest friends, after the death of her parents, found out that one was married before and that the other had two other children with someone else. Now everyone is dead, and so we don’t even know if the spouses knew this about each other. There is nothing pedestrian about “ordinary lives.” We all roil and we all excite. I feel like one of my jobs as a fiction writer is to dive down beneath the surface.
In the story “My Best Friend,” there is a shocking act of violence. Why did you take it in that direction?
That story is about two men, one an up-and-coming-actor and the other a want-to-be novelist, who fall into a deep brotherhood while sleeping with the same woman. In fact, they each marry her — sequentially, of course. At some point, the friendship goes south; the protagonist, Jake, and Jeannie, the woman, have kids together and his career dries up. The first husband, Phil, becomes a very successful TV showrunner and producer. Out of pity, he hires Jake to be a character in one of his nighttime soaps. Jake starts to become an audience favorite, and Phil tortures the character on the series. All their pent up homoerotic attachments and jealousies explode in a “manly” brawl, which I see as tragicomedic, at the end of the story. The love story is theirs, after all.
Kurt Vonnegut has a quote about, when one reaches advanced middle age, life becomes an epilogue. That is a hard thing to carry. Do you feel that this is the case? I guess I’m thinking about your story “In a Better Place,” which revisits the characters from the book’s titular story in old age.
No, honestly I don’t. That story is really about the celebration of long love between the couple at the heart of the story, its healing powers and sustaining comforts. What may make this all feel epilogue-y to you (not a word, I know) is because these two people feel happy and fulfilled by their marriage. … My own artistic hope is to go as long as I can. I live to write!
📰 The Week(s) in Books
Charlie English spotlights the CIA’s use of literature to fight communism during the Cold War in his latest book.
(Angel City Press at the Los Angeles Public Library)
Valerie Castellanos Clark weighs in on Charlie English’s “The CIA Book Club,” about how Polish citizens fought Russian communism with books. “As with the best spy novels, we know the good guy is going to win … but how English gets us there is exciting,” Clark writes.
Leigh Haber raves on Amy Bloom’s latest novel “I’ll Be Right Here.” “As Bloom has demonstrated throughout her stellar literary career,” writes Haber, “she can train her eye on any person, place or object and render it sublime.”
Jim Ruland calls Megan Abbott’s latest thriller, “El Dorado Drive,” a novel for our present age of anxiety, propelled by Abbott’s masterful narrative drive and her skill at “rendering the hot, messy inner lives of young people.”
📖 Bookstore Faves
Ken Concepcion, owner of Now Serving, tells us what’s been flying off the shelves at his Chinatown bookstore that specializes in cookbooks.
(Shelby Moore / For The Times)
This week we are perusing the shelves at Now Serving, a cozy bookshop devoted to the culinary arts and located on the ground floor of Chinatown’s Far East Plaza. Co-owner Ken Concepcion gives us the scoop on the hot goods.
What food trend are customers excited about right now?
Being that we are in L.A., there has always been a demand for vegetarian and vegan titles. The interest in plant-based cookbooks that delve into specific cuisines such as Filipino, Vietnamese, Mexican and Japanese has definitely grown over the years, and the diversity of voices has been wonderful to see. There needs to be better representation for Ecuadorian, Guatemalan and other Central and South American cuisines as well — there is a real demand for it.
Why do you think cookbooks are still important, despite the ubiquity of recipes online?
As with anything that you can find online, recipes are no different. There are thousands upon thousands available. Most of them are copycat recipes. We think cookbooks are still unparalleled in that they can deliver a narrative, historical context and incredible imagery and stunning design in a world that is more reliant on technology than ever. Cookbooks at best are functional objects of art that can be then passed down from generation to generation. They can often become keepsakes, time capsules and family heirlooms.
Verstappen said he “had to commit a lot” in the high-speed corners because of the low-downforce set-up the team had chosen, which made the car on edge in the demanding corners.
The low wing levels come with pros and cons – it gives faster speed on the straight but makes the car more difficult through the corners and potentially increases tyre wear.
Verstappen said: “We looked a bit slow on the other wing plus it was understeering to the moon, and I needed to get rid of that understeer. It was light on downforce but it seemed to work.”
Piastri was quickest after the first laps of qualifying but he failed to improve on his second lap, at least partly because of a couple of slides of the rear out of the final corner, Club.
The championship leader said: “I was happy with the first lap. It was mega, to be honest. I was trying to think of how I would go faster and I didn’t.
