May 5 (UPI) — Rwanda and the Trump administration are in talks to have the central African nation accepted deportees from the United States.

Rwanda’s foreign minister Olivier J.P. Nduhungirehe confirmed the talks Sunday but it was not publicized whether a deal would be for individuals already deported or those who will be in the future. Nduhungirehe said his country was in “early stage” talks about the possibility.

Nduhungirehe said in an interview with the Rwanda Broadcasting Agency Sunday that Rwanda is involved in “talks with the [United States] about a deal on migration.”

It is also unclear if any deal would be to accept deported Rwandans or if migrants from other countries would also be involved. The Handbasket first reported in April that the United States deported Iraqi and alleged terrorist Omar Abdulsattar Ameen to Rwanda.

Rwanda already has a history of deals with Western nations in regard to migrants. It had made an agreement with Britian in 2022 to receive third-country asylum seekers, but the deal was ended in 2024 by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

The Trump administration has already deported hundreds of alleged gang members from Venezuela to El Salvador and has asked several countries to take back their own citizens who the United States has deported. Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked visas for all South Sudanese nationals in April after the country wouldn’t accept a deported migrant.

Should a deal be reached, it would make Rwanda the first African nation to accept deportees from the United States.

US President Donald Trump says he wants to work with his Turkish counterpart to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

United States President Donald Trump says he has had a “very good and productive” telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and they have discussed a wide range of topics, including how to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, Syria and Israel’s war on Gaza.

During the call on Monday, Trump said Erdogan had invited him to visit Turkiye and he had extended an invitation for the Turkish leader to visit Washington, DC. No dates were announced.

A readout of the call from the Turkish presidency confirmed Erdogan invited Trump for a visit.

The Republican president, who described his relationship with Erdogan as “excellent” during his first tenure at the White House, said the two countries would cooperate on ending the war in Ukraine.

“I look forward to working with President Erdogan on getting the ridiculous but deadly, War between Russia and Ukraine ended – NOW!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform.

NATO member Turkiye has sought to maintain good relations with both of its Black Sea neighbours since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has twice hosted talks aimed at ending the war.

“Noting that he supports President Trump’s approach toward ending wars, President Erdogan expressed appreciation for the efforts exerted to maintain the negotiation process with Iran and stop the war between Russia and Ukraine,” Turkiye’s Directorate of Communications said in a statement posted on X.

Erdogan also raised the urgent need for a ceasefire in Gaza, warning that its humanitarian crisis had reached a “grave level”, the directorate said.

The Turkish president also stressed the importance of the “uninterrupted delivery of humanitarian aid and the urgent end to this tragic situation”.

On neighbouring Syria, Erdogan reaffirmed Turkiye’s commitment to preserving its territorial integrity and restoring lasting stability.

He said US efforts to ease sanctions on Syria and its new government would help move that process forward and contribute to regional peace.

Regarding bilateral ties, Erdogan said Ankara remained committed to strengthening cooperation with Washington, particularly in the defence sector.

Trump is due to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates next week.

President Trump continues to press for control over institutions that shape the arts, culture — and history. Last week the administration removed board members appointed by former President Biden from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., including former second gentleman Doug Emhoff, the husband of former Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized,” Emhoff, who is Jewish and a leader in fighting rising antisemitism against Jewish Americans, wrote on social media after his termination. “To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous — and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve.”

A few days earlier, the Associated Press reported that a week of events connected with the city’s World Pride Festival celebrating the LGBTQ+ community had been quietly canceled at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The news was not surprising to those who have followed the national arts institution since Trump fired much of the board and orchestrated his appointment as chairman.

A page on the Kennedy Center website still references its Tapestry of Pride programming, but it doesn’t connect to any events. Groups planning festivities at the center told the AP that after Trump’s takeover, their contact with the venue went dark, forcing them to relocate their performances to other venues.

One sign of resistance, however, flashed on Friday, when House Democrats asked the Smithsonian’s inspector general to investigate the legality of Trump’s executive order threatening to pull funding for museums with ideology that the president deemed “improper.” That announcement follows resistance seen on a more local level, including the Japanese American National Museum in L.A. declaring that it would not bend to pressure to scrub references to diversity, equity and inclusion from its website. “Our community is based on diversity, equity is guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and inclusion is what we believe in,” a museum official said.

I’m culture writer Jessica Gelt, here with Ashley Lee with your weekly arts news and some worthwhile diversions from our reality.

Best bets: On our radar this week

Analia Saban with her “Broken Vase” project at Gemini G.E.L. in 2016.

(Sidney B. Felsen)

Analia Saban and Printmaking in L.A.

“Saban has made it her cunning practice to reconstitute painting and sculpture, to fiddle with foundations, essences and definitions, to take nothing for granted,” wrote Times contributor Leah Ollman of Analia Saban in 2017. The artist will be joined by Naoko Takahatake (director and chief curator of the UCLA Grunwald Center of the Graphic Arts), Case Hudson (master printer at Gemini G.E.L.), Shaye Remba (director of Mixografia) and Francesco Siqueiros (founder of El Nopal Press) in a conversation exploring the place of printmaking in her creative practice, as well as her many collaborations with renowned print shops around Los Angeles. The free talk takes place Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. hammer.ucla.edu

Esa-Pekka Salonen Leads Debussy and Boulez

To mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of revolutionary French composer and conductor Pierre Boulez, the Los Angeles Philharmonic (which Boulez conducted often), French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard (whom Boulez invited to be in his Ensemble Intercontemporain) and L.A. Dance Project will join Esa-Pekka Salonen for a program that Times classical music critic Mark Swed touted last month. The belated birthday concerts (Boulez was born March 26) take place Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. (Another Boulez-centric event is set for May 30 at UCLA’s Nimoy Theater, with L.A. pianist Gloria Cheng and Dutch pianist Ralph van Raat performing Boulez’s two-piano “Structures,” along with pieces by John Cage, Stravinsky and Frank Zappa.) This week’s concerts will be at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown. laphil.com

Michael Luo and Charles Yu

“Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America” tells the story of the Chinese populations who were lured to the United States in the 19th century to work, only to be expelled later by politicians as a perceived national threat. Writers Bloc presents a conversation about the book between author Michael Luo, also the executive editor of the New Yorker and a former New York Times journalist, and Charles Yu, author of the novel “Interior Chinatown.” The talk takes place Monday at 7:30 p.m. The Ebell of Los Angeles, 741 S. Lucerne Blvd., Mid-Wilshire. ebellofla.org

— Ashley Lee

The week ahead: A curated calendar

Monday

ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre Fest Stephen Schwartz hosts this two-night event: Monday features “Songs From the Cutting Room Floor,” composers performing tunes that were painfully excised from their hit musicals; in Tuesday’s Musical Theatre Workshop, composers present excerpts from “Piney Needlesmith and the Road Less Traveled” and “Weekend.”

7:30 p.m. Monday. 7 p.m. Tuesday. The Wallis, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills. thewallis.org

1975: Fifty Is the New Hollywood The Who’s musical “Tommy,” directed by Ken Russell, launches this tribute to one of the landmark years in cinema; other films (with special guests) include “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Nashville,” “The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser” and “Cooley High” (with Michael Schultz, Glynn Turman and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs).