“The second lap was a bit messy but it has been tight all weekend; a little on the table, but we’ll never know if it’s enough.”
Piastri said he was “not that surprised Max is quick here”, it’s quite similar speed and conditions to Suzuka,” where Verstappen won from pole.
Norris, who trails Piastri by 15 points going into the race, which marks the halfway point of the season, said: “Good qualifying. I am not going to be unhappy with third, would love to be pole but Max did a good job, a fun qualifying today. Not the top but still a good day.
“It’s going to be fun tomorrow, a good fight, with the three of us, and probably with Lewis and Charles and George as well.”
1 of 6 | Paris officials spent $1.6 billion to clean up the Seine in time for last year’s 2024 Olympics, but despite the cash infusion, some races had to be postponed because of water quality issues. File Photo by Paul Hanna/UPI | License Photo
July 5 (UPI) — The famed Seine river in Paris opened to the public for swimming on Saturday for the first time in over a 100 years, a key victory for outgoing mayor Anne Hidalgo.
The waterway was last swimmable in 1923, with a ban in place since that year because high levels of bacteria made it unsafe for people.
In a show of confidence, Hidalgo herself famously took to the water ahead of the Olympics for a swim to prove the river was swimmable.
“Swimming in the Seine, some have dreamed of it, many have doubted it, and we have done it,” she said on Facebook at the time. “After a 100-year ban, athletes will take their turn in a few days during the Games! It will be next summer for Parisians.”
Hidalgo’s prediction came true on a seasonal basis. Three designated swimming areas opened Saturday morning, each with lounging areas, outdoor furniture, showers and changing facilities, while lifeguards patrol the river.
One of the swimming areas is not far from the Eiffel Tower, while a second is close to the Notre Dame Cathedral, which re-opened last year after a devastating fire. The third is in the eastern part of Paris.
The mayor, who was elected in 2014 and will leave office next year after a failed bid at the presidency, has spent her time in office pushing green initiatives in the city.
Water quality in the Seine has gradually improved over the last 20 years. At its lowest point, people swimming in the river would get sick because of the high bacteria count.
Plans to re-open the Seine to public swimming have been circulating since former French President and then-Paris Mayor Jacques René Chirac campaigned on the promise in 1988.
A planned race across the city was canceled in 2012 because the water was “manifestly insufficient quality for swimming.”
British foreign secretary pledges support for Syria’s new government after talks with interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The United Kingdom has announced it is formally restoring diplomatic ties with Syria as British Foreign Secretary David Lammy travelled to the capital Damascus to meet with interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Al-Sharaa received Lammy on Saturday alongside Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, according to photos of the meeting released by the presidency.
“After over a decade of conflict, there is renewed hope for the Syrian people,” Lammy said in a statement released by his office, noting that the visit was the first by a British minister to Syria in 14 years.
“The UK is re-establishing diplomatic relations because it is in our interests to support the new government to deliver their commitment to build a stable, more secure and prosperous future for all Syrians,” he said.
Syria has been improving relations with Western countries after longtime President Bashar al-Assad was removed from power in December 2024 in an offensive led by al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) armed group.
In April, the British government lifted sanctions against a dozen Syrian entities, including government departments and media outlets, to help the country rebuild after al-Assad’s fall.
Weeks earlier, the UK had dropped sanctions against two dozen Syrian businesses, mostly banks and oil companies.
On Monday, United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order to dismantle a web of sanctions against Syria that had crippled the country’s economy under al-Assad.
In a statement posted on X, al-Shaibani – the Syrian foreign minister – welcomed Trump’s decision, saying it would “open the door of long-awaited reconstruction and development”.
“It will lift the obstacle against economic recovery and open the country to the international community,” he said.
Syria’s new leaders have been struggling to rebuild the country’s decimated economy and infrastructure after nearly 14 years of civil war that killed half a million people.
Casualty has been pulled from air on Saturday, July 5 so viewers won’t get their usual medical drama fix
BBC drama Casualty, the Saturday night staple, is set for a break this weekend as sports take over the television schedule.
The beloved medical series is set to be side-lined on Saturday, July 5, with sporting events claiming the spotlight. Wimbledon 2025 will be occupying BBC One’s sought-after 7.15pm to 10pm slot, forcing the regular programming, including Casualty, off air.
However, fans need not feel too dismayed, as Casualty is set to make its return on Saturday, July 12 at 8.50pm, and in the meantime, episodes are available on BBC iPlayer.
This announcement comes hot on the heels of dramatic scenes that saw Stevie Nash (portrayed by Elinor Lawless) resuming her duties after cancer treatment in one of the recent instalments, reports Wales Online.
Casualty is being dropped from the schedules this weekend(Image: BBC)
While doctors recommended more recuperation time, Stevie was adamant about diving straight back into work, only to be overwhelmed when a spate of overdose cases hit the ED.
New face Flynn Byron (played by Olly Rix), despite promising to support Stevie throughout their shift, found himself whisked away to tackle other crises.
Audiences were quick to voice concerns about Stevie’s hasty return, expressing doubts over whether it was truly the right move for her.
One viewer remarked: “Sorry, Stevie. I don’t think you’re ready at all #Casualty”, whilst another chimed in with: “Stevie being thrown into the deep end on Day 1 #Casualty.”
Someone else penned: “Poor Stevie rushed off her feet on Day 1” While another viewer expressed: “Stevie you shouldn’t be back so soon – actually I’m glad you are but please look after yourself.”
Olly Rix is a new addition to Casuakty(Image: BBC)
Echoing that sentiment, another remarked: “Stevie really hasn’t been supported back to work at all #casualty” Meanwhile, a concerned fan noted: “Poor Stevie. Much too soon to come back to work.”
One viewer lamented: “My heart breaks for Stevie #casualty” As the tension escalated, someone else observed: “Tonight’s episode is stressful.”
BBC’s schedule has seen other major changes this week with Wimbledon and Women’s Euro 2025 taking over many of the prime slots as they kick off.
The One Show has also hit pause on its regular weeknight appearance on BBC One at 7pm – Alex Jones confirmed during the last airing on June 27 by telling the audience: “We are taking a bit of a break for the next four weeks and we’ll be back on Monday, 28th July – but there’s plenty to enjoy like Wimbledon and the Euros.”
Additionally, EastEnders found a temporary new home on BBC Two with consecutive episodes aired last Monday and Tuesday at both 7pm and 7.30pm.
Daytime television has had a shuffle too, with Escape To The Country bidding farewell to its customary 3pm weekday slot on BBC One to make room for tennis coverage.
Casualty returns to BBC One on Saturday, July 12 at 8.50pm and you can catch up on BBC iPlayer
More than 25 protesters have been detained by police a day after the activist group was banned in the UK.
Police have arrested protesters in London for supporting activist group Palestine Action, which was banned at midnight in the United Kingdom.
“Officers have arrested more than 20 people on suspicion of offences under the Terrorism Act 2000. They have been taken into custody. Palestine Action is a proscribed group and officers will act where criminal offences are committed,” the Metropolitan Police wrote on X on Saturday.
Campaign group Defend Our Juries said in a press release that 27 people, including a priest and a number of health professionals, had been arrested for offences under the Terrorism Act.
They were holding cardboard signs, saying: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
Passersby reacted to the arrests as the police intervened in the demonstration at noon.
“Met Police, you are puppets of the Zionist state” and “leave them alone”, they were quoted as shouting by the Press Association, the British news agency.
Other supporters, not directly involved in the Palestine Action protest, shouted: “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?” and “British police off our streets.”
There were further chants of “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” during the incident.
The ban
Police warned on Friday that expressing support for Palestine Action would be a criminal offence after the ban kicked in at midnight.
“This includes chanting, wearing clothing or displaying articles such as flags, signs or logos,” said the force.
A spokesperson for Defend Our Juries said: “We commend the Counter Terrorism police for their decisive action in protecting the people of London from some cardboard signs opposing the genocide in Gaza and expressing support for those taking action to prevent it.”
The proscription cleared parliament on Thursday, with a court challenge to try to stop it becoming law failing on Friday.
The government announced last week it would ban Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act 2000, days after activists from the group broke into an air force base in southern England.
Two aircraft at the base were sprayed with red paint, causing an estimated 7 million pounds ($9.55m) in damage.
Four Palestine Action activists were remanded in custody on Thursday after appearing in court over the incident.
Palestine Action has condemned the proscription as an attack on free speech.
The ban will make it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
A Palestine Action activist speaks to supporters and members of the media on Friday [Benjamin Cremel/AFP]
Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Noah Goldberg with an assist from David Zahniser, giving you the latest on city and county government.
A few Los Angeles city councilmembers got in some final zingers before packing their bags for summer recess.