1 and 4 p.m.; series continues through May 26. Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., L.A. egyptiantheatre.com

Tuesday

Dr. Phil Live With Adam Ray The lighthearted lampooning of the TV therapist returns with an all-star supporting cast of comedians in an array of ridiculous sketches.

8 p.m. Comedy Store, 8433 Sunset Blvd., L.A. www.showclix.com

Life of Pi A 16-year-old boy survives on a lifeboat with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a 450-pound Bengal tiger in Lolita Chakrabarti’s adventurous stage adaptation of Yann Martel’s bestselling novel.

Through June 1. Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. centertheatregroup.org

Wednesday

Central Cee The U.K. rapper tours behind his debut LP, “Can’t Rush Greatness.”

7 p.m. Hollywood Palladium, 6215 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood. hollywoodpalladium.com

Thursday

J Balvin The reggaeton singer goes “Back to the Rayo” on his tour.

8 p.m. Toyota Arena, 4000 Ontario Center, Ontario; 8 p.m. Friday. Kia Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood. jbalvin.com

Debussy & Boulez Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the L.A. Phil in a program contrasting Bartók and the two iconic French composers.

8 p.m. Thursday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sunday. Walt Disney Concert Hall, 111 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. laphil.com

Love’s End French director Maurice Attias brings a slice of French culture to L.A. with the West Coast premiere of “Clôture de l’amour” (Love’s End) by celebrated French playwright Pascal Rambert in an English translation by Jim Fletcher and Kate Moran.

8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, through June 15. Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A. odysseytheatre.com

Yo La Tengo An evening with the eclectic indie rock band and its most recent album, “This Stupid World.”

8 p.m. The Novo, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., L.A. thenovodtla.com

Culture news and the SoCal scene

Helen J. Shen and Darren Criss in “Maybe Happy Ending” on Broadway.

(Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

Tony Awards

When nominations were announced, even the most bankable star power couldn’t push aside artistic innovation in the races for theater’s biggest honors. Broadway is awash in big names — Denzel Washington, Jake Gyllenhaal, George Clooney, Kieran Culkin — and even bigger ticket prices this season, but only one of those megastars received a nomination: Clooney for his work in “Good Night, and Good Luck.” Bob Odenkirk also earned a nod for his role in the revival of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross.” “Buena Vista Social Club,” “Death Becomes Her” and “Maybe Happy Ending” led the pack with 10 nominations each. Read all about the nominations here.

Times theater critic Charles McNulty offered his take in a piece titled “Tony nominations reward audacious risk-taking on Broadway.” ICYMI, you can catch up with McNulty’s earlier assessment of this year’s crop of new shows.

Art lovers view select art pieces at an exhibition preview party/dinner for Frieze LA on Feb. 15, 2022, in Santa Monica.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

Frieze

Ownership of the Frieze art organization is changing hands. Beverly Hills entertainment company Endeavor is selling it to a new events and experiences company launched by Endeavor’s founder, agent Ari Emanuel. Times staff writer Wendy Lee has the full story of the transfer of ownership, reportedly worth an estimated $200 million.

Gustavo Dudamel

Beloved L.A. Phil music and artistic director Gustavo Dudamel is heading to New York City in advance of his move there to take over the New York Philharmonic at the end of the 2025-26 season. He may still belong to L.A., but this summer he’s scheduled to conduct four free New York Phil concerts in parks around the Big Apple.

Hollywood Fringe

The 15th annual theater festival is on the calendar for June 12-29, and tickets for hundreds of shows, featuring a wealth of local and national talent, are on sale now.

LACO

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra recently held a sold-out gala at the Skirball Cultural Center that raised more than $1 million for the organization. Paul Broucek, president of Warner Bros. Pictures Music, was honored at the event, as were longtime LACO supporters Sandy and Pat Gage.

— Jessica Gelt

And last but not least

Want a ridiculously filling, meat, cheese, egg and potato-stuffed breakfast burrito? Head to Pasadena!

Washington, DC – A bill in the United States Congress that aims to penalise the boycotting of countries friendly to the US is facing opposition from allies of President Donald Trump over free speech concerns, putting its passage in jeopardy.

According to Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a vote in the House of Representatives on the proposal, previously scheduled for Monday, has been cancelled.

Although Trump’s Republican Party has been leading legislative efforts to crack down on boycotts of Israel, over the past days, several conservatives close to the US president voiced opposition to the bill, dubbed the International Governmental Organization (IGO) Anti-Boycott Act.

“It is my job to defend American’s rights to buy or boycott whomever they choose without the government harshly fining them or imprisoning them,” Greene said in a social media post on Monday.

“But what I don’t understand is why we are voting on a bill on behalf of other countries and not the President’s executive orders that are FOR OUR COUNTRY???”

Charlie Kirk, a prominent right-wing activist and commentator, also said that the bill should not pass.

“In America you are allowed to hold differing views. You are allowed to disagree and protest,” Kirk wrote on X on Sunday. “We’ve allowed far too many people who hate America move here from abroad, but the right to speak freely is the birthright of all Americans.”

Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser and influential right-wing media personality, backed the comments of Kirk and Greene, writing on the social media platform Gettr, “Fact check: True” and “Agreed” in response to their statements, respectively.

IGO Anti-Boycott Act

The proposed legislation was introduced by pro-Israel hawks in the US Congress, Republican Mike Lawler and Democrat Josh Gottheimer, in January, and it has been co-sponsored by 22 other lawmakers from both major parties.

The bill would expand a 2018 law that bans coercive boycotts imposed by foreign governments to include international governmental organisations (IGOs).

The original legislation prohibits boycotting a country friendly to the US based on an “agreement with, a requirement of, or a request from or on behalf” of another nation. It imposes penalties of up to $1m and 20 years in prison for violations.

Expanding the legislation to include IGOs risks penalising individuals and companies in the US that boycott firms listed by the United Nations as doing business in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

While the bill itself does not explicitly mention Israel, its drafters have said that it targets the UN and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, which calls for economic pressure on the Israeli government to end its abuses against Palestinians.

“This change targets harmful and inherently anti-Semitic BDS efforts at IGOs, such as the UN, by extending protections already in place for boycotts instigated by foreign countries,” Lawler’s office said in January.

States and the federal government have been passing anti-BDS laws for years, raising the alarm about the violation of free speech rights, which are guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Numerous legal cases have challenged these laws, and some judges have ruled that they are unconstitutional, while others have upheld them.

Rights groups and Palestinian rights advocates have argued that anti-boycott laws aim to shut down the debate about Israel and criminalise peaceful resistance against its violations of international law.

Anti-BDS crackdown

Over the years, leading UN agencies and rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, have accused Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including imposing apartheid on Palestinians.

But supporters of anti-BDS laws say the measures are designed to combat discrimination against Israel and regulate trade, not speech.

Such laws have mainly faced opposition from progressive Democrats, but the IGO Anti-Boycott Act has generated anger from right-wing politicians, too.

“Americans have the right to boycott, and penalizing this risks free speech. I reject and vehemently condemn antisemitism but I cannot violate the first amendment,” Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, wrote on X.

I agree with @RepMTG .
I’ll be voting No on this bill as well. https://t.co/YOPga59Xyc

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) May 4, 2025

The right-wing rejection of the Lawler-Gottheimer bill comes as the Trump administration continues with its push to target criticism of and protests against Israel, especially on college campuses.

Since Trump took office, the US government has revoked the visas of hundreds of students for activism against Israel’s war on Gaza.