It was the final council session before the three-week pause, and members were working their way through a thick agenda Tuesday. After weeks in which the main focus has been President Trump’s immigration crackdown in the city, it didn’t appear there would be fireworks.
Then, Councilmember Traci Park rolled her eyes at Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez while he was speaking. And Councilmember Monica Rodriguez had some sharp words for both of them.
Let’s backtrack and figure out how we got there.
In May, the council passed an ordinance to raise the minimum wage for hotel and airport workers to $30 per hour — higher than the city’s minimum wage — with Park, Rodriguez and Councilmember John Lee voting against it.
Soto-Martínez, a former organizer with the hotel and restaurant union Unite Here Local 11, which pushed for the minimum wage hike, led the charge at City Hall.
Park said she voted against the ordinance because she thought that it didn’t take into account economic realities and that it would result in hotel and airport workers losing their jobs. Park’s opponent in a bitterly contested general election for her Westside council seat in 2022 was a Unite Here-backed candidate, Erin Darling.
After the minimum wage hike passed, a business coalition called the L.A. Alliance for Tourism, Jobs and Progress began a campaign to overturn it by gathering signatures to place it on the June 2026 ballot, which would at least delay its implementation.
Meanwhile, a petition circulator alleged that she was assaulted outside a Food 4 Less in Inglewood by an SEIU-USWW executive board member while gathering signatures. The woman filed a police report, and a judge granted her request for a temporary restraining order against the board member.
Enter Soto-Martínez and Park.
Soto-Martínez quickly drafted a motion asking for the LAPD to investigate the petition circulators for fraud and other misconduct alleged in the Unite Here letter.
When Soto-Martínez introduced his motion at the City Council’s Economic Development and Jobs Committee last month, Park spoke up, saying it was hypocritical for Unite Here to complain about misleading campaigns when it engaged in the same tactics “on a regular basis.”
Park quoted from a text message campaign that she said dozens of her constituents had brought to her attention.
“A new complaint alleges paid signature gatherers are using misdirection and misconduct to collect these signatures. Don’t sign the petition. Email Traci Park to tell her to stop this misleading effort to lower the minimum wage,” read a text message from Citizens in Support of the LA Olympic Wage, a campaign backed by Unite Here in favor of the hotel and airport minimum wage.
Park said the text made it sound as if she were involved in the campaign to repeal the ordinance.
“I have nothing to do with it. No one ever consulted me about it. No one ever asked my opinion about it,” she said at the committee meeting.
When the committee approved Soto-Martínez’s motion on June 17, she voted “no,” saying any investigation should scrutinize both sides of the wage campaign. The motion reached the full council on Tuesday.
Park quoted from the text campaign again and introduced an amendment asking for the LAPD to investigate both sides of the petition fight — those aligned with the L.A. Alliance for Tourism and those aligned with Unite Here.
“We know that engaging in misleading tactics are not unique to one group or one organization,” she said. “I know this because I have personally been targeted by misleading smear campaigns by the very group now complaining about this behavior.”
Soto-Martínez fired back at his colleague.
“There have been plenty of things said about me that have been misleading and I didn’t agree with, but I didn’t bring it into this chamber,” he said.
Soto-Martínez also said he wanted to draw a distinction between the text message campaign about Park and the alleged physical assaults against Unite Here campaigners.
Still, in the end, he said he supported Park’s amendment.
Park could be seen in a video recording of the council meeting rolling her eyes as Soto-Martínez finished his speech.
In a statement, Unite Here co-President Kurt Petersen called Park’s comments at the council meeting “unbelievably narcissistic.”
“Working people plea for her help after they were allegedly assaulted while they campaigned to raise wages. Instead of focusing on helping the victims, Councilmember Park complains about being criticized for her vote against the minimum wage, and equates criticism of her to the alleged political violence,” Petersen said. “This kind of greedy self involvement in the face of injustice is a hallmark of the billionaire allies of Councilmember Traci Park, and it’s why working people don’t trust her.”
Park responded in a statement, “Kurt Petersen is killing jobs and tanking our local economy. Iconic restaurants are closing, airport workers are being replaced by kiosks, hotels are pulling out, and working families are losing, not winning. His divisive and reckless tactics are speeding up automation and driving opportunity out of Los Angeles.”
Councilmember Rodriguez chastised both Park and Soto-Martínez.