Several students, including legal permanent residents, have been jailed over allegations of anti-Semitism and “spreading Hamas propaganda”.

Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish graduate student at Tufts University, has been detained since March, and the only known allegation against her is co-authoring an op-ed calling on her college to honour the student senate’s call for divesting from Israeli companies.

Trump has also frozen and threatened to freeze federal funding for several universities, including Harvard, over pro-Palestine protests.

THE opening round of the British Superbikes Championship has been abandoned after a horror 11-bike crash.

One bike caught fire after the pileup at the start of the Supersport Feature support race this afternoon.

1

A statement from the British Superbike Championship read: “At the start of the Quattro Group British Supersport Championship race at Oulton Park, exiting turn one there was a major chain reaction incident involving 11 riders.

“The race was immediately stopped and medical services attended.

“Due to the extent of the incident and following medical interventions it will not be possible to continue the event and therefore the event is cancelled.

“MSVR will issue a further statement in due course.”

THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY..

The Sun is your go to destination for the best football, boxing and MMA news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video.Like us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheSunFootball and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunFootball.

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. May Madness has arrived in high school sports, the final month of the 2024-25 season.

Month of championships

Corona High’s Seth Hernandez.

(Jerry Soifer)

Get ready for a month of section, regional and state championships as the 2024-25 sports season comes to a close.

Here’s a look at the calendar and options to attend.

Dodger Stadium will be the site for the City Section baseball championships on May 24. It remains the most special destination every season for lucky City players who make it. El Camino Real, Birmingham and Venice are the early contenders.

Cal State Fullerton or Blair Field will host the Southern Section baseball finals May 30-31. Someone will have to eliminate Corona to win it all in Division 1. Pitcher Seth Hernandez has an astounding 88 strikeouts and just three walks in 42 1/3 innings. Make sure you take an afternoon off to see him pitch before he’s taken No. 1 or No. 2 in this summer’s amateur draft. He has a 98-mph fastball.

The Southern Section track and field prelims take place this weekend. There are so many male and female runners ready to unleash their best performances in the coming weeks leading up to the state championships at the end of the month at Buchanan High in Clovis.

Prepare for a month of excitement, surprises, tears of happiness and tears of disappointment.

Baseball

Crespi coach Mike Glendenning (right) got to celebrate a Mission League championship on Friday.

(Craig Weston)

Crespi clinched the Mission League championship by winning two of three games over Harvard-Westlake. Catcher Landon Hodge was impressive hitting. Sophomore Mikey Martinez turned in a stellar relief performance. Nate Lopez came through in the clutch. Here’s a report.

Santa Margarita claimed the Trinity League’s final automatic playoff berth with a win over Servite on Friday.

Arcadia wrapped up an unbeaten Pacific League season. Summit has won 19 consecutive games. Norco ended Big VIII League play with 11 wins in its last 12 games.

Birmingham dropped two games to Granada Hills in the West Valley League, which means the Patriots must sweep El Camino Real in a two-game series this week to win the title. El Camino Real has a one-game lead and is on a 12-game league winning streak.

Venice lost a nonleague game to San Pedro to drop to 24-2 but is unbeaten in the Western League. City Section pairings will be announced Saturday with Southern Section pairings Sunday.

Here’s this week’s top 25 rankings by The Times.

It’s time for the annual warning that seems to be ignored yearly. Batting practice before Southern Section playoff games is not allowed and could result in forfeits. Parents and coaches have been known to break out their cameras to take video to prove the illegality. And protests must be made before the first pitch to the umpire. Then it’s up to the Southern Section to decide if the violation is deserving of a forfeit. Good luck and make sure your video is clear.

Softball

Orange Lutheran has clinched the Trinity League championship. Kai Minor leads the team with 40 hits, a .488 batting average and 31 RBIs.

It’s been a wild season in the Crestview League, where Garden Grove Pacifica (7-4) is trying to hold off El Modena (7-5), Anaheim Canyon (6-5) and Cypress (6-5).

Norco has clinched the Big VIII League title but lost for only the third time all season in a 7-4 defeat to Eastvale Roosevelt.

Rosary is 24-2-1 and 9-0 in the Pacific Coast League. Sophomore Jenna Caldera is hitting .570 with 49 hits.

In the City Section, San Pedro (7-0) has a two-game lead over defending City champion Carson (5-2) in the Marine League. Dahlia Davila is batting .509.

Granada Hills has a two-game lead over Birmingham in the West Valley League and is 21-3.

Track

Demare Dezeurn of Bishop Alemany finishes up running 10.32 seconds in the 100 meters at the Mission League finals.

(Craig Weston)

Demare Dezeurn said he runs track to help his receiving skills in football.

“This is for football to get me faster,” he said before running the 100 meters at the Thursday’s Mission League track and field finals Thursday at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.

His coach at Bishop Alemany, Terrell Stanley, said he gave Dezeurn permission to run a fast time. Dezeurn then ran a wind legal 10.32 seconds, second fastest in the state. Here’s the report.

Rodney Sermons ran a wind-aided 10.30 100 meters at the Baseline League finals.

The Trinity League finals were filled with top performances. Servite set a meet record in the 4×100 relay at 40.48.

Servite freshman Jaelen Hunter broke the meet record in the 400 at 46.32. There were nine runners who broke 11 seconds in the boys 100 with Servite’s Benjamin Harris running 10.45. Santa Margarita’s Leo Francis ran the 200 in 20.99. Eden Murray of Mater Dei won the girls 100 in 12.08

Beach volleyball

Redondo Union teammates congratulate Bella Jones (far right) after her championship-winning kill Saturday against league rival Mira Costa that clinched the Southern Section girls’ beach volleyball title.

(Steve Galluzzo / For the Times)

Rivals Mira Costa and Redondo Union faced off for the Southern Section Division 1 championship, and Redondo upset the top-seeded Mustangs in matches filled with drama. Here’s the report.

Venice won the City Section championship. Here’s the report.

Notes . . .

Braun Levi was a standout tennis player at Loyola.

(Steve Galluzzo)

Tragedy struck the Loyola High community with the death of tennis standout Braun Levi, the team’s captain who was killed in a traffic accident. He’s the report. . . .

The Southern Section baseball championship games will be played May 30 and 31 at Cal State Fullerton and Blair Field in Long Beach. . . .

Orange Lutheran has hired Nate Klitzing as its new boys basketball coach. He had been at Crean Lutheran for seven years and is a former Orange Lutheran assistant. . . .

Debbie Shaffer has resigned as tennis coach at Mater Dei. . . .

Savannah Seiler is the new girls basketball coach at Edison. . . .

Quarterback Derek Garcia from Ventura has committed to UNLV. . . .

Jeremiah Soifer, who was a longtime high school sportswriter during his days with the Riverside Press-Enterprise and recently inducted into the Norco High Hall of Fame, died last week. He was 80. He became a photographer in retirement. . . .

Former Oaks Christian running back Marc Tyler is the school’s first girls flag football coach.

Nathan Santa Cruz, a 400-meter runner at Venice, has committed to Cal Poly Poly. He was the player who came back from a serious football injury in 2022 that required brain surgery. . . .

Standout guard Isaiah Bennett from AGBU has committed to the University of La Verne. . . .

Junior receiver Luc Weaver of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame has committed to USC. He ran a 10.68 100 meters at the Mission League track finals. . . .