“I think this idea that’s trying to assign blame to one side or another is kind of futile, given the demands of what we need LAPD to be focused on, but I think performative politics is the name of the game these days,” Rodriguez said. “Everyone needs to grow the hell up.”
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State of play
— SANCTUARY SUIT: The Department of Justice filed suit against the city of Los Angeles on Monday over its sanctuary ordinance, calling the ordinance illegal and saying that it discriminates against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. L.A.’s refusal to cooperate with federal immigration authorities has resulted in “lawlessness, rioting, looting, and vandalism,” according to the lawsuit. Mayor Karen Bass called the lawsuit part of an “all out assault on Los Angeles” by President Trump. Immigrant rights groups filed their own lawsuit against the Trump administration Wednesday, seeking to block the administration’s “ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law” during immigration raids in the L.A. area.
—HOMELESSNESS DROP: Homelessness declined by 15% overall in three areas of Los Angeles in 2024, according to a new Rand study. The biggest drop came in Hollywood, where the report found that the number of homeless people decreased 49% from 2023. The number fell 22% in Venice and went up 9% in Skid Row, according to the report. The Rand study linked the Hollywood decrease to a series of Inside Safe operations in 2024.
— SEE YA, CEQA: As part of the state budget, the California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 130 and Senate Bill 131 Monday, which exempts most urban housing projects from the California Environmental Quality Act. The act, known as CEQA, has often mired construction projects in years of litigation. Gov. Gavin Newsom muscled the new rules through the Legislature despite concerns from progressive lawmakers and environmental interest groups.
— MANSION SPEND: The L.A. City Council approved a plan Tuesday to spend almost $425 million collected from the city’s “mansion” tax on property sales over $5 million. Backers of the controversial tax — which has been criticized by the real estate industry for limiting property sales and reducing property tax revenue — say the fund is producing crucial dollars for affordable housing and homelessness prevention programs.
— FROZEN FUNDS: The Trump administration moved to withhold $811 million from California that would have helped students who are learning English or are from migrant families. “The [Education] Department remains committed to ensuring taxpayer resources are spent in accordance with the President’s priorities and the Department’s statutory responsibilities,” the administration said in a letter to states on Monday.
QUICK HITS
Where is Inside Safe? The mayor’s signature homelessness program returned to locations of past operations in Echo Park, Watts and South L.A. this week, according to the mayor’s office.
On the docket for next week: The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will vote to appoint Sarah Mahin as the first executive director for the county’s new Department of Homeless Services and Housing.
Stay in touch
That’s it for this week! Send your questions, comments and gossip to [email protected]. Did a friend forward you this email? Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Saturday morning.
Gloria Jiménez and Bruce Martin, leaders of a Galaxy supporter group called the Angel City Brigade, are certain this is no time to be quiet.
Since its founding in 2007, the Angel City Brigade, one of the Galaxy’s largest fan groups, has made its voice heard in sections 121 and 122 of Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.
On Friday, during the typically festive Fourth of July fireworks game, Galaxy supporter groups decided to express their frustration and anger over seeing Southern California’s Latino community targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in recent weeks.
The fans say they are upset by the Galaxy management’s silence amid ICE’s presence in the Latino community. The majority of Galaxy fans are Latino, but the team has not issued any statements in support of fans, remaining as quiet as the Dodgers until the MLB team felt pressure and made a $1 million donation to benefit families impacted by the raids.
The Galaxy and representatives of the teams’ supporter groups have held closed-door talks, but it didn’t lead to a public statements by the club. Before the match against the Whitecaps on Thursday outside Dignity Health Sports Park, Angel City Brigade displayed signs that read “Stop the Raids,” “Free Soil” and “No One is Illegal.
At the end of the national anthem, “Victoria Block,” the section where most of the Galaxy’s fan groups stand, unfurled a tifo with three images: a farm worker; Roy Benavidez, a U.S. Army Medal of Honor recipient; and Elena Rios, president of the National Hispanic Health Foundation. At the bottom, the banner read: “Fight Ignorance, Not Immigrants.”
Members of the Angel City Brigade, including Gloria Jiménez, center, protest ICE raids in Southern California during the Galaxy’s game against Vancouver on Friday at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.
(Jill Connelly/Especial para LA Times en Español)
During the 12th minute of the match, the Angel City Brigade left the stands in protest. Supporter groups the Galaxians and Galaxy Outlawz protested silently, carrying no drums or trumpets. They also did not sing or chant during the game.