Mater Dei pitcher Brandon Thomas has committed to Fresno State. . . .

Former Iowa wrestler Charles Matthews is the new wrestling coach at San Clemente. . . .

Brothers Bear and Tiger Bachmeier are transferring from Stanford to BYU for football. They were standouts at Murrieta Valley.

From the archives: Roman Martin

Roman Martin of Servite in 2022.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Former Servite infielder Roman Martin has become a standout in his sophomore season at UCLA.

He entered this week hitting .300 with 45 hits, three home runs and 33 RBIs.

He’s part of a Servite contingent that has been performing well for UCLA, including Jarrod Hocking and Chris Grotheus.

Here’s a story from 2022 of Martin hitting a grand slam.

Recommendations

From the Los Angeles Times, a story on Dodgers manager Dave Roberts adopting the Palisades baseball team and helping out the program after the school and field became unavailable after the Palisades fire.

From the Washington Post, a story on how Maryland is known for lacrosse but one county is playing catch up.

From the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, a story on star Maranatha pitcher Zach Strickland.

From Floridatoday, a story on high school football coaches hoping for a raise.

Tweets you might have missed

Assailants open fire on police in Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala, leaving several dead and injured.

Three police officers have been killed and at least four others injured after gunmen opened fire on traffic police in southern Russia’s Republic of Dagestan, according to regional authorities.

The attack took place on Monday in the capital, Makhachkala, when police attempted to stop a car, Dagestan leader Sergei Melikov said.

The shooting began at about 14:20 local time (11:20 GMT), the Interior Ministry confirmed.

Two assailants were shot dead at the scene. Local officials identified the men, both born in 2000, but did not say how many others were involved. State media reported that additional attackers fled in a vehicle, prompting a wider manhunt.

Footage circulating on Telegram, verified by the Reuters news agency, showed bodies lying on the road beside a police car. Gunshots could be heard in the background as onlookers gathered at the scene.

At least two other attackers, alongside injured officers and civilians – including a 17-year-old girl – were taken to hospital. One later died, state media reported. Officials have launched a criminal investigation.

Dagestan, a majority-Muslim region bordering the Caspian Sea, has witnessed a number of deadly attacks in recent years.

In March, Russian security forces said they killed four alleged ISIL (ISIS) fighters who were planning to attack a local Interior Ministry office.

The latest violence in Dagestan follows a separate security operation last week, when Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed to have killed a man suspected of planning bombings on the Moscow metro and a Jewish religious site in the capital region.

In June 2024, at least 20 people were killed after armed men attacked a synagogue, churches and police in the Dagestan region.

That attack came three months after at least 133 people were killed in a March 2024 attack on a concert in Moscow’s Crocus City Hall.

While the Afghanistan-based ISIL affiliate in Khorasan Province (ISKP) claimed responsibility for the worst attack to hit Russia in years, Moscow at the time claimed without evidence that Ukraine had a played role.

Though both Russia and the United States declared the territorial defeat of ISIL (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria by 2019, offshoots of the group – especially ISKP – have re-emerged, posing renewed threats across Europe, Central Asia and the Middle East.

TikToks claiming luxury brand goods are manufactured in Chinese factories have gone viral in shoppers’ feeds. This comes after the closure of a major import loophole and 145% tariffs on Chinese goods. What do these videos reveal about American consumer culture and the course of this trade war?

EXCLUSIVE: Celebs Go Dating sex expert Dr. Tara Suwinyattichaiporn has opened up about the upcoming series of the E4 reality show which has recently started filming in Ibiza

Celebs Go Dating guru Dr. Tara Suwinyattichaiporn has revealed all on the latest series of the hit E4 reality show, which has kicked off filming under the sun in Ibiza.

Pop icon and Atomic Kitten star Kerry Katona is giving love another shot on the show, joining fresh faces including Love Island’s Olivia Hawkins, Too Hot To Handle’s Louis Russell, and S Club’s very own Jon Lee.

Christine McGuinness, formerly of The Real Housewives of Cheshire fame, was set to join the romantic escapades but has stepped back due to feeling “overwhelmed” by the focus on her personal life and pining for her family.

For the first time ever, the celeb-packed cast jetted off to the party island to shoot the opening episode, with Dr. Tara teaming up with fellow love experts Paul C Brunson and Anna Williamson.

Chatting about the new dynamic, Dr.Tara enthused: “It’s been really, really great. I think that we should do it again next year.”, reports OK!.

She added, “There was a sense of relaxation and people were more open to sharing. This group gels really well and there’s good chemistry between all of them. I feel like this series almost everyone is represented.”

Dr. Tara continued: “We have people who are divorced and dating again, we have young people, we have people who have never dated on a TV show so I think it’s a good group with a diverse background in terms of life experiences.”

Reflecting on the benefits of the overseas trip, she concluded, “I’m really glad we got to do the trip abroad early because it really is a test to see if you’re ready or not.”

Mother-of-four Kerry first graced the Celebs Go Dating stage back in 2019, and only now is working with Dr. Tara who joined the dating agency’s crew in 2023.

Dr. Tara was candid about her initial thoughts versus the reality of meeting Kerry, saying, “Anna and Paul worked with Kerry before and I had a little bit of preconceived notions from what I heard and read about her but I was very pleasantly surprised how refreshing.”

She was taken aback by Kerry’s demeanour: “When I met her I figured she’d be chaotic and all over the place but however she’s very peaceful and very self aware and is now really working towards finding love.”

Dr. Tara observed how Kerry has reached a state of personal acceptance which makes her ready to delve back into romance: “She has found acceptance for herself so now she’s ready to date and find love.”

Following Kerry’s break up with former fiancé Ryan Mahoney last year after a six-year-long relationship, she cited a “breach of trust” as the catalyst, revealing, “I never in a million years thought this would happen. Without going into too much detail, there has been a breach of trust between us.”

Embracing her new single status, Kerry’s been indulging in solo trips to Thailand, focusing on a transformative journey of self-love.

Reflecting on her solo travels, Kerry shared at the time, “It’s been a healing journey about spirituality and finding yourself. This is exactly what I needed and it’s shown me that I can do everything I want by myself. I don’t need anyone else.”

Celebs Go Dating is due to return to E4 later this year

The administration of US President Donald Trump says it is going to pay $1,000 to undocumented immigrants in the United States who return to their home countries voluntarily as it pushes forward with its plans for mass deportations.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a news release on Monday that it’s also paying for travel assistance and people who use an app called CBP Home to tell the government they plan to return home will be “deprioritized” for detention and removal by immigration enforcement.

“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest. DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

The stipend and airfare for people who voluntarily depart would cost less than an actual deportation, the agency said. The average cost of arresting, detaining and deporting someone without legal status is currently about $17,000, according to the DHS.

Trump took office in January pledging to deport millions of people but so far has trailed deportations under his Democratic predecessor Joe Biden. Biden’s administration faced high levels of undocumented immigration and quickly returned many people caught crossing the border.

The Trump administration has deported 152,000 people since it took office on January 20, according to the DHS, lower than the 195,000 deported from February to April last year under Biden.

Trump’s administration has tried to encourage migrants and asylum seekers to leave voluntarily by threatening steep fines, trying to strip away legal status, and deporting people to prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and El Salvador.

Trump previewed the stipend plan in April, saying the US would consider allowing migrants and asylum seekers to return.

“If they’re good, if we want them back in, we’re going to work with them to get them back in as quickly as we can,” he said.

In the announcement on Monday, the DHS said people who choose to leave “may help preserve” the ability to return legally but did not cite any specific pathway or programme.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration says it is going to pay immigrants in the United States illegally who’ve returned to their home country voluntarily $1,000 as it pushes forward with its mass deportation agenda.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a news release Monday that it’s also paying for travel assistance and that those people who use an app called CBP Home to tell the government that they plan to return home will be “deprioritized” for detention and removal by immigration enforcement.

“If you are here illegally, self-deportation is the best, safest and most cost-effective way to leave the United States to avoid arrest. DHS is now offering illegal aliens financial travel assistance and a stipend to return to their home country through the CBP Home App,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.

President Trump has made immigration enforcement and the mass deportation of immigrants in the U.S. illegally a centerpiece of his campaign, but that is a costly, resource-intensive endeavor.

While the Republican administration is pushing Congress for a massive increase in resources for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement department responsible for removing people from the country, it’s also pushing people in the country illegally to “self-deport.”

Santana writes for the Associated Press.

May 5 (UPI) — The board of Berkshire Hathaway voted to keep Warren Buffett as its chairman and appointed a new company president and CEO.

On Sunday, board members voted unanimously to name Greg Abel as Berkshire Hathaway’s president and CEO starting Jan. 1 of next year and to keep Buffett as chairman, according to a company release.

Buffett, 94, stunned shareholders with a surprise announcement of his pending retirement during an annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Neb., on Saturday in front of roughly 20,000 attendees.

“I could be helpful, I believe, in that in certain respects, if we ran into periods of great opportunity or anything,” he said over the weekend.

At the meeting Buffett asked the 12-member board to name Greg Abel, the current vice chairman of non-insurance operations, as its new company president and CEO.

Abel, 62, is also chair of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and since 2021 has been designated as Buffett’s successor.

On Friday, stock shares in Berkshire closed at a record market value of more than $1 trillion.

Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway’s largest shareholder, controlling approximately 31.2% of its voting interest, in February celebrated 60 years at the helm of the global company he helped create in the mid-1950s.

Meanwhile, the billionaire company chief said he believes the American economy will steady itself after the market turmoil created in the wake of the announcement of international tariffs by U.S. President Donald Trump, reiterating his position that tariffs should not be used as “an act of war” with other nations.

The Royal Family were at the heart of commemorations to mark 80 years since the end of World War Two in Europe.

Prince Louis helped keep his father William looking smart for the parade while the King encouraged his family to wave to onlooking crowds during the traditional balcony moment, before the flypast.

Watch this and more unseen royal video from the VE Day celebrations.

KING Charles, Princess Kate and the Royal Family showed raw emotion in a historic balcony appearance for the VE Day flypast today, said an expert.

The Monarch, 76, led commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, as huge crowds turned out to enjoy the large procession and flypast in the capital.

9

9

9

Prince Louis, George and Charlotte delighted fans as they crowds a royal wave on the balcony this afternoon.

Royal expert Phil Dampier said: “Well, it’s fantastic to see a full turnout of royals today, I thought on the balcony when they actually had the fly past, and then they had the National Anthem.

“I thought it was a very, very poignant moment because this is the first time there hasn’t been a royal standing on that balcony to commemorate the VE Day since the end of the war.

“In other words with the passing of the Queen. A couple of years ago she was the last person who stood on that balcony with Winston Churchill at the end of the war to celebrate VE Day, and I think Charles would have been thinking about that. I think the other royals were thinking about that.

“I think Princess Anne would have been thinking about her mother and her father in particular and it was quite a poignant moment, because, you know, Prince Philip fought in the war.

“The Queen obviously served in the war as well, and was there, and remembered it and lived through it.

“And so there is the sadness at the passing of time that we’re losing that generation. And the next VE Day celebration very, very few of the veterans are still going to be with us sadly, and I think that really drove it home.

“You could see that the King was quite emotional. I thought Catherine, the Princess of Wales also looked quite emotional.

“They will have been thinking about their own personal battles with cancer, but really today was was all about the veterans, and it was all about thanking them for their service and thanking people who remembered, remembered the events of 80 years ago.”

‘PAID A VERY, VERY HEAVY PRICE’

The royal expert also touched on who wasn’t present on the balcony, namely Prince Harry and Prince Andrew.

The disgraced Duke of York, 65, was spotted looking rather glum on a horse ride at the Royal Lodge in Windsor this morning.

It is the first time he has been seen this week as he is excluded from the poignant parade to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.

Experts last week declared the disgraced royal can’t do anything in public as the “mere glimpse of him is a story”.

Meanwhile Harry last week savaged his family in a 30 minute BBC interview after losing his publicly-funded security appeal.

9

9

9

The Duke of Sussex claimed the King won’t speak to him “because of this security stuff” but said he has ‘forgiven’ his family.

The dad-of-two added in poor taste how he “doesn’t know how long King Charles has left”.

Mr Dampier explained: “It was rather sad to see Prince Andrew out riding today, when really he should have been there had he played his cards right.

“Had he not been involved in this dreadful scandal involving Jeffrey Epstein, the person he associated with long after he should have done in America, he’s paid a very, very heavy price for that, and it is rather ironic that Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and also the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry weren’t able to go to these celebrations today when they are, in fact, the only two servicemen in recent years have actually fought in conflict.

Excited Louis, George & Charlotte give royal wave at VE Day flypast as they join Charles, Kate & Wills for celebrations

AN EXCITED Louis, George and Charlotte gave the royal wave to huge crowds as they joined King Charles, Prince William, and Princess Kate for a spectacular VE Day flypast.

The King led commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, as huge crowds turned out to enjoy the large procession and flypast in the capital – with street parties taking place across the UK.

Members of the royal family were out in full force at the celebrations, as King Charles waved to crowds alongside Princess Kate, Prince William, and their three children – George, 11, Charlotte, 10, and Louis, 7 – at the event.

The children were seen gazing into the sky, alongside their parents, as the procession of 23 aircraft, including the Red Arrows, flew overhead.

In a playful moment, Prince Louis was seen playing the drums on the balcony’s edge, having earlier had a cheeky dance before helping dad Wills brush his jacket clean.

Countless people lined up along The Mall in order to commemorate the end of the war, with many donning patriotic outfits.

As God Save The King rang out over the crowd, loud cheers erupted, with Charlotte, Louis, and George giving the royal wave to the enormous audience.

Some spectators were spotted draped in Union Jacks while others wore poppy-inspired clothing as the aircraft, led by Lancaster bombers from World War Two, flew overhead.

The stunning flypast ended with the iconic Red Arrows racing across the sky, leaving behind a sentimental trail of red, white, and blue.

Thousands of spectators had flooded into The Mall to grab the best spots to watch the aircraft fly overhead.

Earlier, troops paraded along Whitehall and The Mall, in front of thousands of spectators, members of the royal family, veterans, and senior officials.

In a touching moment, King Charles was seen saluting cavalry members as they rode by the stage, set out at the Victoria Monument in front of Buckingham Palace.

The King stood tall to pay his respects to the armed forces, with whom the royal family have a deep connection and history with.

Prince William had been seen shaking the hands of one veteran as he took his seat to watch the procession.