“What’s going on in Los Angeles has nothing to do with the players. They know that. What’s going on in Los Angeles we don’t like,” Manuel Martínez, leader of the Galaxy Outlawz, said before the match. “I belong to a family of immigrants who became citizens. So we know the struggle that people go through. We know that there are hard working, innocent workers out there.”
The Riot Squad, on the other side of the stadium, also remained silent during and displayed a message that read: “We like our Whiskey Neat, and our Land and People Free.”
Members of the Angel City Brigade hold up a sign that reads “Smash Ice” during the Galaxy’s match against Vancouver on Friday at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.
(Jill Connelly/Especial para LA Times en Español)
This is not the first time Galaxy fan groups have taken action when they were unhappy team management.
Angel City Brigade, along with other groups such as LA Riot Squad, Galaxy Outlawz and the Galaxians, led boycott while demanding the removal of then-team president Chris Klein following mismanagement and decisions they felt didn’t make the team competitive enough to win. Their effort paid off: Klein stepped down and new management eventually led the club to its sixth MLS championship secured at the end of last season.
On Friday, in addition to issuing a statement reaffirming their “non-discriminatory principles, which oppose exclusion and prejudice based on race, origin, gender identity, sexuality or gender expression,” the fans decided to organize a fundraiser to support pro-immigrant organizations affected by the Trump administration’s budget cuts: Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Border Kindness and Immigrant Defenders Law Center.
To raise funds, they sold T-shirts with an image of a protester in Chinatown confronting an ICE agent.
Angel City Brigade & Galaxians are staging a walkout during tonight’s match vs Vancouver in the 12th min, with their team leading 1-0. The groups are protesting the LA Galaxy administration’s silence in the wake of recent ICE raids, citing the lack of support for their community pic.twitter.com/yuxcTESzAi
“This is our way of showing that we want to help, and to fight what’s going on,” said Martin, a Los Angeles native.
The T-shirt sales raised $4,000 for the three organizations.
Previously, Angel City Brigade, like other Galaxy supporter groups, decided not to travel to the June 28 road match against the Earthquakes in San José as a precaution against the raids. About 600 Galaxy fans typically attend the road match.
“We have members who have not been able to work. We have members who have not been able to, go out to games or attend events. San José would have been one of them,” Jiménez said. “We decided that as a group, we couldn’t travel without leaving our brothers and sisters here. So in solidarity with the people who can’t attend because of fear of what’s going on, we decided to cancel the event.”
While the other two professional soccer teams in Los Angeles — LAFC and Angel City FC — have issued public statements in support of the Latino immigrant community, the Galaxy’s ownership has not addressed the issue. Angel City took its support further, wearing “Immigrant City Football Club” warm-up shirts, giving some shirts away to fans and selling more on its website as a fundraiser to support an organization that provides legal support for immigrants.
So far, the only member of the Galaxy who has addressed the issue publicly is head coach Greg Vanney.
“I think we all know someone who is probably affected by what’s going on, so it’s hard from a human standpoint not to have compassion for the families and those who are affected by what’s going on,” Vanney said prior to a game against St. Louis City SC in June.
“We have to really help each other, versus expecting others to do it,” Jiménez said. “That the support didn’t come from our team, as we expected, broke our hearts into a thousand pieces.”
In the past, the Galaxy and supporter groups have collaborated while celebrating various Latin American countries, incorporating their cultural symbols into team merchandise. But amid the Galaxy’s silence, fans are starting to doubt the sincerity of the cultural celebrations.
“It’s sad and disappointing to me. This team that has been in Los Angeles since the mid-1990s, and they’ve leveraged the culture for publicity. When they signed [Mexican soccer star] Chicharito for example, they were strong on Mexican culture and things like that. So when this all started, you would think that they would be for their culture, that they would be there for the fans,” Jiménez said. “And by not saying anything, it doesn’t say that they really care about it. Families are being torn apart and they just stay silent.”
Jiménez said there isn’t a day that goes by that she doesn’t cry or feel anger about the ICE raids.
“We already know what we are to them, we are not friends or family,” she said of the Galaxy. “We are fans and franchise.”
Martin said he has received messages on social media, including from Galaxy fans and supporters of other teams, criticizing his stance. However, Angel City Brigade said its members made a unanimous decision to protest.
“We have always had moments where we have a very clear vision about how we feel,” Jiménez said. “And I think this is one of the times when everyone has made the same decision.”
Galaxy fans plan to stage more protests during the team’s next home match.