His children followed his example, with Kate the last to greet the serviceman as she sat beside him.

“I think that is one of the saddest elements of what’s happened to both of them.

“The fact that they’re unable now to join in with these these big state occasions, these big events because they once had such close ties to the military.

“So that’s extremely sad and extremely poignant. But unfortunately, in both cases. They have brought this on themselves.

“I’m sure that the King would like to reconcile with his son Prince Harry, and I’m sure he’d prefer it if both of them could have been there. But sadly, that’s not to be under the current circumstances.”

The expert added how he hoped Prince Harry would offer “a period of silence” out of respect.

“Meghan couldn’t help herself posting a picture of Harry and her children that she took in California a day or so ago,” he added.

“We can move forward from here. But I have my doubts whether Harry, in particular, will learn his lesson.”

‘GROWING UP FAST’

The Prince and Princess of Wales sat alongside their royal brood, Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, seven, to watch the poignant parade.

As Prince Louis took his seat alongside dad Wills, he showed off some adorable dance moves.

He moved his shoulders from side to side as he looked out into the crowd.

The youngster was then spotted affectionately brushing raindrop off his father’s shoulder.

Prince William turned towards his son and appeared to give him a tap on the leg.

As the parade continued, all three children looked towards their father and smiles as he spoke to them.

Lip reading expert Nicola Hickling revealed to The Sun that Wills told Louis: “Look at this I think it’s going to be quite wet today.”

Louis then said to William “Wasn’t this supposed to be fun” and his dad replied “It is son”.

The dad-of-three also said “you will never forget this” before explaining how the parade will work.

“They will come along here, and then go towards there, and then we will make our way back,” he said.

He added: “It’s not going to be long and I want you to be taking an interest.

Prince George, 11, chimed in: “I’ve got something in my eye.”

The professional lip reader also shared a sweet message from Princess Kate.

The mum-of-three said to her daughter, 10: “Doesn’t papa look smart today”.

Mr Dampier commented: “It was wonderful to see the three kids again.

“It’s always fascinating to watch them. Louis only seven a couple of weeks ago, and Charlotte only 10 last week, growing up fast.

“George looks pretty much the same, aged 11. He still looks quite serious, I think, sometimes.

“I did think to myself I wonder how many of those three kids will actually end up doing military service themselves.

“Certainly Louis looks like he could well be an action man. I suspect that at least one or two of them will.”

The expert touched on the picture Kate and Wills shared to celebrate Charlotte’s 10th birthday last week.

She donned camouflage style battle fatigues, which Mr Dampier said could be a “hint” that she’s interested in the military.

PAYING TRIBUTE

The former Royal Commentator highlighted how the King and Queen interacted with the veterans today.

“Camilla even shared her blanket,” said the expert.

“The royals were very, very engaged, and making it all about the veterans.

“It was quite significant that the king chose to wore a simple naval uniform, like his grandfather King George VI did on VE Day.

“No medals, no great fanfare, just having a simple uniform, and that was really paying tribute to the people who’d made the ultimate sacrifice. And the people who’d actually fought in the war.”

9

9

9

Hostelworld chief executive Gary Morrison said the travel industry had a long period of being “closed off” to people going on trips alone but this is changing quickly

A rise in solo travellers flocking to Asian destinations for budget-friendly hostels is partly caused by break-ups and is causing a significant shift in the travel industry, according to Hostelworld’s chief.

An industry traditionally geared towards couples is in the midst of a big change. Gary Morrison believes that the travel sector has long been “closed off” to solo adventurers. He pointed out that the change is spurred by an increase in people being “solo by circumstance, not by design”, such as relocating to new cities or undergoing personal changes like ending a relationship.

“To a large extent, the travel industry has been kind of closed off to solo travellers and it doesn’t really cater to them,” Mr Morrison explained to the PA news agency. “Every single hotel room is for two people. I think, in the longer term, other parts of the travel industry will start catering to solo travellers – which is, to stop charging them for two-person rooms.”

READ MORE: Inside the ‘Mini Maldives’ of Europe with stunning beaches and crystal clear waters

Hostelworld, a global hostel booking platform, has also tapped into the social aspect of travel with its chat room app, introduced post-Covid pandemic. The app connects individuals who have booked into hostels at the same destination, enabling them to plan together or meet fellow travellers with similar interests.

Booking statistics from the site reveal that the share of solo travellers has increased from 57% in 2021 to 63% in 2024. Moreover, young female backpackers are now the fastest-growing demographic, driven by better chances to connect with fellow travellers and improved safety features like women-only hostel dorms.

Mr Morrison highlighted that the “vast majority” of European wanderlust is directed towards Asia, especially Thailand, lured by the affordability of hostels and lower cost of living. He conceded that this trend “obviously hurts revenues” for Hostelworld, which reported a dip in average booking values from 14.36 euros (£12.26) in 2023 to 13.21 euros (£11.28) in 2024 last month.

The CEO, whose passion for travel led him to Hostelworld, shared that the company aims to build the “world’s largest travel network”. While the chat function on their platform doesn’t directly generate income, it fosters engagement that leads to bookings as users recommend stays or make economical reservations just to use the feature.

Mr Morrison disclosed ambitious plans for Hostelworld to harness artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse booking trends and traveller chats, aiming to gain deeper insights into international travel behaviours. He also unveiled intentions to broaden the platform’s scope to include various budget-friendly accommodations beyond hostels.

The company is anticipating a “crunch” period as it invests in the new features and shifts its focus away from more expensive destinations, but this move is predicted to drive longer-term sales growth.

ATLANTA — The Dodgers had the right runner on base, but the wrong matchups at the plate.

And, in a sign of what’s perhaps been their biggest roster vulnerability early on this season, manager Dave Roberts had no way to alter the situation.

After trailing by four runs to the Atlanta Braves early on Sunday night, the Dodgers positioned themselves for a potential comeback in the top of the ninth.

With the deficit down to one, Andy Pages stayed alive in a two-strike count for a leadoff infield single. Rookie speedster Hyeseong Kim then entered the game as a pinch-runner and wreaked instant havoc on the bases, stealing second off Braves closer Raisel Iglesias before daringly dashing to third when a dropped third strike was being thrown to first.

“That was great,” Roberts said of Kim’s speed on the bases. “That was exciting.”

In a 4-3 loss to the Braves, however, the Dodgers left him stranded 90 feet away.

Infielder Miguel Rojas came up and fanned on three straight changeups. In the next at-bat, backup catcher Austin Barnes chased a two-strike slider that was down and off the plate, ending the game with a strikeout as Shohei Ohtani loomed on deck.

It was a reminder that, for all the strengths the Dodgers have built with their $400-million payroll this year, the depth of their offense has thus far been a weakness.

Which is why, in the two most important at-bats of Sunday night’s game, Roberts had no other choice than to let Rojas and Barnes — in right-on-right matchups that were always unlikely to be successful — step up to the plate.

“We put ourselves in a great position,” Rojas said. “Kim did an amazing job coming off the bench, stealing that bag. And I couldn’t deliver.”

On the whole this season, the Dodgers’ lineup balance hasn’t been much of a problem. The superstars at the top of their order have gradually heated up after relatively slow starts. An offense that slumped through much of April now ranks third in the majors in scoring.

Still, the bottom half of the team’s batting order hasn’t been productive. Entering Monday, the team still had four hitters batting .200 or worse. Six were stuck with an OPS below .700. Even with recent improvements from the likes of Pages and Max Muncy, the club’s .211 batting average and .647 OPS from the Nos. 6-9 spots in the order ranked in the bottom third of the majors. And though they are seven-for-16 in pinch-hit situations, none of those knocks have come from a lefty.

The Los Angeles Dodgers actually have one of the best records in baseball, but no one seems to be too thrilled by it. Injuries, question marks and hitters not hitting are issues.

In the big picture, it’s a problem the Dodgers will have to monitor this year.

Down the stretch of Sunday, they saw just how costly it could be.

Roberts first had to dip into his bench in the seventh inning, pinch-hitting Rojas for Michael Conforto as the Braves brought left-handed reliever Dylan Lee into the game.

Hitting for Conforto, the $17-million offseason signing the Dodgers were anticipating a bounceback season from, is something Roberts acknowledged he didn’t expect to do much this year. But after opening the season with a six-game hitting streak, the veteran slugger has been frozen in the deepest of slumps.

Since April 4, Conforto is batting a stunning .088, with as many hits (six, all singles) as double-play grounders. His two strikeouts earlier Sunday — both looking, a strangely common occurrence for him early this year — left him 0 for his last 29.

“He’s grinding,” Roberts said. “I just felt that Miggy had a better chance in that moment.”

That move worked, with Rojas capitalizing on the right-left advantage for his first home run of the season; and second pinch-hit homer from any Dodger this year.

But when Rojas’ spot came back up in a far less advantageous matchup against Iglesias in the ninth, Roberts had no more cards to play.

Entering the ninth, Roberts had one primary goal: Get starting catcher Will Smith, who was getting a scheduled day out of the starting lineup Sunday, to the plate with a chance to have an impact on the game.

After Pages’ leadoff single, Roberts pulled the trigger. Rather than wait for Barnes’ turn to come up later in the inning, he pinch-hit Smith for Kiké Hernández with one out.

Smith ultimately struck out, but not before Kim — who was called up for his MLB debut the previous day after signing out of South Korea this offseason — had scooted to the other corner of the diamond with his steal of second base and aggressive break for third.

“That’s an instinctual play,” Roberts said, praising Kim for reading catcher Drake Baldwin’s soft throw to first on a dropped third-strike that nearly changed the game.

“For him to get the jump that he did and then to get over there to third base … that just shows that he’s got really good instincts.”

Unfortunately for the Dodgers, they couldn’t advance him all the way home.

As Rojas and Barnes came up, the only player left on the team’s bench was Chris Taylor, another right-handed hitter who has taken a grand total of 20 at-bats all season.

Roberts considered calling for a squeeze bunt from Rojas, but was wary of the Braves infield playing in.

“I just thought that Miguel could put the ball in play and give us a chance to tie the game up,” Roberts said.

He couldn’t. Neither could Barnes. And as the game ended, the Dodgers’ offensive depth concerns became all the more clear.

Most nights, of course, this is all unlikely to matter. But on any given night, it could.

That’s why, as the Dodgers take stock of the first part of this season, lineup depth remains a primary concern. On Sunday, it cost them an opportunity to steal a win from the Braves.

I am no stranger to political repression and censorship. I have lived in Germany for five years now, and as a Palestinian journalist involved in pro-Palestinian advocacy, I have experienced repeated harassment at the hands of the German authorities.

My husband, a German citizen, and I, an American citizen, have grown accustomed to being held for hours at a time, subjected to invasive interrogations about our travels, and having our belongings thoroughly searched without clear justification. But we were shocked to find out that these tactics, designed to intimidate and deter, have now been taken up by the United States to target Palestinians amid the ongoing genocide.

I always knew that citizenship offered only limited protection, especially when dissent is involved. But deep down, I still believed that freedom of speech, the right to speak without fear, meant something in my country of birth.

I was wrong. The harassment we endured on March 24 upon arriving in the US shattered that illusion. Our Palestinian identity, our political work, our family ties – all of it makes us permanent targets, not just in Germany, but now in the US, too.

Prior to departure, while we were at our gate in Frankfurt airport, four agents approached me and identified themselves as officers from the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). They said they were specifically looking for my husband, who had just stepped aside to buy water and juice for our sons.

“We just want to make sure your ESTA visa is in order,” one of them said.

They took his passport, flipping through it and photographing every single page while one of them stayed on the phone, relaying information. They asked about our visit to Gaza in 2022, after seeing the Rafah border stamp.

“Where did you go in Gaza?” one agent asked.
“Khan Younis,” my husband replied.
“Where does your family live now?”
“All over,” he said. “They’re living in tents across the Strip, you know, because of the war.”
“What did you do while you were there?”
“Visited family,” he answered.

It was clear we were targeted. I did not see any other passengers undergoing a similar check. This meant that either DHS was actively researching passengers before their departure to the US, or – even more troubling – the German authorities were communicating directly with DHS to flag the background and political activity of “suspect” travellers.

Upon arrival at Newark airport in New Jersey, my husband and I were separated and individually interrogated, each of us still holding a sleeping child. The men questioning us did not identify themselves; I believe they were DHS agents, not border police.

They first asked me about the purpose of my trip and my travel to Gaza. They wanted to know who I had met in Gaza, why I had met them, and whether anyone I encountered was affiliated with Hamas. At one point, an officer deliberately became ambiguous and instead of referencing Hamas, asked if “anyone from [my] family was a part of the government in Gaza”.

At one point, they asked whether I experienced violence from Israeli soldiers, to which I responded: “Israeli soldiers weren’t in Gaza in 2022.”

“Did anyone in your family experience violence during this war?”
“Yes,” I responded. “Fifty were killed.”
“Were any of them Hamas supporters?” was the response I received.

As if political affiliation could justify the incineration of a family. As if children, elders, mothers, reduced to numbers, must first be interrogated for their loyalties before their deaths can be acknowledged.

They knew I was a journalist, so they demanded to know the last article I had written and where it was published. I told them that it was a piece for Mondoweiss about the abduction of Mahmoud Khalil, in which I also warned about the dangers of the Trump administration’s policies. This seemed to heighten their scrutiny. They demanded my email address, my social media accounts, and jotted down my phone number without explanation.

Then they took our phones. When I asked what would happen if I refused, they made it clear I had no choice. If I did not comply, my phone would still be taken from me, and if my husband did not comply, he would be deported.

When they finally returned our electronics, they issued a chilling warning to my husband: “You have been here seven times without an issue. Stay away from political activity, and everything will be fine.”

Subsequently, I was advised by legal counsel not to attend any demonstrations, not even by myself, during our stay. Our movements, our words, and even our silences were under watch, and anything could be used against us.

What happened to us was not random; it was intentional. It was meant to scare and intimidate us. Whether it is in Germany, in the US, or elsewhere, the goal of these tactics is the same: to make us feel small, isolated, criminalised, and afraid. They want us to doubt the worth of every word we write, to question every protest we join, to swallow every truth before it reaches our lips. They want us to forget the people we have lost.

Fifty members of our family were murdered in the US-backed genocide in Gaza. Fifty souls, each with their own dreams, laughter, and love, extinguished under the roar of bombs and the silence of the world. Our family’s story is no different from thousands of others – stories that vanish from headlines but live forever in the hearts of the survivors.

They expect us to carry this unbearable weight quietly, to bow our heads and continue living as if our world were not ripped apart. But we do not bow.

And that is why they fear us; they fear a people who refuse to disappear. Palestinians who dare to speak, to organise, to simply bear witness are marked as dangerous.

I was warned that speaking about our experience at the airport would make the next encounter even harsher, even more punishing. But we must remember: there is nothing this state can do to us that can compare to what is being done to the people of Gaza. Our passports are only paper. Our phones are only metal and glass. These are things they can confiscate, things they can break. But they cannot take away our voices, our memories, and our commitment to justice.

On our way out, the officers asked my husband one last question: “What do you think of Hamas? Are they good?”

He responded: “My concern is fighting a genocide that has taken the lives and freedom of my family and my people. Anything else, I am not interested in answering.”

That should be all of our concern. Nothing should distract us from the urgent, undeniable truth: a people are being slaughtered, and our responsibility is to stand with them.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Since the start of the year, Brandy Hernandez has applied to nearly 200 entertainment jobs.

The 22-year-old film school graduate, who works as a receptionist at the Ross Stores buying office in downtown Los Angeles, said that for most of those applications, she never heard back — not even a rejection. When she did land follow-up interviews, she was almost always ghosted afterward.

“I knew that I wouldn’t be a famous screenwriter or anything straight out of college,” said Hernandez, who graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2024. But she thought she’d at least be qualified for an entry-level film industry job.

“It shouldn’t be this hard,” she kept thinking.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a widespread production slowdown, the entertainment industry’s recovery has been delayed by the dual Hollywood strikes, some of the costliest wildfires in California’s history and an industry-wide contraction.

Studios scrambling to cut costs amid the turbulence were quick to slash low-level positions that historically got rookies in the door.

“You almost feel cursed,” said Ryan Gimeson, who graduated from Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts in 2023, in the early days of the writers’ strike.

And while screenwriting has always been a competitive field, industry veterans attested that the conditions have rarely ever been harsher for young writers.

“In the past 40 years of doing this, this is the most disruptive I’ve ever seen it,” said Tom Nunan, founder of Bull’s Eye Entertainment and a lecturer in the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.

The landscape is especially dry in television writing, according to a jobs report released last month by the Writers Guild of America.

TV writing roles dropped 42% in the 2023-2024 season that coincided with the strikes, the report said. About a third of those cuts were to lower-level appointments.

It’s a far cry from the TV business Liz Alper broke into 15 years ago.

Alper, an L.A.-based writer-producer and co-founder of the fair worker treatment movement #PayUpHollywood, came up in the early 2010s, when opportunities in scripted television were still plentiful.

The CW, for instance, was putting out three original one-hour shows a night, or about 18 to 21 original pieces of programming a week, Alper said. That translated to anywhere between 100 and 200 staff writer slots.

But in the last five years or so, the rise of streaming has essentially done the opposite — poaching cable subscribers, edging out episodic programming with bingeable on-demand series and cutting writing jobs in the process.

The job scarcity has driven those in entry-level positions to stay there longer than they used to. A 2021 #PayUpHollywood survey found that most support staffers were in their late twenties, several years older than they were on average a decade ago.

Without those employees moving up and creating vacancies, recent graduates have nowhere to come in.

“I think if you have a job, it feels like you’ve got one of the lifeboats on the Titanic, and you’re not willing to give up the seat,” Alper said.

The entertainment job market has also suffered from the ongoing exodus of productions from California, where costs are high and tax incentives are low.

Legislation that would raise the state’s film tax credit to 35% of qualified spending — up from its current 20–25% rates — is pending after winning unanimous votes out of the Senate revenue and taxation committee and the Assembly arts and entertainment committee. Supporters say the move is critical for California to remain competitive with other states and countries, state legislators have argued.

Meanwhile, young creatives are questioning whether L.A. is the place to launch their careers.

Peter Gerard.

(Robert Hanashiro / For The Times)

Peter Gerard, 24, moved to L.A. from Maryland two years ago to pursue TV writing. After graduating with a data science degree from the University of Maryland, he sensed it was his last chance to chase his dream.

Within weeks of arriving in L.A. in April 2023, he landed a handful of job interviews and even felt hopeful about a few.

Then the writers guild went on strike.

“I came moments before disaster, and I had no idea,” he said.

During the slowdown, Gerard filled his time by working on independent films, attending writing classes and building his portfolio. He was fine without a full-time gig, he said, figuring L.A. would work its magic on him eventually.

Such “cosmic choreography” touched writer-producer Jill Goldsmith nearly 30 years ago, she said, when she left her job as a public defender in Chicago to pursue TV writing. After seven trying months in L.A., her luck turned when she met “NYPD Blue” co-creator David Milch in line at a Santa Monica chocolate shop. Goldsmith sent him a script, the show bought it and she got her first credit in 1998.

Goldsmith, a lecturer in the UCLA MFA program in the School of Theater, Film and Television, said she tells her students such opportunities only come when they meet fate halfway.

But hearing veteran writers mourn their lost jobs and L.A.’s bygone glory led Gerard to question his own bid for success.

“I felt sorry for them, but it also made me realize, like, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of people who want to do this, and a lot of them are much further along than me, with nothing to show for it,’” he said.

Lore Olivera.

(Robert Hanashiro / For The Times)

As the youngest staff writer in her current writers’ room, Lore V. Olivera, 26, has gotten used to her senior counterparts waxing nostalgic about the “good old times.”

“I think they’re definitely romanticizing a bit,” she said, “but there is some truth in there.”

Olivera landed her first staff writer job in 2023, a year after graduating from Stanford University. The process was straightforward: her reps cold-emailed her samples to a showrunner, he liked them, she interviewed and got the job. But Olivera said such success stories are rare.

“I was ridiculously lucky,” she said. Still, getting staffed is no finish line, she added, just a 20-week pause on the panic of finding the next gig.

Olivera is also the only staff writer in her current room, with all her colleagues holding higher titles like editor or producer. It’s a natural consequence, she said, of showrunners facing pressure to fill limited positions with heavy-hitters already proven capable of creating hits.

Olivera said she knows not every 26-year-old was getting hired a few decades ago, but even her elder peers agreed the industry has lost a former air of possibility.

“It’s definitely a slap in the face when you get here and you’re like, ‘Yeah, it’s going to be a few miserable years, and then I might not even make it,’” Olivera said. “Not even because I’m good or bad… but just because the industry is so dead and so afraid of taking chances.’”

Jolaya Gillams, who graduated from Chapman’s Dodge college in 2023, said that her class had talent in spades. But the industry hasn’t given them anywhere to put it.

Instead, studios are pouring money into remakes, the 24-year old said, even as consumers have displayed their appetite for original material.

“I hope that we move into an era of film where it’s new, fresh ideas and new perspectives and having an open mind to the voice of our generation,” Gillams said.

Until then, the filmmaker said she’ll continue to create work for herself.

During the strikes, Gillams and a production team with no budget made the short film “Sincero,” which won the audience award for short documentary at the 2023 Newport Beach Film Festival. As she continues the search for a distributor for the doc, she already has another project in the works.

Weary from the “black hole” of job applications, Hernandez said she, too, is focused on bringing her own work to life. In an ideal world, that leads to a film festival or two, maybe even agency representation. But mostly, what drives her is pride in the work itself.

“If I’m successful in my mind,” said Hernandez, “I’m content with that.”